As far as a simple/free editor goes, for simple sites I've found these to be my best friend. The less complex is the old Mozilla Browser. I suggest it because it's free, and has Mozilla Composer built in, which is a nice and simple web editor. The second suggestion is acquire a version of Open Office, as it has a web editor as well. Both of these are simple (they work like a text editor), yet have the ability for hard coding if you feel the need.

As far as site uploading to the server, I have a tool that I created called ftpsync, which auto-uploads your site to the server, all you do is punch in the info (login name, pass, site, ftp). From then on, it will update the site when told, swapping out any new changes. I'd be glad to share this tool, but only if people have a need for it. So drop me a pm/email (craigih@pacbell.net) if you think any of these would help, and I'd be glad to help you out with them.