A plain text editor is all you need to create any html page, i.e. just a plain text processor application.. Well, in terms of tools that is...In fact you will need a full working knowledge of html in order to write the code that produces the pages.

If you are up to that, you already have one built into windows in notepad or the text editor in a mac (remember to save files in ascii) The real benefit of a text editor is that it forces you to work in basic simple unformatted data. Additionally they don't add or remove anything to your code, unlike some wysiwyg editors as we will see later. Some text editors even limit available fonts to system monofonts, avoiding some of the problems with true-type fonts. Don't be fooled with the concept of a simple text editor. Some of them are specialised for the web designer and include many useful extras designed for html work.

Some may suggest an alternative and that you don't need to know HTML if you use WYSIWYG editors like Adobe PageMill, MS Front Page, and HotMetal etc.

This is not so. The more you know about HTML the better use of the WYSIWYG you will be able to make. Knowledge of the basics of HTML are still required if you wish to be able to work through the many unique problems that you will run into with many of these editors. For example, Adobe PageMill is infamous for problems with the way that it writes its links. If you plan to use this product or any other WYSIWYG editor, be very sure you understand the difference between relative and absolute paths, path statements or links. Likewise FrontPage is well known for adding extra code such as repeated tags. It also creates its own metatag information automatically when a page is saved. This overbloated code is the result of its automation processes transferring wysiwyg information into html. The code from theses wysiwyg editors will usually work in plain html pages, but may well cause problems if integrated into the xoops framework, such as a custom block.

When choosing an HTML editor, a user's first consideration is whether or not they want to work directly with the HTML tags and then view the output, or if they want to design the whole page in wysiwyg and trust that the resulting html code is ok.

Some editors are better that others. Dream weaver is possibly the best true wysiwyg and produces the best html code. It is however, not available free.

There in a faq HERE about website tools that recommends some other freeware/open source applications including text editors and wysiwyg.