My main hint is to find a friend with the same type of computer as yours and find out what he/she uses to write Web pages. Then get that. You can ask your friend for help when you're stuck. That's very useful.
My second hint is to start by making a very simple Web page, with text an a link or two, and work up gradually to doing more elaborate things like graphics. I'll probably write a short outline of how you should start and link to it from here. My documents from last spring have some of this, but they're longer than people want to read.
More advice for those who are interested:
For those of us who are teachers, and already have quite a lot of written information, I think the easiest way to start making Web pages is to use our favorite word processing program. Although, for about $100, there are a variety of fancier Web authoring programs available (Claris Home Page, Microsoft Front Page, etc.). I haven't learned to use any of these, because I've been able to do everything I want with programs I already know. However, other people think they're wonderful. I have enjoyed AOL's AOLPress, which is a good Web editor, has a very nice tutorial, and is free.
Microsoft Word 97: This has a "Save As HTML" option in the "File" menu, right under "Save As." If your version doesn't have that listed, it was installed without it. To fix that is simple. Just reinstall it and select the HTML options. This is a quite reasonable HTML editor. It is reasonably good at WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get.) So it's fairly easy to use. I've seen some nice cheap books on how to use it for Web pages. (I once wrote a rather detailed discussion of using Word to make simple web pages. Maybe you'd find it a good place to start.)
Microsoft Word 6.0 (for Win 3.1) or 7.0 (for Win 95): This is the program I use. It isn't nearly as WYSIWYG as the later version of MSWord, but I started with this a couple of years ago and I've never seen any need to change, because it does everything I want. Actually, the program itself won't "Save As HTML." You must find and install the free add on from Microsoft which enables you to "Save As HTML." Originally, I found it on their Website, but it hasn't been available there recently. If you need it, ask me. I'll send you a disk for you to copy to your hard drive and install or I'll come and install it.
Corel WordPerfect: In earlier editions of this software, an add on was available to enable you to "Save As HTML" but not edit the file after you saved it. That wasn't very satisfactory. Apparently the newest version, Version 8, is much better. The capability is built into the program initially and you can save a document as HTML and then edit it within the program.
Netscape Communicator: I understand that a person can use the "Composer" part of Netscape to compose and edit Web pages. I haven't tried this.
Writing in HTML directly: Most of the people I talk with don't want to do this. However, we mathematicians tend to want to understand what's going on "down to the ground." There are lots of HTML resources - books, websites, tutorials, courses, etc. I took a course at Virtual University on beginning HTML. I found this easier than just getting a book and reading it. After that course, I occasionally look up things at Websites that have lots of detailed info. I'll add to this list below as I am reminded of them:
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Mary Parker. Last updated on December 31, 1999.