It is much easier (and quicker) to edit files on your local system than on a server using an ftp program, so it is worth investing the time to get a local server up and running.
Mac OSX 10.5 and higher comes with both PHP and Apache pre-installed.
For Windows and other operating systems there are other methods for getting your local server up and running.
There are many tutorials that can be found on the internet to help you setup a local server for your particular operating system.
One thing to keep in mind, once you finish your site and copy it over to your live server, you will need to rename your htaccess file to .htaccess again. Within your ftp program you should be able to rename it as you would any other file.
If you have already completed the installation of Stacey, you can jump straight into reading about creating pages.