Thanks guys!
I found a great website that explained my problem, and then got back on here to post it to find that you had already done so! I thought the selecting file type of HTML in the "save as" menu was all i needed, I didnt realize I needed to go into the preference page of Text Edit to remove the rich text formatting.
It is explained very clearly here :
TextEditInfo
This article also reccomends getting the same text editor that you recommend for the mac, so I am going to do that now.
Thanks! I am doing some html work and also some iphone work on my new Mac and was saddened to no longer have my favorite resource of JavaRanch to help me, I was so happy to find that javaranch has this Mac page !!! Javaranch is the best.