The commands in this family are completely independent of the topic interface, caching mechanism, etc.
The filename interface is accessed principally via the extended command
woman-find-file, which is available without any configuration at
all (provided WoMan is installed and loaded or set up to autoload).
This command can be used to browse any accessible man file, regardless
of its filename or location. If the file is compressed then automatic
file decompression must already be turned on (e.g., see the
‘Help->Options’ submenu)—it is turned on automatically only by
the woman topic interface.
Once WoMan is loaded (or if specially set up), various additional
commands in this family are available. In a dired buffer, the command
woman-dired-find-file allows the file on the same line as point
to be formatted and browsed by WoMan. It is bound to the key W in
the dired mode map and added to the dired major mode menu. It may also
be bound to w, unless this key is bound by another library, which
it is by dired-x, for example. Because it is quite likely that
other libraries will extend the capabilities of such a commonly used
mode as dired, the precise key bindings added by WoMan to the dired mode
map are controlled by the user option woman-dired-keys.
When a tar (Tape ARchive) file is visited in Emacs, it is opened in tar
mode, which parses the tar file and shows a dired-like view of its
contents. The WoMan command woman-tar-extract-file allows the
file on the same line as point to be formatted and browsed by WoMan. It
is bound to the key w in the tar mode map and added to the tar
major mode menu.
The command woman-reformat-last-file, which is bound to the key
R in WoMan mode and available on the major mode menu, reformats
the last file formatted by WoMan. This may occasionally be useful if
formatting parameters, such as the fill column, are changed, or perhaps
if the buffer is somehow corrupted.
The command woman-decode-buffer can be used to decode and browse
the current buffer if it is visiting a man file, although it is
primarily used internally by WoMan.