I used Textpad for a long time before moving on to eclipse. I really liked it at the time.
While I think learning Java before you start using an
IDE is definatly the right approach I don't think I could go back to a simple text editor.
My advice, make sure you understand the issues revolving around classpath, creating jars (with manifest file), packages, compiling, and maybe profiling (although I might skip the profiling and look at some of the IDE plugin profilers), all from the command line, as quickly as you can and then hook yourself up with a good IDE.