Some questions

I just read An Introduction to Amaya (W3C NOTE 20-February-1997) and have some questions. I hope you can help.

I am, by no stretch of the imagination, a Website developer of any sophistication. I have just begun to learn HTML, but I have built a few Websites for myself and friends using Front Page.

I am looking for a Website building tool that is WYSIWYG and has the simplicity of use (user interface) that Front Page offers but will allow me to expand the use of web components to build more sophisticated Websites with more of the bells and whistles that have become common on today's Websites i.e. automatic photo slide shows, text displays that revolve and so on. Looking at 'view source' of existing Websites that have those attributes and others, I see that they credit WC3 and so I assume the developers used Amaya.

My questions are:
1. For someone who is pretty limited technologically, would Amaya be beyond my abilities to use?
2. Is it realistic for me to approach using Amaya now with the idea that I can become even more adept at using it as my knowledge of understanding and writing HTML grows. The idea being that somewhere down the line, It will all come together for me?
3. Does Amaya offer a simple 'Publish' button for uploading to a host or is uploading to a server only done through ftp? 
4. Does an Amaya-built Website require or recommend a Linux server on which to host it?
5. Is hosting an Amaya-built Website a fairly common thing for most hosting companies such that they would not require much, if anything, from me to prepare for my uploading the site to their server?

My current Website, built in Front Page, is TheWeekInCongress.com. It is obviously a static Website and has been all I needed for a while. Now, I would look to using Amaya to rebuild the site with more sophisticated attributes.

Thanks for any answers or clarifications you can offer.

Regards,
Robert McElroy