nano: Quick Reference

1 What is nano

According to http://www.nano-editor.org/, nano is an open source (GPL) text editor that uses the curses terminal control library. It is a clone of Pico, the editor used in the email client Pine.

Unlike vi/VIM, nano is a modeless editor. All keys presses, with the exception of Ctrl and Meta (normally the Alt key) sequences, enter text into the file being edited.

2 The Shortcut Lists

The shortcut lists are the two lines at the bottom of the screen. These lines show some of the more commonly used functions supported by nano.

3 Feature Toggles

Toggles change the way nano operates. Some of the available toggles include:

`Meta+K`	Cut to end
`Meta+P`	Whitespace display
`Meta+Q`	Tabs to spaces
`Meta+S`	Smooth scrolling
`Meta+Y`	Color syntax highlighting

To move from insert mode to command mode press Esc.