I would suggest using a basic editor. There are better ones but Frontpage is what most people usually start with. There are other free WYSIWYG editors out there but I tend to find that people find them harder to use than Frontpage. However Frontpage isn't ideal in the long run as to be honest it creates rubbish code and you have no chance of validating it.
You can find lots of different templates, some free, some pay, on the Internet. Just google
website hosting templates and you will find loads.
I believe you will find it very hard to edit the core of templates and change things like layout etc without any HTML knowledge. You either need to use a WYSIWYG environment and drag and drop or find a template that fits your needs and just format it and add you text / images as you require.
Hope that helps

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