FAQ.html (10519B)
1 <HTML> 2 <HEAD> 3 <TITLE>W3M FAQ</TITLE> 4 </HEAD> 5 <BODY> 6 <p> 7 <center><h1>Frequently Asked Questions and Answers about w3m</h1></center> 8 <div align=right> 9 Akinori Ito<br> 10 aito@fw.ipsj.or.jp<br> 11 Corrected by Tom Berger <tom.be@gmx.net> 12 </div> 13 <p> 14 <b><center><font size=+1><u><a name="index">Index</a></u></font></center></b> 15 <p> 16 <br> 17 <ul> 18 <li><h2><a href="#general">General Questions, How to Get It, Required Environment</a></h2></li> 19 <ul> 20 <li><h3>How do I pronounce "w3m"?</h3> 21 <li><h3>Why is it called "w3m"?</h3> 22 <li><h3>On which platforms does w3m work?</h3> 23 <li><h3>Where can I get more information about w3m?</h3> 24 <li><h3>Is there a mailing list for w3m?</h3> 25 <li><h3>Are there any binary distributions?</h3> 26 </ul> 27 <br> 28 <li><a href="#install"><h2>Compile and Install</h2></a> 29 <br> 30 <li><a href="#command"><h2>Options, Commands, Usage</h2></a> 31 <ul> 32 <li><h3>w3m quits if started without parameters. What's wrong?</h3> 33 <li><h3>w3m starts with black characters on a black screen. How do I change this?</h3> 34 <li><h3>Does w3m support colours?</h3> 35 <li><h3>Does w3m support monochrome display?</h3> 36 <li><h3>How do I shift the display?</h3> 37 <li><h3>How do I move from anchor to anchor?</h3> 38 <li><h3>Netscape displays a word red, but w3m doesn't. Why?</h3> 39 <li><h3>How do I change the colour of anchor-/image-/form links?</h3> 40 <li><h3>w3m doesn't seem to use the variable EDITOR. Why? </h3> 41 <li><h3>How do I quit a search or URL text input?</h3> 42 </ul> 43 <br> 44 <li><a href="#www"><h2>Questions about WWW usage</h2></a> 45 <ul> 46 <li><h3>How do I fill in forms with w3m?</h3> 47 <li><h3>Seems like w3m is slower than Netscape or Lynx. Why?</h3> 48 <li><h3>Loading time doesn't decrease when loading a previously seen page</h3> 49 <li><h3>How do I download a linked file?</h3> 50 <li><h3>How do I specify a proxy server?</h3> 51 <li><h3>w3m freezes when I invoke an external browser.</h3> 52 <li><h3>How do I change the default image viewer?</h3> 53 <li><h3>How do I enter a URL?</h3> 54 <li><h3>w3m appends a URL to the former one despite of having cleared the line with Ctrl-u. What to do?</h3> 55 </ul> 56 <br> 57 <li><a href="#other"><h2>Misc</a></h2> 58 <ul> 59 <li><h3>What is w3m's configuration file?</h3> 60 <li><h3>What are these w3mxxxx files in my ~/.w3m directory for?</h3> 61 </ul> 62 <br> 63 <br> 64 <u><h2><a name="general">General Questions, How to Get It, Required Environment</a></h2></u> 65 <br> 66 <dl> 67 <dt><h3>How do I pronounce "w3m"?</h3> 68 <dd>It's "W-three-M". It doesn't rhyme with "pteranodon". 69 <p> 70 <dt><h3>Why is it called "w3m"?</h3> 71 <dd>It's an abbreviation of "WWW-wo-Miru", which is Japanese for 72 "See the WWW". So in English the name of this browser would be 73 something like "stw3". 74 <p> 75 <dt><h3>On which platforms does w3m work?</h3> 76 <dd>It runs on various versions of Unix, since version 990226 on OS/2 and since 77 version 990303 also on MS-Windows with Cygwin32. 78 <br> 79 Current versions have been confirmed to run on: 80 <ul> 81 <li>SunOS 4.1.x 82 <li>HP-UX 9.x, 10.x 83 <li>Solaris 2.5.x, 2.6, 8 84 <li>Linux 2.0.30 85 <li>FreeBSD 2.2.8, 3.1, 3.2, 4.6 86 <li>NetBSD/macppc, m68k 87 <li>EWS4800 Rel.12.2 Rev.A 88 <li>Digital UNIX: v3.2D, v4.0D 89 <li>IRIX 5.3, IRIX 6.5 90 <li>OS/2 with emx 91 <li>Windows 9x/NT with Cygwin32 b20.1 92 <li>MS-DOS with DJGPP and WATT32 packet driver 93 <li>MacOS X Server 94 <li>MacOS X 10.1, 10.2 95 </ul> 96 <dt><h3>Where can I get more information about w3m?</h3> 97 <dd>At the <a href="http://w3m.sourceforge.net/index.en.html">English w3m home page</a>. 98 <dt><h3>Is there a mailing list for w3m?</h3> 99 <dd>There is a mailing list for developpers (w3m-dev-en). Please see 100 <a href="http://w3m.sourceforge.net/index.en.html">w3m page</a> 101 for details. You may also mail your comments to <a href="mailto:aito@fw.ipsj.or.jp">the author</a>. 102 <dt><h3>Are there any binary distributions?</h3> 103 <dd>So far there are only binaries for the win/cygnus32 version. You can get 104 them from <a href="http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/w3m/">here</a>. 105 Contact <a href="mailto:aito@fw.ipsj.or.jp">the author</a> if you want to contribute binaries for other platforms. 106 </dd> 107 </dl> 108 <br> 109 <div align=right> 110 <i>Up to <a href="#index">index</a></i> 111 </div> 112 <br> 113 <u><h2><a name="install">Compile and Install</a></h2></u> 114 No problem :-) 115 <u><h2><a name="command">Options, Commands, Usage</a></h2></u> 116 <br> 117 <dl> 118 <dt><h3>w3m quits if started without parameters. What's wrong?</h3> 119 <dd>w3m is a <b>pager</b>. Therefore it just quits when invoked without any 120 arguments. Possible arguments are: 121 <ol> 122 <li>A filename or an URL 123 <li>Pipe from standard input 124 <li>The -B option (Show bookmark file) 125 <li>The -v option (visual startup) 126 <li>From a specified HTTP_HOME or WWW_HOME variable 127 </ol> 128 <p> 129 <dt><h3>w3m starts with black characters on black background. How do I change 130 this?</h3> 131 <dd> 132 When compiled with colour support, w3m assumes a white background and therefore 133 displays black characters. 134 <br> 135 You may either change the background colour of your terminal (e.g. with the -bg 136 option in a xterm) or take these steps: 137 <ul> 138 <li>invoke w3m with 'w3m -M' (for monochrome), 139 <li>type 'o' for getting to the options screen 140 <li><b>Mark 'Display with colour' as ON</b> and choose an arbitrary colour. 141 Click on [OK]. 142 </ul> 143 <p> 144 <dt><h3>Does w3m support colours?</h3> 145 <dd>Yes. When you run './configure', answer the question 146 <p> 147 <pre> 148 Let's do some configurations. Choose config option among the list." 149 150 1 - Baby model (no color, no menu, no mouse, no cookie, no SSL) 151 2 - Little model (color, menu, no mouse, no cookie, no SSL) 152 3 - Mouse model (color, menu, mouse, no cookie, no SSL) 153 4 - Cookie model (color, menu, mouse, cookie, no SSL) 154 5 - Monster model (with everything; you need openSSL library) 155 6 - Customize 156 Which? 157 </pre> 158 <p> 159 with 2,3,4 or 5. 160 <p> 161 <dt><h3>Does w3m support monochrome display?</h3> 162 <dd>Yes. You may either 163 <ol> 164 <li>Answer the above mentioned 'configure' question with 1, or 165 <li>Invoke w3m with the -M option, or 166 <li>Type 'o' within w3m to enter the options screen and turn off colour display 167 mode. 168 </ol> 169 <dt><h3>How do I shift the display?</h3> 170 <dd>You can shift the display by moving the cursor to the edge of the screen. You 171 may also use the ">"/"<" or "."/"," keys. 172 <br> 173 Another idea would be adjusting the xterm with the -geometry option (e.g. 174 something like 'xterm -geometry 110x45 -bg white -name w3m -e w3m -B'). 175 <dt><h3>How do I move from anchor to anchor?</h3> 176 <dd>You can move to the next anchor using TAB. ESC TAB moves cursor to the previous anchor. 177 <p> 178 <dt><h3>Netscape displays a word red, but w3m doesn't. Why?</h3> 179 <dd>w3m doesn't support <FONT COLOR=".."> tags. It won't be impossible to implement this, but I think it would make the document more difficult to read. 180 <p> 181 <dt><h3>How do I change the colour of anchor-/image-/form links?</h3> 182 <dd>Type 'o' within w3m to get the 'options' screen. You can change these 183 settings there. 184 <dt> 185 <dt><h3>w3m doesn't seem to use the variable EDITOR. Why? </h3> 186 <dd><dd>Go to the 'options' screen using the "o" key. Any entry in the 'Editor' field will override the environment variable. 187 <br> 188 If you want to use the editor specified by EDITOR blank the field and push [OK]. 189 <p> 190 <dt><h3>How do I quit a search or URL text input?</h3> 191 <dd>Clear input text using Ctrl-u and hit RETURN. 192 </dd> 193 </dl> 194 <br> 195 <div align=right> 196 <i>Up to <a href="#index">index</a></i> 197 </div> 198 <br> 199 <u><h2><a name="www">Questions about WWW usage</a></h2></u> 200 <br> 201 <dl> 202 <dt><h3>How do I fill in forms with w3m?</h3> 203 <dd>Form input fields are displayed in red (or reverse). Move the cursor to 204 them and hit RETURN. Then, 205 <ul> 206 <li>if it is a text input field, put in your text on the bottom line, 207 <li>if it is a radiobutton or checkbox, that item is selected, 208 <li>if it is a textarea, an editor is spawned, 209 <li>if it is 'submit' or 'reset', well, just do it. 210 </ul> 211 <dt><h3>Seems like w3m is slower than Netscape or Lynx. Why?</h3> 212 <dd>w3m renders a HTML document in two passes. Therefore it displays the documentnot before having read the entire document. 213 <br> 214 Netscape or Lynx display the document before having read the whole page, 215 and therefore seem faster. 216 <p> 217 <dt><h3>Loading time doesn't decrease when loading a previously seen page</h3> 218 <dd>w3m doesn't have its own cache. Therefore, it reads the document 219 from the server each time it accesses it. If possible, use a cache server. 220 <p> 221 <dt><h3>How do I download a linked file?</h3> 222 <dd>Use 'a' (or 'd' with Lynx-like keybindings) or ESC RET. If you want to download an inline image, use ESC 'I'. 223 <p> 224 <dt><h3>How do I specify a proxy server?</h3> 225 <dd>Set the environment variable HTTP_PROXY or use the option setting panel 226 ("o" key). For example, if you want to use port 8000 of proxy.hogege.com, specify 227 <p> 228 <pre> 229 http://proxy.hogege.com:8000/ 230 </pre> 231 <p> 232 <dt><h3>w3m freezes when I invoke an external browser.</h3> 233 <dd>Enter w3m's option screen using the 'o' key and specify 234 <p> 235 <pre> 236 netscape %s & 237 </pre> 238 <p> 239 (if you are using netscape). 240 <p> 241 <dt><h3>How do I change the default image viewer?</h3> 242 <dd>By default w3m uses xv to view images. If you want to change it into, let's say, 'display', add the following line to ~/.w3m/mailcap or /etc/mailcap. 243 <p> 244 <pre> 245 image/*; display %s 246 </pre> 247 <p> 248 You can specify external viewers of other file types as well: 249 <p> 250 <pre> 251 image/*; display %s 252 application/postscript; ghostview %s 253 application/x-dvi; xdvi %s 254 </pre> 255 <dt><h3>How do I enter a URL?</h3> 256 <dd>Type SHIFT-U 257 <p> 258 <dt><h3>w3m appends a URL to the former one despite of having cleared the line 259 with Ctrl-u. What to do?</h3> 260 <dd>Enter the <i>complete</i> adress, e.g. http://www.slashdot.org. 261 </dd> 262 </dl> 263 <br> 264 <div align=right> 265 <i>Up to <a href="#index">index</a></i> 266 </div> 267 <br> 268 <u><h2><a name="other">Miscellaneous</a></h2></u> 269 <br> 270 <dl> 271 <dt><h3>What is w3m's configuration file?</h3> 272 <dd>It is ~/.w3m/config. 273 With this file, you can adjust w3m's behavior by changing values of options 274 that are described to be varied with the option setting panel. 275 Each line contains setting for one option, which is a pair of an option name 276 and its value with a space as a separator. 277 <p> 278 <dt><h3>What are these w3mxxxx files in my ~/.w3m directory for?</h3> 279 <dd>These are temporary files used by w3m when reading documents from a 280 WWW server. They are not cache files and are usually deleted when w3m is 281 terminated. If there remain any temp files, please remove them by yourself. 282 <p> 283 </dd> 284 </dl> 285 <br> 286 <div align=right> 287 <i>Up to <a href="#index">index</a></i> 288 </div> 289 <br> 290 </BODY> 291 </HTML>