Am I able to setup Wordpress, implement a theme, some plugins, and insert content without having a host yet? I know the site won't be on the Internet or anything, but can I do this?
Yes. If you are talking about installing locally on your own computer to develop and design, then you will need to install a minimum of Apache/PHP/MySQL on your computer. There are install packages that make the process simpler such as XAMPP and WAMP. If you are on a Mac, those items are already installed (not sure about MySQL though).
Yes, use Bitnami, or Mamp, or wamp server. I have created some video tutorials about this on my site, if anyone needs, feel free to browse in sitemap..
Use xampp and set up wordpress locally. With this settings you can do everything as you do on your host...
Setting it up locally is a really great way to get used to wordpress and all of it's settings. It is generally how I go about customizing a theme before I put it online.
Install WAMP ox XAMPP. You will get Apache, MySQL and PHP installed on your Windows. You can run your site locally to your PC.
I'll give you gold advice, after migration your wp_posts table contains permalinks to the domain your blog was installed, as well as other settings pointing to your old domain. there is one trick I've learned to quickly change all permalinks, just run this query: UPDATE wp_1_posts SET guid = REPLACE( guid, 'old-domain.com', 'new-domain.com' ); hope that will save you plenty of time after migration
I usually install WAMP as others are saying. But you can find alot of FREE hosting on the net to this out..