For a simple text editor with quite rich features you can use Notepad2, I use it for a lot of years and it seems to be updated by the author quite often, even though I use it as an alternative to Microsoft Windows Notepad, I made it the default viewer for .txt .ini .sql and etc. files just to see what's inside, it looks good, works well has a lot of needed functions/features and is very light, it does not require any installer, just unzip to your program files, make it your default or whatever text viewer/editor.
You can download it from here:
http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.htmlFor more powerful tool if lets say talking about web development, you can use PHP Designer 7, read more about it here:
http://www.mpsoftware.dk/ [it's not free for several years now, but also is not expensive if you're a student]
I use it for a long time and am used to it for PHP development, since PHP Designer 2008 it got really good for web development, because lets say the free version 2006 was a bit slow in some situations, now that's all fixed and runs smoothly.
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