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WebWatcher - a Web-page Update Monitor
======================================

This program will help you keep an eye on interesting Web-pages.  You
register a list of URLs you want to monitor, and WebWatcher checks for
changes whenever you ask it to, or at given intervals.  WebWatcher
bases it's monitoring on checksums.  A page is said to be changed if
the checksum generated for the page is different from when the page
was last marked as seen by the user.

Note: If the site you are interested in contains frames, the file
referenced by the site's URL will typically be a small file that only
points to the files containing the actual information.  In such cases
you should tell WebWatcher the URL of the _real_ files, not the one
that just sets up the frames.  The latter file will typically remain
unchanged.  To find the real files, view the source (HTML-code) of the
frame file in your favorite browser, and locate the filenames it
refers to.


Using WebWatcher
----------------

The main part of WebWatcher's window is a list of sites that are
monitored.  You add entries using "New" under the "Page" menu.  One of
the fields you may specify for each entry, is the title.  You do not
need to enter anything in this field, as WebWatcher will try to
extract the title from the document itselft, if it is not already
given.  If WebWatcher for some reason is unable to extract the title,
it will show the URL instead.

By default, the list is sorted, and changed pages are located on the
top.  The program uses color codes to distinguish between changed and
unchanged pages:

	Blue:	Page has been updated since it was last visited.

	Magenta: Not changed.

	Black:  Change status unknown.  If a question mark appears to
		the left of the title, WebWatcher is currently working
		on the item.  If a red X appears, the page could not
		be checked, possibly due to misspelling the URL, or to
		network problems.

In the main window, you may mark a single entry by clicking on it.
From the "Page" menu, you can choose to mark the corresponding page as
seen, open it in a browser window, edit the URL, title, etc., or
delete the entry from the list.  From the "View" menu, you can choose
to refresh the marked entry.

Alternatively, you may right-click on entries to pop up a menu that
shows available actions for the chosen item, and you may double-click
to cause the page to be shown in a browser.  Pages that you tell
WebWatcher to open in a browser, are automatically marked as seen.

To be able to open a page in your favorite browser, you must tell
WebWatcher the command to use to show the page.  This is done from the
"Preferences" dialog box, beneath the "View" menu.  The browser
command should contain the special code %u somewhere.  This indicates
to WebWatcher where in the command it should place the URL.  The
default setting for the browser depends on the operating system you
use.  Please verify that the setting is correct.


Author
------

The program is written by

        Sverre H.  Huseby        shh@thathost.com
        Lofthusvn.  11 B         http://shh.thathost.com/
        N-0587 Oslo
        Norway

You can use and copy this for _free_, but I would be very happy if you
send me an E-mail and tell me that you use it.  If you insist on
paying something, please donate some money to an organization that
strives to make the world a better place for everyone.

I don't like bugs, so please help me removing them by reporting
whatever you find, or by fixing the source code.  If you make any
useful changes, feel free to send your code to me for "official"
inclusion (if I like what I see).