Construct a website lately? I'm going nuts! Help?

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Has any Mylotters out there tried to build their own website? For over a week now I've been attempting to layout a website using NotePad and have run into a few snags. The basic layout consists of 7 parts; A Header centered in the browser approximately 900 px wide with a Navigation bar under that 600 px wide and aligned to the right,then comes the main page content the same 600 px wide also aligned to the right,I want to place the ad block 300 wide under the Header and to the left of the navigation and content areas,follow that up with a search box 300 px to the left,then a recent articles area 300 px wide again to the left and finish up with the footer 900 px wide to tie it all together . Here is the first problem .Getting all the div's to line up in their proper place right and left is like attempting to put two magnets together positive to positive even though I've used float left and float right in the write up all the parts and pieces jump around and won't line up everytime I try to compensate with margins etc... Second problem is that I placed a photo in the content area but all that I see is the the border and a little red x in the corner ,the actual photo doesn't show up and the text doesn't wrap around the border as I'd like . If by chance there are any techie designers out there that can help I'd greatly appreciate it .Thanks! I am going boonkers!!