These days, there are not only WYSIWYG text editors, but there are just some things you can do on a web page that an HTML editor can't help you with. Java, JavaScript, and style sheets give you a whole new flexibility in designing a web site, but usually require extra tools and a knowledge of programming in order to apply them. It's also pretty easy to get "lost" in the technology that is used, too.
My thought is to start simple. Get a copy of Netscape Communicator and use Composer (the built-in WYSIWYG HTML Editor). Or, if you are planning on getting a copy of Windows 98, you'll have Front Page Express built-in. Not only will these tools let you do most of what a "beginner" will want to do, it's not much more difficult to use than, say, Microsoft Word, and it's free. Speaking of Microsoft Word, recent versions of Microsoft Word allow you to work with HTML files.
When you use one of these WYSIWYG tools to generate HTML pages, you can look at the "source" of the page and see what tags are used where. A purist would probably gawk at this suggestion because WYSIWYG tools aren't known for generating superb, or necessarily "correct" HTML. But if you want to see what the different tags are and how they are used, this gives you a starting point.
A majority of my site is designed in Netscape Composer, though a few
of my pages are done with hardcoded HTML because
Netscape Composer doesn't do precisely what I want it to (and I can't
do "frames" within Composer, either). This is true in just
about every WYSIWYG HTML editor I've come across, though.
There are also some sites that have clip art and various web-ready art
that you can use on your page. I don't have sites off-hand,
but I'm sure that a search on Yahoo will turn up something. If you
see something you like on a site, you can always right-click or
hold down the mouse button and save a local copy of it.
As you want to do more with your site, ask someone knowledgeable about
how to proceed. There are multiple ways to do
things and there are different options depending on who hosts your
page.
As far as getting your pages up on your website, the process varies
from ISP to ISP. Netscape Composer lets you upload your
web documents with FTP or HTTP, which works for 99% of the ISPs I know
of.