Introduction:

We really hope you enjoy using Dillo. Please bear in mind that although it's very stable, it's still beta. Before you get started exploring the web using this program, please take a look at the hints and tricks we have collected here.

Basic things:

You can tell a link from plain content by the hand-shaped cursor. Besides browsing the web, Dillo also has basic file browsing capabilities included. So, entering "file:" in your Dillo URL window will give you the contents of your current working directory, and "file:~" entered in the same place will point your Dillo browser right to your home directory... Dillo, at this stage of development, is not ready to render pages that use frames. Nevertheless, it comes with a tiny handler (lynx/w3m-like) that will let you choose which frame to visit, one by one. Dillo has context sensitive menus using the right mouse button (available on pages, links, images, forms, the Back and Forward buttons, and the bug meter). Some of the functions in Dillo are handled by independent processes. For instance, downloads come through wget. If Dillo exits, the download can continue (more details below).

Usage:

You can scroll around your Dillo main window using CTRL+{PgUp|PgDwn|Home|End} or using the mouse middle button or mouse wheel. If nothing happens when keys are pressed, try focusing your Dillo main window first by clicking it (not on any link!:)). You can use the space key as PgDn, and {'b' | 'B'} as PgUp. Similarly, you can use "," and "." as shortcuts for forward and backward buttons (mnemonic: those keys are usually labeled "<" and ">"). Configuration: If you want to change Dillo's appearance or behaviour, look at the options in your dillorc file (if you don't have a copy in your ~/.dillo/ directory, get it here). Clicking the "Reload" button always requests an end-to-end reload of the page currently viewed, but it will *not* reload embedded images during this process. Dialogs can be closed with the ESC key. If you want to try a different control panel, right-click over the search button until you find one that suits your needs, then make it the default in your dillorc file. The whole window area can be used to display the page. Just hit Ctrl-Space!

Downloads:

Downloads are made using wget with a FLTK2-based GUI wrapper, through the Dillo plugin (dpi) framework. If you close the browser window, downloads will continue.

Find text:

This one is very useful; it can be found in the right-mouse-button menu Find text is tuned for speed so don't hesitate to use it even for minimal searches. Semantics: You can search for substrings, words and sentences. To find a substring or word, just enter its text. To find a left-aligned substring, prepend it with a space. To find a right-aligned substring, append a space to it. To find full words only, prepend and append spaces to them. To find a sentence, enter the words and remember that the above rules apply for every word in it. Dillo will scroll the page and highlight found text! Default shortcut: [CTRL]+"F".

Copy&Paste:

Just hold down the left mouse button and move to select the area to copy. To paste, go to the target application and press the middle mouse button. If you want to select more than one screen, hold the mouse button down and scroll with PgUp, PgDn or the arrow keys. If you want to paste an URL into Dillo, do it on the "clear-URL" button (the "X" next to the location bar). Note: If it doesn't work, please try again. There's a bug lurking there.

Navigation history:

Currently, navigation history supports the navigation-stack model; just right-click on the Back or Forward buttons and they will pop up! Remember: These history menus are relative to the current page. They show the page-title but the status bar shows the URL. Left-click jumps to the selected item. Middle-click opens the item in a new browser tab/window.

Cookies:

Due to privacy concerns, cookies are disabled by default. That is, if you just compile and use dillo, it will reject every single cookie sent to it! If you want to enable cookies in dillo, please read Cookies.txt. It's very easy -- just a matter of setting up a cookiesrc file).

Tabs:

Dillo has tabbed browsing. Just middle click to open a link or submit a form in a new tab. It will be automatically focused. If you want to customize this behaviour, adjust these dillorc options: middle_click_opens_new_tab focus_new_tab Press SHIFT to temporarily reverse the focusing behaviour.

Images-off mode:

You can browse without images now: There is an option in the Tools menu to disable automatic image loading. An image's alt text (or [IMG] placeholder) will appear in the page. If you want to load an individual image, left click on its text. You can set "no images" as the default mode in dillorc.

Bookmarks:

Bookmarks are handled by the Dillo plugin (dpi) framework. This should be transparent to the end user. Please note that: It is a good idea to keep a backup of your ~/.dillo/bm.txt The server will stay alive after closing dillo. You can stop the server by sending it a KILL signal. Dillo will automatically restart it when it is needed. If you don't have root access, install dpid and the dpis inside your ~/.dillo/ directory as explained in the README file.

Bug Meter:

Dillo's Bug meter shows the number of detected bugs inside the page. The bugs are caught at parsing time, so the error messages also show the line where they occur and provide a hint of what was expected instead! The primary purpose of the bug meter is to help webmasters and page authors to polish the contents of their sites with a view to making them standards-compliant. The Bug meter is located at the lower right corner of Dillo. Left-click to see the messages, right-click for a menu.

Keyboard shortcuts:

Shortcut Mnemonic Function Ctrl-L Location enter a new URL Ctrl-F Find find text Ctrl-S Search search the web Ctrl-R Reload reload current page Ctrl-N New New browser window Ctrl-T Tab New tab Ctrl-Q Quit quit tab/window Ctrl-O Open Open file Ctrl-B Bookmarks view bookmarks Ctrl-Space "more space!" Hide/show controls Back or "," < previous page Shift-Back or "." > next page Esc escape close dialog Alt-F File file menu Alt-Q Quit quit Dillo Shift-Right Right Next tab Shift-Left Left Previous tab Ctrl-TabKey TabKey Next tab Shift-Ctrl- TabKey TabKey Previous tab You can change the bindings using a ~/.dillo/keysrc file.