<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>W3M FAQ</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> <p> <center><h1>Frequently Asked Questions and Answers about w3m</h1></center> <div align=right> Akinori Ito<br> aito@fw.ipsj.or.jp<br> Corrected by Tom Berger <tom.be@gmx.net> </div> <p> <b><center><font size=+1><u><a name="index">Index</a></u></font></center></b> <p> <br> <ul> <li><h2><a href="#general">General Questions, How to Get It, Required Environment</a></h2></li> <ul> <li><h3>How do I pronounce "w3m"?</h3> <li><h3>Why is it called "w3m"?</h3> <li><h3>On which platforms does w3m work?</h3> <li><h3>Where can I get more information about w3m?</h3> <li><h3>Is there a mailing list for w3m?</h3> <li><h3>Are there any binary distributions?</h3> </ul> <br> <li><a href="#install"><h2>Compile and Install</h2></a> <br> <li><a href="#command"><h2>Options, Commands, Usage</h2></a> <ul> <li><h3>w3m quits if started without parameters. What's wrong?</h3> <li><h3>w3m starts with black characters on a black screen. How do I change this?</h3> <li><h3>Does w3m support colours?</h3> <li><h3>Does w3m support monochrome display?</h3> <li><h3>How do I shift the display?</h3> <li><h3>How do I move from anchor to anchor?</h3> <li><h3>Netscape displays a word red, but w3m doesn't. Why?</h3> <li><h3>How do I change the colour of anchor-/image-/form links?</h3> <li><h3>w3m doesn't seem to use the variable EDITOR. Why? </h3> <li><h3>How do I quit a search or URL text input?</h3> </ul> <br> <li><a href="#www"><h2>Questions about WWW usage</h2></a> <ul> <li><h3>How do I fill in forms with w3m?</h3> <li><h3>Seems like w3m is slower than Netscape or Lynx. Why?</h3> <li><h3>Loading time doesn't decrease when loading a previously seen page</h3> <li><h3>How do I download a linked file?</h3> <li><h3>How do I specify a proxy server?</h3> <li><h3>w3m freezes when I invoke an external browser.</h3> <li><h3>How do I change the default image viewer?</h3> <li><h3>How do I enter a URL?</h3> <li><h3>w3m appends a URL to the former one despite of having cleared the line with Ctrl-u. What to do?</h3> </ul> <br> <li><a href="other"><h2>Misc</a></h2> <ul> <li><h3>What is w3m's configuration file?</h3> <li><h3>What are these w3mxxxx files in my ~/.w3m directory for?</h3> </ul> <br> <br> <u><h2><a name="general">General Questions, How to Get It, Required Environment</a></h2></u> <br> <dl> <dt><h3>How do I pronounce "w3m"?</h3> <dd>It's "W-three-M". It doesn't rhyme with "pteranodon". <p> <dt><h3>Why is it called "w3m"?</h3> <dd>It's an abbreviation of "WWW-wo-Miru", which is Japanese for "See the WWW". So in English the name of this browser would be something like "stw3". <p> <dt><h3>On which platforms does w3m work?</h3> <dd>It runs on various versions of Unix, since version 990226 on OS/2 and since version 990303 also on MS-Windows with Cygwin32. <br> Current versions have been confirmed to run on: <ul> <li>SunOS 4.1.x <li>HP-UX 9.x, 10.x <li>Solaris 2.5.x, 2.6, 8 <li>Linux 2.0.30 <li>FreeBSD 2.2.8, 3.1, 3.2, 4.6 <li>NetBSD/macppc, m68k <li>EWS4800 Rel.12.2 Rev.A <li>Digital UNIX: v3.2D, v4.0D <li>IRIX 5.3, IRIX 6.5 <li>OS/2 with emx <li>Windows 9x/NT with Cygwin32 b20.1 <li>MS-DOS with DJGPP and WATT32 packet driver <li>MacOS X Server <li>MacOS X 10.1, 10.2 </ul> <dt><h3>Where can I get more information about w3m?</h3> <dd>At the <a href="http://w3m.sourceforge.net/index.en.html">English w3m home page</a>. <dt><h3>Is there a mailing list for w3m?</h3> <dd>There is a mailing list for developpers (w3m-dev-en). Please see <a href="http://w3m.sourceforge.net/index.en.html">w3m page</a> for details. You may also mail your comments to <a href="mailto:aito@fw.ipsj.or.jp">the author</a>. <dt><h3>Are there any binary distributions?</h3> <dd>So far there are only binaries for the win/cygnus32 version. You can get them from <a href="http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/w3m/">here</a>. Contact <a href="mailto:aito@fw.ipsj.or.jp">the author</a> if you want to contribute binaries for other platforms. </dd> </dl> <br> <div align=right> <i>Up to <a href="#index">index</a></i> </div> <br> <u><h2><a name="install">Compile and Install</a></h2></u> No problem :-) <u><h2><a name="command">Options, Commands, Usage</a></h2></u> <br> <dl> <dt><h3>w3m quits if started without parameters. What's wrong?</h3> <dd>w3m is a <b>pager</b>. Therefore it just quits when invoked without any arguments. Possible arguments are: <ol> <li>A filename or an URL <li>Pipe from standard input <li>The -B option (Show bookmark file) <li>The -v option (visual startup) <li>From a specified HTTP_HOME or WWW_HOME variable </ol> <p> <dt><h3>w3m starts with black characters on black background. How do I change this?</h3> <dd> When compiled with colour support, w3m assumes a white background and therefore displays black characters. <br> You may either change the background colour of your terminal (e.g. with the -bg option in a xterm) or take these steps: <ul> <li>invoke w3m with 'w3m -M' (for monochrome), <li>type 'o' for getting to the options screen <li><b>Mark 'Display with colour' as ON</b> and choose an arbitrary colour. Click on [OK]. </ul> <p> <dt><h3>Does w3m support colours?</h3> <dd>Yes. When you run './configure', answer the question <p> <pre> Let's do some configurations. Choose config option among the list." 1 - Baby model (no color, no menu, no mouse, no cookie, no SSL) 2 - Little model (color, menu, no mouse, no cookie, no SSL) 3 - Mouse model (color, menu, mouse, no cookie, no SSL) 4 - Cookie model (color, menu, mouse, cookie, no SSL) 5 - Monster model (with everything; you need openSSL library) 6 - Customize Which? </pre> <p> with 2,3,4 or 5. <p> <dt><h3>Does w3m support monochrome display?</h3> <dd>Yes. You may either <ol> <li>Answer the above mentioned 'configure' question with 1, or <li>Invoke w3m with the -M option, or <li>Type 'o' within w3m to enter the options screen and turn off colour display mode. </ol> <dt><h3>How do I shift the display?</h3> <dd>You can shift the display by moving the cursor to the edge of the screen. You may also use the ">"/"<" or "."/"," keys. <br> Another idea would be adjusting the xterm with the -geometry option (e.g. something like 'xterm -geometry 110x45 -bg white -name w3m -e w3m -B'). <dt><h3>How do I move from anchor to anchor?</h3> <dd>You can move to the next anchor using TAB. ESC TAB moves cursor to the previous anchor. <p> <dt><h3>Netscape displays a word red, but w3m doesn't. Why?</h3> <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. <p> <dt><h3>How do I change the colour of anchor-/image-/form links?</h3> <dd>Type 'o' within w3m to get the 'options' screen. You can change these settings there. <dt> <dt><h3>w3m doesn't seem to use the variable EDITOR. Why? </h3> <dd><dd>Go to the 'options' screen using the "o" key. Any entry in the 'Editor' field will override the environment variable. <br> If you want to use the editor specified by EDITOR blank the field and push [OK]. <p> <dt><h3>How do I quit a search or URL text input?</h3> <dd>Clear input text using Ctrl-u and hit RETURN. </dd> </dl> <br> <div align=right> <i>Up to <a href="#index">index</a></i> </div> <br> <u><h2><a name="www">Questions about WWW usage</a></h2></u> <br> <dl> <dt><h3>How do I fill in forms with w3m?</h3> <dd>Form input fields are displayed in red (or reverse). Move the cursor to them and hit RETURN. Then, <ul> <li>if it is a text input field, put in your text on the bottom line, <li>if it is a radiobutton or checkbox, that item is selected, <li>if it is a textarea, an editor is spawned, <li>if it is 'submit' or 'reset', well, just do it. </ul> <dt><h3>Seems like w3m is slower than Netscape or Lynx. Why?</h3> <dd>w3m renders a HTML document in two passes. Therefore it displays the documentnot before having read the entire document. <br> Netscape or Lynx display the document before having read the whole page, and therefore seem faster. <p> <dt><h3>Loading time doesn't decrease when loading a previously seen page</h3> <dd>w3m doesn't have its own cache. Therefore, it reads the document from the server each time it accesses it. If possible, use a cache server. <p> <dt><h3>How do I download a linked file?</h3> <dd>Use 'a' (or 'd' with Lynx-like keybindings) or ESC RET. If you want to download an inline image, use ESC 'I'. <p> <dt><h3>How do I specify a proxy server?</h3> <dd>Set the environment variable HTTP_PROXY or use the option setting panel ("o" key). For example, if you want to use port 8000 of proxy.hogege.com, specify <p> <pre> http://proxy.hogege.com:8000/ </pre> <p> <dt><h3>w3m freezes when I invoke an external browser.</h3> <dd>Enter w3m's option screen using the 'o' key and specify <p> <pre> netscape %s & </pre> <p> (if you are using netscape). <p> <dt><h3>How do I change the default image viewer?</h3> <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. <p> <pre> image/*; display %s </pre> <p> You can specify external viewers of other file types as well: <p> <pre> image/*; display %s application/postscript; ghostview %s application/x-dvi; xdvi %s </pre> <dt><h3>How do I enter a URL?</h3> <dd>Type SHIFT-U <p> <dt><h3>w3m appends a URL to the former one despite of having cleared the line with Ctrl-u. What to do?</h3> <dd>Enter the <i>complete</i> adress, e.g. http://www.slashdot.org. </dd> </dl> <br> <div align=right> <i>Up to <a href="#index">index</a></i> </div> <br> <u><h2><a name="other">Miscellaneous</a></h2></u> <br> <dl> <dt><h3>What is w3m's configuration file?</h3> <dd>It is ~/.w3m/config. <p> <dt><h3>What are these w3mxxxx files in my ~/.w3m directory for?</h3> <dd>These are temporary files used by w3m when reading documents from a WWW server. They are not cache files and are usually deleted when w3m is terminated. If there remain any temp files, please remove them by yourself. <p> </dd> </dl> <br> <div align=right> <i>Up to <a href="#index">index</a></i> </div> <br> </BODY> </HTML>