How to add layers in Dreamweaver CS5

You guys will probably laugh, but I couldn't figure out any other way to add my links text to the Dreamweaver page. Refer to my example page above to see what I'm talking about. I tried creating a table for this purpose, but couldn't figure out how to reposition it on the page. So I decided to create individual layers for the link text.

This method, silly as it sounds, does work, but now I'm having another problem: Since I couldn't find layers in Dreamweaver CS5, I switched to Dreamweaver 8. But now I can't get the nested layers feature to work properly. My background image, which constitutes the whole page (except the links text), is inserted in a layer. I can center this layer so that it automatically re-centers itself as the browser window changes in size. But when I add links on a separate layer, the links don't move as the rest of the page moves. I have checked the "automatically create nested links" option in Layer prefs. I have also tried manually drawing a new layer within the boundaries of the background layer. But I can't get the links layers to move with the background layer. Suggestions very much appreciated.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I will check out the pre-built CSS layout route.

Just as a general question:

It is obvious that someone like me has no intention of building large, complex websites and has absolutely no need of a high-powered program like Dreamweaver CS5. I have it because it came with Adobe CS5 Design Premium, but I would much rather use a simpler, possibly templete-based program for building websites. I would need much more control over individual page elements than iWeb provides; but there must be good programs out there that are somewhere in between Dreamweaver and iWeb. Any suggestions? I'm a Mac user, by the way.