[Lynx-dev] README.options

[Stef Caunter]

Short howto on [O]ptions and MBM setup; comments/edits welcome.


README.options

Using the lynx browser [O]ptions configuration tool.

General Usage on a unix system:

Press "O" at any time in your lynx session to access this utility page.
This is one of several custom "system" URLs that cause lynx to self-configure.

Please note:
Ensure and confirm that your [O]ptions session is flushed to disk, by selecting:

Save options to disk: [_] before selecting "Accept Changes".

This freshens your .lynxrc file, which is your default "personal" configuration
for the lynx browser.  Otherwise you will only affect settings for your
individual session; they aren't remembered next time you use lynx, (since you
actually did not tell lynx to remember them).

This disk write to .lynxrc is not default behaviour for [O]ptions
configurations. The lynx browser tends to tread lightly at first. Note that
you must first have permission on your system to create, write to and read
from a .lynxrc file in your home directory.

Using some of the menu items:

User mode controls the amount of "on screen" help at the bottom of the screen.
You get the familiar view of the link target you are on when you use ADVANCED
user mode, and this also gives you the most top to bottom screen area.
ADVANCED user mode also allows for sub bookmark functionality (see below).

The (for now) command line only option --nomargins provides the largest
readable left to right screen coverage.

Editor is for jumping to vi or whatever you prefer during local file edits
and for textarea editing with ^Xe if you are filling out a form while browsing.

Please see README.cookies for a brief cookie handling discussion.

Multi-bookmarks allows several files to be your bookmarks; it will introduce
a browse list of them if they are defined as below.

Once the Multi-bookmarks setup on Options is done and has been written out to
your .lynxrc (remember to Accept Changes and to Save Changes to disk),
in .lynxrc you will see a list of 25 possible "other" bookmark files
(26 letters minus "A") - you need to then associate some of them with
(meaningful) filenames to get the Multi-bookmark menu.

Note that the files must be relative to your home directory.

The best way to create and manage them is by using the MultiBookmarkMenu (MBM)
configuration tool selectable from the [O]ptions menu.

The MBM allows you to describe the sub bookmark, and name a file relative
to your home directory that will contain the html for the saved links.
You populate one of the lettered sub bookmarks, describe it, and provide a
filename. ">" saves the edits, and ^G cancels edits.

The sub bookmarks will be accessible by pressing the associated key from a
menu when invoking the bookmark choice (lynx -book, or 'V' in a session), or
when saving new bookmarks. You can directly access your sub bookmarks by letter
key alone by defining sub_bookmarks=ADVANCED in .lynxrc or lynx.cfg, if you
have ADVANCED general user mode selected as well.
The Multi-bookmark submenu can still be seen in ADVANCED by pressing "=", and
is always seen in STANDARD mode.

They are seen in your .lynxrc like so:

multi_bookmarkB=cars,Cars
multi_bookmarkC=news,News
multi_bookmarkD=sports,Sports

Filename precedes description in .lynxrc, whereas in the MBM configuration
utility, the description is the left column, and the filename is in the right
column displayed.


Stef Caunter
http://caunter.ca/contact.html
http://caunter.ca/README.options