For a very very basic site note book is the quickest easiest way. Otherwise I use Adobe Dreamweaver which is a 'what you see is what you get' program. You can download a 30 free trial from adobes website, I highly recommend you try it
Website builder templates are the easiest. I like WordPress myself. You just input the items you want in your website, and click Publish.
I recommend Adobe's Dreamweaver for the beginning . For the easiest go for XSitePro or any other 2 bit WYSISYG
Dreamweaver is pretty easy to use. It's a WYSIWYG program is has a relatively small learning curve. Also, using a CMS like drupal or wordpress as a CMS is also quite easy!
WYSIWYG editors are ok when setting out but like you will find out when you get more experienced something a bit more minimal is far better. ATM i am using Notepad ++ which is a freebie, give it a go.
If you're not experienced with coding, I would suggest you use Wordpress or Dreamweaver. In fact, Wordpress would be the best for beginners since there are thousands of nice templates out there. However, if you're an experienced programmer, I would suggest TextPad, Notepad ++ or Ultraedit. These 3 editors IMO are the best ever made.
I use htmlkit primarily.... I still absolutely LOVE to hand code everything I do... I guess it's a control thing... lol... But there are many different tools out there, you have to try a bunch of them and find the one you are most comfortable with... Cheers!~
I am using dream weaver to make my website and I think its the best tool available for making websites. For images I am using photoshop