Web Design Programs

In terms of Web design programs, a relatively inexperienced user approaching a semester project with time constraints might well try a couple of programs, but should probably settle down to a single program quickly.

Dreamweaver's better than Frontpage. Either will design a website. Links themselves, either offsite or onsite, are about equally easy in any software. Multimedia and graphics may cause a bit more problems.

One has the following options:

1) Download a freeware editor at some place like Tucows. Search for something like "WYSIWYG HTML editor" (the WYSIWYG just means you don't have to look at the code, or not muct).

There may be no good freeware out there at the moment that doesn't require interaction with code. Alternatively figuring out which is good may be inconvenient.

2) Some shareware programs might have grace periods of up to 30 days, long enough to allow one to complete an assignment. Be careful that the program allows saving of files. Demo programs may be crippled.

3) Just put up with whatever inconvenience may be involved in using on-campus and institutional software. It's high-end software, and you may even have access to someone who knows something about using it, in case you get stuck.
If you do this, minimize problems by using a flash drive that plugs into a USB port so you can be saving to the same place whatever computer lab you're in at a given day or hour. Unless you're working with a lot of sound, I think a gig of memory will suffice.

Most sites without sound will probably be less than a mg, if the graphics are JPEG's.

4) Get a bittorrent client like Bitlord and search for "Dreamweaver" or even "Macromedia Studio 8" on a bittorrent search engine like isohunt. This is, however, illegal, of questionable morality in some cases, and may involve little complications like downloading and installing disk imaging ISO software to recreate disks.
Bittorrent pirating also tends to acquire a lot of viruses. High-end commercial products are suspiciously high risk items. They have suspiciously well written, difficult-to-be-rid-of viruses. Consequently, Dreamweaver would be a high-risk download for a pirate, and one might want to carefully back up any important data and know where the recovery disks are for the computer before starting.