sudo and protected files

[E.J. Zufelt]

Good morning,

I am trying to modify some protected files on my MacBook.  I can go  
into terminal and use

sudo nano /etc/apache2/httpd.conf

How can I do this from the GUI with TextEdit, is there something that  
I can do to remove the need for me to authenticate to edit these files?

Also, where would I look for the executables to restart services /  
stop services like apache2?

Thanks,
Everett