Free Editors to get you Started or for Quick Use

Free HTML Editors:
Alleycode Free HTML editor wysiwyg - Alleycode HTML, Text, PHP editor , Free website testing tools Win
NVU Nvu Web Authoring Software Win Mac
Kompozer http://kompozer.net/ Win Mac

Free Text Editors:
TextWrangler Bare Bones Software | TextWrangler Mac
Notepad++ .:: NOTEPAD++ ::. Win
pspad PSPad - free unicode developer editor, handles near any syntax like HTML, PHP, XHTML, JavaScript, ASP, Perl, C and many other languages with HEX editor, multilanguage interface
Crimson Editor Homepage of Crimson Editor - Free Text Editor, Html Editor, Programmers Editor for Windows
ConTEXT Freeware Text Editor

Some Multi Purpose Free Heavy Weights:
jEdit jEdit - Programmer's Text Editor - overview All platforms - jEdit by itself is just a text editor; plugins can turn it into a powerful IDE.
TS Webeditor tswebeditor.tigris.org Win Mac
CSSED CSSED Index page Win Mac

Misc Win:
ExamDiff - Visual File Comparison Tool ExamDiff - Compare text files with this free file comparison version of file compare, folder compare tool ExamDiff Pro
MWSnap - is a small yet powerful Windows program for snapping (capturing) images from selected parts of the screen and more. Mirek's Free Windows Software

FTP:
FTP Wanderer 3.0 - is a multithreaded FTP client with the look-and-feel of Windows Explorer, and makes moving files between the Internet and your computer as simple as local file manipulation. FTP Wanderer 3.0
FileZilla - the free FTP solution. Both a client and a server are available. http://filezilla-project.org/


I'm not going to offer a review - execept to say all of the above software is on my top list and has more than enough power for even the die-hards out there. The best part they are easy to use.
If you really want to code and do not want to spend the money then you must check these out.
Why the assortment? Everyone has different tastes and each has a different feel.
Yes I know there are more out there, but try these first.