6.2 Reading HTML mails in Mew

By using emacs-w3m with Mew, you can see HTML mails as it intended to be displayed. To do so, put the following line in the `~/.mew.el' file:

(require 'mew-w3m)

With just this, an HTML mail will be displayed in the message window as if it were a plain text. You can still use the C-c C-e command (mew-summary-execute-external) there.

It is also quite common these days to see mails containing the same information twice, they use the `multipart/alternative' format which consists of both a `text/plain' part and a `text/html' part (what a waste of bandwidth it is). Mew displays only the `text/plain' part of such a mail by default. However, you perhaps want to see the `text/html' part since you are using emacs-w3m. If so, add the following lines to the `~/.mew.el' file:

(setq mew-mime-multipart-alternative-list '("Text/Html" "Text/Plain" ".*"))

There are some customizable variables related to Mew:

mew-use-w3m-minor-mode

If non-nil, the w3m-minor-mode is turned on in the message buffer where a text/html part is displayed, and you can use the same main keys as the keys of emacs-w3m, for instance, RET is for visiting a page which a link in the current position points to. Those keys are defined in the w3m-minor-mode-command-alist variable. Keep in mind that some commands are replaced by others similar to them, for security reasons. The default value is nil.

mew-w3m-auto-insert-image

If non-nil, you can see images inline in the message buffer when you read a multipart/related message. Note that mew-w3m only allows images contained in the message body with a `cid:' URL to be displayed (as we consider them safe). The default value is nil.

To activate this feaeture, add following in your `~/.mew.el'.

(define-key mew-summary-mode-map "T" 'mew-w3m-view-inline-image)

Press "T", toggle the visibility of the images included its message only. Press "C-uT", display the all images included its Text/Html part."

mew-w3m-cid-retrieve-hook

A hook run just after retrieving a `cid:' URL. The default value is nil.

See also 9.2 Reading web newspapers with Mew.