if I'm in a hurry

cat > file
type stuff
^D

For those who like UltraEdit, the windows port of Gvim has a beginner mode that's modeless (you can just start typing without messing around with 'i' and ESC). From what I've seen of UE, it's about 95% identical to VIM just with all the keyboard and :ex stuff moved to menus.

--Alex