Nvu is a free wysiwyg html editor that supports tabbed pages so you can work on more than one page at a time and copy between them. It also allows editing on the raw html so you can learn by peeking at what the editor is creating. It creates clean simple html not the multi filed mess that a lot of editors do.
My personal short list of web page design:
For speed of download pages should be less than 100 Kbytes
Pages should print easily
Power users have multiple web pages open so the page should
display well in less than full screen
Not all users have large screens see above
No blinking messages or animated graphics
No sound and music or optionally off
Many people are web surfing while doing other things
No ads for products other than our own, this includes
the kind of computer used or web authoring tools, it takes
away from our message.
Return to home buttons on all pages
Titles on all pages, titles are used in bookmarks
Don't make the page hard to read with busy backgrounds
No frames
Some other good check lists:
Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design
Top 10 Mistakes in Web Design (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)
The Top Fifteen Mistakes of First Time Web Design
Dog Hause - Everything Else: Top 15
Style Guide for online hypertext - Old but still useful
Style Guide for Online Hypertext
Jeb