Micro is a simple and intuitive text editor, which takes advantage of the capabilities of modern terminal emulators.

It aims to be a sort of successor to nano, enjoyable for full-time use, for those who prefer to work in the terminal, or who regularly edit files via remote systems.

Many Microsoft Windows users find Micro easy to use, as it has mouse support and Windows inspired commands: Ctrl+c and Ctrl+v for copy and paste, Ctrl+s for save, Ctrl+q for exit, etc.

Run Micro with

micro

…or open a file with:

micro file.txt

Type text into the buffer window and edit your document.

You may review the main shortcuts with Alt+g.

By default, Micro uses keyboard shortcuts that will be familiar to Windows users. Ctrl+arrow keys move word by word. Use Alt+Left arrow or Alt+Right arrow to move the cursor to the beginning or end of the line. You can move to next or previous paragraph with Alt+{ or Alt+} respectively.

Use Ctrl+Up arrow or Ctrl+Down arrow to scroll to the beginning or end of the document.

While scrolling, you can combine all of these movements with the Shift key to activate text selection.

You can also use Function keys for common tasks:

Ctrl+e displays a > prompt. Enter a Micro special commands for certain advanced features.

Once you create several work windows in Micro, use Ctrl+w to switch between them.

You can configure the keys via the ~/.config/micro/bindings.json file, and the user settings in ~/.config/micro/Settings.json.