The xterm window has three different popup windows, and in this section we'll show how to get to them and what they do. Specifically, we describe the use of the X11 R4 menus; the X11 R5 are very similar. To pop up the xterm menu:
This will not work if you are in a special window, such as the one created by Emacs. The Main Options menu comes up with the option Log To File which we find quite useful. The first time you select it, a file xtermLog is created in your home directory and whatever appears in the xterm window gets written into this log file. Selecting Log To File again stops the logging. Although we have not had much use for the other options, you might.
Depressing the [Ctrl] + middle button on the menu brings up the VT Options or Modes menu. Here you can toggle on and off various options which customize your xterm to make it the type of terminal you would build for yourself. These same options can be set on the command line or in .Xdefaults. The soft reset and full reset options are used to resuscitate a display that has advanced to a strange state. They are both safe to use, but since full reset clears the screen, it should NOT be used when you are using an editor.
The third menu is extremely useful. It is a font menu. If your system
has been properly installed, the font menu will change the font used
in the xterm window. If you are not satisfied with the fonts
available, you can set them to your favorite ones by adding to your
.Xdefaults file lines such as these:
xterm*fontMenu*font1*Label: Unreadable Label for menu item. xterm*VT100*font1: nil2 Very small font. xterm*fontMenu*font2*Label: Tiny xterm*VT100*font2: 5x7 xterm*fontMenu*font3*Label: Small xterm*VT100*font3: 6x10 xterm*fontMenu*font4*Label: Medium xterm*VT100*font4: 7x13 xterm*fontMenu*font5*Label: Large Menu item five for R5 only. xterm*VT100*font5: 9x15 xterm*fontMenu*font6*Label: Huge Menu item six for R5 only. xterm*VT100*font6: 10x20
A cute use to make of the font menu is to have one of the fonts be the tiniest font available. You then start a program in a window, and after you are sure it is running well, select this tiny font (the window size will automatically shrink too). Then you move the window to either side of the screen and continue to work in other windows as you keep an eye on the running program and its output in its tiny window.