Pico is a simple, display-oriented text editor created at the University of Washington. Commands are displayed at the bottom of the screen, and context-sensitive help is provided. As characters are typed, they are immediately inserted into the text.

Editing commands are entered using control-key combinations. The editor has five basic features: paragraph justification, searching, block cut/paste, a spelling checker and a file browser.

To start the Pico editor, type pico to create a new file or pico <filename> where <filename> is an existing file to edit.

• To move around in Pico, use the arrow keys.
• Use BackSpace to delete characters.

• Get Help (Ctrl-g)
  Shows a full listing of all available commands (not all commands are listed here). To exit help, type Ctrl-x.
• Exit (Ctrl-x)
  Exits the editor and prompts the user to save the file.
• WriteOut (Ctrl-o)
  Saves the file without exiting the editor. The user can change the name of the file at this time if desired by back spacing over the given filename and typing a new one.
• Justify (Ctrl-j)
  Formats the paragraph where the cursor is located.
• Read File (Ctrl-r)
  Reads in a file from the current directory.
• Where is (Ctrl-w)
  Finds a given expression in the file. Where is prompts the user for a search expression. The search is not case-sensitive.
• Prev Pg (Ctrl-y)
  Moves backward one screenful. Works just like the Page Up key.
• Next Pg (Ctrl-v)
  Moves forward one screenful. Works just like the Page Down key.
• Cut Text (Ctrl-k)
  Cuts a line of text.
• UnCut text (Ctrl-u)
  Pastes the line of text cut with Ctrl-k at the cursor position.
• To Spell (Ctrl-t)
  Invokes the spell checker to check the entire document. The spell checker prompts the user to enter a correction when a misspelled word is found.