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<TITLE>W3M FAQ</TITLE>
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<center><h1>Frequently Asked Questions and Answers about w3m</h1></center>
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Akinori Ito<br>
aito@fw.ipsj.or.jp<br>
Corrected by Tom Berger <tom.be@gmx.net>
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<b><center><font size=+1><u><a name="index">Index</a></u></font></center></b>
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<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>
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<div align=right>
<i>Up to <a href="#index">index</a></i>
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<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>
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<i>Up to <a href="#index">index</a></i>
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<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>
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