Conkeror Tutorial

Welcome to Conkeror

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.

Hinting

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. Scroll so that following numbered list and the hyperlink after it are both visible.

1. Press f. (mnemonic: follow)
2. The hyperlink should be hilighted, with a number on the left side. Type that number.

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 follow 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.

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.

To have Conkeror prompt you for an URL and navigate there, type g. The mnemonic is "go". A similar command, find-alternate-url, is called with the sequence C-x C-v. When find-alternate-url prompts you for an url, the prompt will be pre-filled with the url of the current buffer, so you can edit it.

Finding Text (Isearch)

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.

Copying Text

Copying text from a web page 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.