There are a few programs you can use to make the steps a little less painfull.
Fireworks
Frontpage
dreamweaver
You could do some hard coding in the following languages
HTML example
<html>
<head>
<title>My Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<form name="myform" action="http://www.mydomain.com/myformhandler.cgi" method="POST">
<div align="center">
<br><br>
<input type="text" size="25" value="Enter your name here!">
<br><input type="submit" value="Send me your name!"><br>
</div>
</form>
</body>
</html>
example in PHP
<?
Header("Content-type: image/png");
$string=urldecode(implode($argv," "));
$im = imagecreatefrompng("button1.png");
$orange = ImageColorAllocate($im, 220, 210, 60);
$px = (imagesx($im)-7.5*strlen($string))/2;
ImageString($im,3,$px,9,$string,$orange);
ImagePng($im);
ImageDestroy($im);
?>
These are just examples but it gives you an idea why they make external programs. although it is not very difficult to use these languages it can be time consuming. If you want something that will be done fast than I suggest using one of the programs mentioned above. you can also use MS Word to create webpages. or you can go to phpBB and get yourself a portal page and then build a splash screen and then add soem forums and be done with it.
RF
