First, you will need FTP access to upload and download the files. You will need login info including account username and password.
Who hosts the website? Do they have a site builder? Something to check.
What type of site is it? Static or dynamic? A static site is a site that does not change. All of the data is hard coded by the author. A dynamic site changes with user input or other scripting. Dynamic websites are more complicated than static.
What is your site's URL (web address)? If you post it, we can give specific advice. It may be a site which uses content management software (CMS) such as Wordpress or PHP-Nuke, or similar.....which will point you in a completely different direction for maintaining your site.
There are many tutorials out there. Google "html tutorial" for a list. Start off easy with a static page that has text and maybe graphics.
Get a WYSIWYG editor. This will allow you to create a html page or site, similar to using a word processor where you can format the page and add your text or photos. There are many editors out there. I use FrontPage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_FrontPage , but this isn't available anymore, and I believe that this has been replaced by MS Office. However, you may want to check out Nvu
http://net2.com/nvu/Lastly, if you really want to try and dissect an existing website, you can right mouse click on a non-graphic part of a page and select "View Source". This will show you the html code for the page you are viewing. This works best on static pages as the content will be what the author has actually coded. Dynamic website will generate the code on the fly as the page is being displayed.
