Pico Command List

Moving around a Document

^F or Right Arrow Key --> Move Forward a character.

^B or Left Arrow Key --> Move Backward a character.

^P or Up Arrow Key --> Move to the Previous line.

^N or Down Arrow Key --> Move to the Next line.

^A --> Move to the beginning of the current line.

^E --> Move to the End of the current line.

^V --> Move forward a page of text.

^Y --> Move backward a page of text.

Modifying the Document Text

<DELETE> or <BACKSPACE> --> Delete the character before the cursor position

^D --> Delete the character at the cursor position.

^^ --> Mark cursor position as beginning of selected text. Note: Setting mark when already set unselects text.

^K --> Cut selected text (displayed in inverse characters). Note: The selected text's boundary on the cursor side ends at the left edge of the cursor. So, with selected text to the left of the cursor, the character under the cursor is not selected.

^U --> Uncut (paste) last cut text inserting it at the character under the cursor is not selected.

<TAB> or ^I --> Insert a tab at the current cursor position.

^J --> Format (justify) the current paragraph. Note: paragraphs delimited by blank lines or indentation.

^R --> Insert an external file at the current cursor position.

To Exit the Pico Editor

^X --> Exit Pico, saving buffer. You will be prompted to save any changes you have made to the file. You will also be given the option of changing the name of your file.

Other Commands

^G --> Display help text.

^C --> Report current cursor position

^W --> Search for (where is) text, neglecting case.

^L --> Refresh the display.

^T --> To invoke the spelling checker

^O --> Output the current buffer to a file, saving it.