Any recommendations for a wysisyg website creator? I don't want to learn to code and I enjoy the design aspects. What program would you recommend that would allow me to make webpages easily? Ultimately, of course, I would hope to integrate things like soundcloud on the page.

There are NO good WYSIWYG site creating tools. There are many that will crank out inferior sites 'til the cows come home. Without proper coding (which they will emphatically not provide) you'll get an awful mischmasch that will make us coding types cringe like snails that touch salt.

Why not partner with a proper coder? Anything less is selling yourself short; might as well just use a template.

A slightly dissenting view:

I code by hand most of the time, but I will sometimes use Dreamweaver for some things when I'm feeling lazy (to no ill effect, and with perfectly acceptable HTML). CSS and scripting> Not so much. However, as Meffy notes, a basic knowledge of HTML and CSS is invaluable (and relatively easy to acquire).

I would also emphasize that learning to use web editing software (or merely designing something that looks good) is not the same thing as designing an effective site. No software is going to do that for you.

If you don't want to learn HTML and CSS, then I recommend you to use a template and simply change the text.

I have learned HTML and CSS within half a year - it's not so complicated.

As editor I use Webocton-Scriptly, but I use it to work on the code. I don't have found a GOOD and INEXPENSIVE WYSIWYG-editor that optimizes the code - every WYSIWYG-editor has made a real mischmasch of code (as German I like the word "mischmasch" )

Oh, I use Dreamweaver all the time. Strictly as a code editor with really nice preview, never for editing in the live view.

@Tricky: For me it's Yiddish, but that's partly antiquated German, so.

Of course, Dreamweaver is the best program for website programmers, but it has his (expensive) price... I never have seen a website programmer without Dreamweaver...but maybe there are some hard-coding guys who write code like others write books...

BTW, do you have any experience with Amaya - it's a new WYSIWYG-editor and open-source, maybe this could help the OP?

I have used this program: NetObjects Fusion.

Mac or Windows?

For Mac: http://www.realmacsoftware.com/rapidweaver/overview/

Dreamweaver is super, but here are a handful of site-based easier options (primarily for Windows OS), in order of simplicity.

Xara Web Designer
WYSIWYG Web Builder
Netobjects Fusion

The advantage of these 3 over an equally good webpage tool like Coffee Cup HTML editor is that they are essentially site-based instead of page based. They will enforce good site navigation and menus, and can re-theme the entire site at once, instead of page-by page. They kick our reasonably compliant code that even a purist like myself can't get too bent out of shape about.

They are all relatively cheap, but I would look at them in the order I listed. The complexity increases from Xara to Netobjects, and you have to wrestle Netobjects more to make beautiful sites, but it is more powerful.

They all have free versions or demos to try them out before buying.

I would recommend using a content management system like WordPress, Joomla, or concrete5. They do the heavy lifting for you and let you make changes to your site quickly. You can learn CSS and modify the templates to sate your design needs and give it your own look. Any hosting service worth its salt should have these as options that require little to no installation experience on your part.

Try a Wordpress template that suit your needs ?

Good advice, but keep in mind that many (if not most) "free" themes are spyware of a sort. You have to scan them for base64 code and know what to do if you find it.

Wordpress has an exploit scanner page, but often that isn't enough. My advice for newbies is to avoid complex themes unless they can read enough code to understand what is going on under the covers. There is an article out there somewhere called something like "why never to search for free wordpress themes" that explains it better than I do.

+1 for Joomla, though. Netobjects Fusion is similar to a desktop-based Joomla system, but Joomla still has a more agressive learning curve, and your host may charge extra for dynamically generated sites.

Xara Webdesigner, the best WYSIWYG web design tool out there! Smokes Dreamweaver for breakfast.

http://www.xara.com/us/products/webdesigner/

For me Dw is just a luxury. My largest sites (the biggest was nearly a thousand hand-written pages, plus about 122,000 database-generated dynamic pages) I wrote using nothing more than GNU bash in a terminal, Emacs, an FTP connection to the server, and an array of browsers for testing. Dw makes things a lot quicker and easier but there's nothing different about what I write using it.

Tried Amaya years ago, along with a lot of other programs. That was what made me break down and buy Dreamweaver, which given the stand-alone price meant buying the latest Adobe suite. Much better deal that way.

Never seen any software that makes me think I was wrong when I said there are NO good WYSIWYG site authoring programs.

Yeah I asked because xara webdesigner v.6 is on sale at newegg for 10$.
I have modified blog pages before, but would like to help someone set a site up. They don't have the money to work with a full-designer, so I wanted to help out. I think I can pull it off graphically, but it is the simple things that mystify me - how to have a rotating image gallery, eventually set up a small shop, etc. I looked into EZdesginer by Imageline because I can get it cheap, but all the sample pages look like blogs.