A far too vague question, imho. I'm going to hazzard a guess that you're brand spanking new to web design. Here is a good link for learning about web design, but it may be overwelming: http://www.w3schools.com/ If you are looking for programs for working in html/xhtml, I would recommend nvu as a nice cross platform and free application. Css is worth learning if you're interested in a powerfull way of controling the look of your site. If you're looking to create a more dynamic data-driven website, look into mysql(database) and php(scripting good for database). These are among the most used combinations on the internet, if not the most. They are very cross-platform as well. mysql here: http://www.mysql.com/products/database/mysql/community_edition.html php here: http://www.php.net/ However, if you don't mind microsoft, you can look into asp.net 2.0. You can get free developer tools from microsoft(Visual Web Developer 2005 Express, and other tools), as well as some free video tutorials. Not to mention, if you learn to develop asp.net with c#(or vb.net), you can use those skills to do windows programming as well. You can get free developer tools for working with c#(or vb.net, or c++) in windows as well, Visual c# 2005 Developer Express, or the other ones. Bear in mind that if you chose this route, your far more restricted to development within windows, but your websites will work on any operating system and web browser. There is a cross platform .net platform(mono), but it is lagging behind the official microsoft one. If you were to choose this route, I would recommend using the c# language. And, you can bind to a mysql databse as well. This is good, as the microsoft sql server databases seem so far to be expensive to get with web hosting. free microsoft tools here(I hope you have high-speed internet ): http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/ Make sure to look for the video tutorials, you can learn the basics of c# and asp.net for free. Either way, if you're serious about learning, I recommend learning xhtml and css as a start. Once you have those down, you could have a better idea of where to go from there. I'm at the point of making the decision myself, and I'm strongly leaning towards the asp.net/c# route. So far, it looks like I will be able to be more productive going this route. This is good for me as I'm looking to develop my own websites for a living, and perhaps selling my own applications. I already have a few ideas, and being able to use one programming language, c#, is a real help. I hope this helps. Edit: I just found what appears to be a wonderful application for designing web sites, and it's free. It looks like a mini dreamweaver, with a load of plugins and large active user community. http://www.chami.com/html-kit/
