Using a well featured python editor or editor with python support will greatly ease the process of writing python scripts. Here are some of the features that you could look for when choosing an editor. Free editors don't usually have them all. There are quite a few capable editors out there though. In addition to all the features listed below, it should in general be a good and easy to use text editor.

• Syntax highlighting
• Smart indentation
• Auto-completion of text
• Call tips
• Tree view function/class selection
• Integrated shell windows
• Inbuilt debugger support
• Code folding support
• Customibility and extensibility
• Multi-platform support
• Unicode support

The python install itself comes with a very capable editor called IDLE, short for Integrated Development Environment. One of the features it has that the ones listed above do not is that it has an enhanced integrated shell. More information about IDLE can be found here.

Below is a list of a few free text editors. There is a comprehensive list of editors at http://www.python.org/moin/PythonEditors. Some of the information about the editors doesn't seem to be upto date at this listing. Try them yourself to find your favourite one.