The Dillo Web Browser The Dillo Web Browser
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Welcome to Dillo 3

Introduction:

We really hope you enjoy using Dillo. Please bear in mind that although it's very stable, it's still incomplete.

Before you get started exploring the web using this program, please take a look at the hints and tricks we have collected here.

Basics:

  • 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 downloads continue (more details below).

Usage:

  • You can scroll around your Dillo main window using {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
    (ESC also hides the findbar and control panels).
  • If you want to try a different control panel, right-click over the tools button and select 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 (ESC key).

Downloads:

Downloads are made using wget with a FLTK-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).

Trackers/ads/third-party requests:

Beginning with version 3.0.3, you can use a ~/.dillo/domainrc file to specify what to do when a page requests images or stylesheets from a different site, or wants to redirect to a different site. For instance, you may want wikipedia to be able to use resources from wikimedia.org but you might not want any site to get anything from doubleclick.net.

Note that the default domainrc file, if one has been installed, is rather permissive.

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.

You can close a tab with middle-click on its label (the default), or with right-click by setting this dillorc option:

  • right_click_closes_tab

Images-off mode:

You can browse without images:
  • 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-W Window quit tab/window
Ctrl-O Open Open file
Ctrl-U (conventional) view source
Ctrl-B Bookmarks view bookmarks
Ctrl-Q Quit Quit dillo
Back or "," < previous page
Shift-Back or "." > next page
Alt-F File file menu
Ctrl-TabKey or Ctrl-PageDown TabKey Next tab
Ctrl-Shift-TabKey or Ctrl-PageUp TabKey Previous tab
Esc escape close dialog, close findbar,
Hide/show control panels

You can change the bindings using a ~/.dillo/keysrc file.