Publich Web Pages at UVM

Using Pico to Create Web Pages

Pico is a simple text editor that resides on Zoo.

Login to your Zoo account, change to the public_html directory (cd public_html) and at the prompt type: pico

You will see a blank screen with two lines of commands at the bottom. 

Type your text and the HTML tags that will tell the browser how to display your text. 

To save the file, press CTRL-x. You will be asked:

Save modified buffer (ANSWERING No WILL DESTROY THE CHANGES)?

Press y to save your file. You will then be asked to supply a file name. Type in the file name (don't forget to name it with the .html extension) and press <enter>.

Typing HTML Tags

HTML tags are enclosed in angle brackets (<>). They can be in upper, lower, or mixed case. Tags work in pairs. The opening tag starts a feature and the closing tag ends it. For example, <H1> begins a large heading and </H1> ends it. Notice that the slash signifies this is an ending tag. Here's an example:


<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Greenberg-UVM My first HTML file</TITLE>
</HEAD>

<BODY>
<h1>Welcome to my page!</h1>
<h2>My name is Hope Greenberg</h2>

<P>I live/work/play at the <A HREF="http://www.uvm.edu">University of
Vermont</A></P>

<P>Here are some other Web places you might like to visit:<br>
<A HREF="http://www.uvm.edu/cit">CIT's Pages</A></P>

<H6>Created and copyright by Hope Greenberg,
<A HREF="mailto:hope.greenberg@uvm.edu>hope.greenberg@uvm.edu</A><BR>
Last updated: 20 May 2002.</H6>

</BODY>



Things to remember:
Pico will create the file and store it in whatever directory you were in when you typed the command "pico." If you want the file to be created in your public_html directory you should change to that directory (cd public_html) before typing the pico command. You can always check which directory you are currently in by typing at the prompt: pwd.

To learn more about HTML tags and how to use them, see the:
  Barebones Guide by Kevin Werbach


Another method: Use both pico and your favorite word processor

For a quick, easy way to create, edit, and move your HTML files to Zoo, try a combination of Pico and your word processor.

Create the HTML file in the word processor, then telnet to Zoo. Change to your public_html directory (cd public_html) and type pico . This will open a new, empty, Pico document.

Switch back to your word processor and select all the text. Then choose Copy. Switch back to your Zoo session. In the Pico document, choose Paste.

That's all there is to it! You will now have your text with all the HTML codes in a document on Zoo without having to go through uploading and downloading with FTP.

Simply save this new Pico file as described above. Don't forget to "chmod" it when you are done to make it public.


Continue to Zoo Tutorial: Lynx

Hope Greenberg .
Created/updated: 1996/2002