Some of my favorite programs and what I use to create tutorials and the website with and just to play around with too.

Paint Shop Pro -The best image editing software program on the market in my opinion. Yes Photo Shop is great but who the hell can afford $700 for a graphics program. Most current version of PSP is version 7 of which I was fortunate enough to be part of the private beta testing, it was so much fun. Download the evalution version now and take it for a test drive with one of my tutorials or choose one of literally thousands off my links page. $59.99 (After rebate)

KPT Filters & Effects -A fantastic set of filters IMO. This version of KPT contains the shiny button maker that is so popular and many many more effects. This is for version 5, there are other versions also available as well. Version 6.

DreamWeaver -One of the best WYSIWYGE on the market. It is clearly running almost above Front Page 2000 for me. I started with Front Page and still use it some but I really like all the advanced capabilities available in Dreamweaver. It can come bundled with Fireworks as a Web set or stand alone. The link here is to the bundle. IMO it's best just to go ahead and get Fireworks now because you won't be able to live without it either once you get going in Dreamweaver!