The Web Editing Platform

Should I use Frontpage, Dreamweaver or Notepad to convert my design to HTML format?

The answer is "it is all up to you".

The cheapest way is to use Notepad or any free text editing software.

For me, I only Notepad. If you are too comfortable with Frontpage or Dreamweaver, when it comes to writing HTML codes in CGI, PHP or ASP(x), you might have a problem.

If you plan to make web development as your lifetime career, why don't you pick some HTML knowledge as web is all about HTML (may change in the future, nobody knows)?

HTML is one of the easiest language one can find on planet earth. Skipping it and relying on expensive software to do it for you, I am speechless. But those expensive software have their advantage: speed. If you are very good at HTML, your speed is comparable to those software and the HTML codes you write is always much simpler and straight forward than those generated by those software.

Besides being able to save some money, using text editor like Notepad can also make your website more professional looking. There are things that are better to be fixed in HTML mode such as fixing the width to 100% rather than a fixed pixel width. Once the width is set to 100%, the rest will need to have a certain percentage such as the sidebar, main content, etc.

Another big advantage of being familiar with HTML is that you can fix your own template in blogspot. You just need to choose a template and start modifying the HTML codes. Although for Blogspot, it is more towards adjusting the CSS than the HTML codes. You can pick a template from Blogspot and just adjust the CSS, you can make almost anything you like out of it. Ex, making any template to stretch to full 100% width to fir the screen as many of the default templates are only fixed to certain width.

Hope this helps!