The first thing you need to know about Conkeror is how to read key
notation. Each key combination is written as a hyphenated list of
modifiers and key. The codes for the common modifiers are as
follows: C
means Control; M
means Meta or
Alt; and S
means Shift. Therefore the key combination
C-M-f
means to hold down Control and Meta and press
f
.
The key to scroll down is C-n
. The key to scroll up is
C-p
Many commands in Conkeror are run by typing a sequence of two or
more key combinations. The notation is simple. Each combination in
the sequence is written, in order, separated by spaces. The
sequence C-h t
means to press Control-h, release all
keys, then press t
. C-h t
is the key
sequence to view this tutorial.
The key sequence to exit conkeror is C-x C-c
.
C-g
is the abort key. It is used to cancel a command
from the minibuffer, or stop a web page from loading.
Space
and Backspace
scroll a page down and
a page up, respectfully.
To browse to an URL in a new content buffer, type C-x
C-f
. This key sequence works from anywhere in Conkeror.
Additionally, if you are already in a content buffer (as opposed to a
buffer showing download progress or help), you can navigate the current
buffer to a new url with the g
(find-url) key.
The mnemonic is "go". The key sequence C-x C-v
(find-alternate-url) is also available in content buffers. It is
identical to g
except that the prompt will be
pre-filled with the current URL for you to edit.
The B
key (note uppercase) is bound to
the back
command. Practice basic navigation by
typing g
and entering the text "about:" in
the url prompt. To come back to this tutorial from the about: page,
type B
.
The system for interacting with the elements of a document is called the hinting system. With the hinting system, you can do things like follow hyperlinks, copy URLs, focus form fields, and more. Let's use the hinting system to follow a hyperlink. You will receive instructions about how to return here after you follow the hyperlink. If the numbered list and hyperlink following this paragraph are not in view, scroll so that they are.
f
. (mnemonic: follow)
As a matter of fact, in addition to following links by number, you can
also follow them by a substring of the link text. You could select the
link above by typing f t h i s
. When more than
one link with similar text is in view, hinting will narrow down the
choices as you type. You can always specify the one you want by
disambiguating the sequence with the hint number.
But hinting is for more than just hyperlinks. Conkeror provides several hint classes for operating on different types of elements. The hint class is specified by typing the corresponding key sequence of the class before the key sequence of the command. It was not necessary to specify a hint class for following the hyperlink above because links are the default hint class for the follow command. The following table lists the most common hint classes.
key | hint class | mnemonic |
n | links and form elements | link |
i | images | image |
m | frameset frames and top window | frame |
* * | dom nodes | wildcard |
In the hinting system, hint number zero (0) is special. It refers to the current URL in the buffer.
The c
key is bound to the copy command. Its
default hint class is links. To copy the URL of the page you are
currently browsing, type c 0
. To copy the url of
a frame or iframe, type m c
. If there is more
than one frame visible, you will be prompted for a number, just as with
hyperlinks.
When none of the conventional hint classes cover the element that
you want to operate on, you can use the dom-nodes hint class, to
choose from among all visible dom nodes. This hint class is bound
to * *
. Try copying the text of this
paragraph now by typing * * c
followed by
the hint number for this paragraph.
C-s
invokes interactive text search mode, isearch
for short. C-r
invokes reverse isearch. In this
mode, just type the text you want to find into the minibuffer and Conkeror
will search the document as you type. To jump to the next match,
hit C-s
again. To jump to the previous match,
hit C-r
. To conclude your search,
hit return
, or to abort it,
press escape
or C-g
. If
you have previously concluded an isearch, you can use the
keys S
and R
to jump to
next and previous matches without going back into isearch mode. This is
called non-interactive resume. To resume your last successful isearch in
interactive mode, hit C-s
or C-r
twice.
Apart from * * c
described above, there are other
ways to copy text for times when what you want to copy does not neatly
fill one dom node. The process is straight-forward. First, use isearch
(C-s
) and search for the start of the text you
want to copy. When you have brought the search to the start of the text
you want to copy, hit return
to conclude the
search. Although no cursor is visible, there is an invisible cursor where
the search concluded. Hold the shift
key and use
the arrow keys to make a selection. When you have selected the text you
want to copy, release all keys and hit M-w
to
copy the text to the clipboard.
Tip: Although isearch is usually the quickest way to position the
cursor, there are other ways. One of them is to use the focus
link browser-object command (n ;
). When you
focus a link, the invisible cursor will be left at the first character of
the link text, and you can use shifted arrow keys to make a selection from
that point. If the methods outlined so far are unsuitable for a situation
you encounter, then you can use M-x caret-mode
to get a small
but visible blinking cursor that you can move to where you need it.
Call M-x caret-mode
again to toggle it off.
Now that you've completed the tutorial, you should have the basic skills to get around on the web. But there is so much more to learn, and always the possibility of improving your efficiency through configuration. Start by reading the QuickStart, and then explore the Conkeror Wiki on your own. Enjoy!