All you need is a plain ASCII word processor (text-writing program) which adds NO formatting code to what you type.
If you are on an IBM compatible machine with Windows, you have an ASCII word processor built in. To run Notepad, click on 
, then on Programs, then on Accessories, then on Notepad.
If you do the above, you should be running a text-writing program called Notepad with the cursor blinking on a blank page.
If this is going to be your first web page, save it as:
index.htm
and use only lower case letters. The very first page of any web site (except perhaps AOL), must be named "index.html" or "index.htm".
Since older IBM machines and word processors limit extensions to dot plus 3 letters, it may be easier to name it index.htm.
Geocities, however, requires that your "index" web page be named "index.html"
You can change the name to dot html, if you so desire, in an HTML editor or during a FTP session.
Note: All HTML code tags in this tutorial are shown in
red. To show new code as the tutorial progresses, it will be shown in bold red, and the older code will remain in regular red type.
Also Note: I prefer to type my HTML code in all capitals. When I have finished developing a page, it is easy to see the actual HTML code tags if they are in capitals and therefore separated from other elements on the page.