When beginning with web design or development you will need some sort of code editor to write the website. From there, you will also need software to refine images, a web browser to test your design, tools to store code clips, and lastly an FTP client. I have in the past relied heavily on Adobe Dreamweaver, as I am a big fan of the entire web design Adobe Suite. But, when it comes to writing a blog I find it cumbersome to write PHP for some reason in Dreamweaver.