Finding and Editing the Opera INI Files

Opera is exceptionally customisable, and stores most of its setting in initialisation (INI) files. These files are usually stored in three main locations (see new official documentation here):

1. On Windows:
   1. The main Opera program directory, which can usually be found at c:\program files\Opera (obviously dependant on user choice and localisation)
   2. Within the program directory there is a defaults subdirectory. This stores the original default INI files, and is used by Opera unless you customise them in the profile directory. These will be overwritten at each update of Opera.
   3. The profile directory. If you go to Help » About Opera » Paths » Opera directory (click here to see it), it will tell you where this directory is. The profile directory location depends on whether you installed for single or multi-user, and on your operating system.
2. On Linux:
   1. The main Opera program directory, which is usually be found at /usr/share/opera.
   2. Within the program directory there is a ini subdirectory. This stores the original default INI files and is used by Opera unless you customise them in the profile directory. These will be overwritten at each update of Opera.
   3. The profile directory. This directory is usually located in the .opera subdirectory of your home directory. If you go to Help » About Opera » Paths » Opera directory (click here to see it), it will tell you where this directory is.
3. On Mac OS X:
   1. The main Opera program directory, which is inside Opera.app -- for example, /Applications/Opera.app/Contents/Resources
   2. Within your user's preferences, usually in ~/Library/Preferences/Opera Preferences. Instead of editing Opera6.ini, you should edit Opera 8 Preferences in this directory on Mac OS X

INI-files are simply text files and quite easy to read and change. For a list of all internal commands (actions) with their syntax, see AllActions. In some commands you can use IniFileVariables, consisting of a percentage sign ("%") and a letter. (See VimIntegration for how get completion of actions in vim)

Since Opera V7.1x - it is better to make copies of the default INI files and modify these copies. You only need to put differences in these files[1], as Opera checks differences in the customised files, then uses the defaults for everything else. So copy and paste from the default files to your customised versions those sections you want to change.

INI files are generally composed of sections delimited by [ and ], followed by configurations lines. For example there are two sections ([Version] and [Info]) in the following INI extract:

; Menu specification file for Opera 7.0

[Version]
File Version=2

[Info]
Name=My menu prefs
Description=Personal Opera menu setup
Author=John Doe johndoe@example.org
Version=
Comments=This file contains only modified items...

The FILE VERSION string in the [Version] block must be at least 2, if the file is to be read by Opera.

In the [Info] block you can put in info about your file:
The NAME string defines what name the setup will have in Opera's preferences.
The DESCRIPTION string is not yet displayed, but can be used to put in a description of the file.
The AUTHOR string is not displayed yet either, but can hold info about the author. You can put an e-mail or web address here so people can reach you with questions.
The VERSION string is an internal file version. You can either use internal versioning, or put in the version of Opera these setups are intended for.
The COMMENTS string is an unofficial string first used by DarkElf, you can use this to specify a comment about the file which is only read by people editing the file.

Here is a list of the different INI files and their locations (more found here):

• operadef6.ini — This controls main program settings for all users, and is normally found in the program directory. You will typically never need to edit this file, and it is overwritten at most upgrades and reinstalls.
• operaprefs.ini — This controls the main program settings, and is normally found in the profile directory. You can easily find this file on the opera:about (Help — About Opera) page, it is listed there as Preferences, under the Paths section. You will probably not need to edit this file. This file does not exist on Mac OS X, instead you should edit "Opera 8 Preferences" in ~/Library/Preferences/Opera Preferences, it follows the same format and rules.
• menu ini (actual name will differ) — Controls all the menus in Opera, found in the profile directory in the menu sub-directory. If you haven't customised it, the default file (standard_menu.ini)will be in the program directory under the defaults sub-directory.
• keyboard ini (actual name will differ) — Controls which key commands do what in Opera, found in the profile directory in the keyboard sub-directory. If you haven't customised it, the default file (standard_keyboard.ini) will be in the program directory under the defaults sub-directory. Note: this is easily controlled via the Opera Preferences GUI - you will rarely have to manually edit this file.
• mouse ini (actual name will differ) — Controls which mouse gestures do what in Opera, found in the profile directory in the mouse sub-directory. If you haven't customised it, the default file (standard_mouse.ini) will be in the program directory under the defaults sub-directory. Note: this is easily controlled via the Opera Preferences GUI - you will rarely have to manually edit this file.
• toolbar ini (actual name will differ) — Controls toolbar layout in Opera, found in the profile directory in the toolbar sub-directory. If you haven't customised it, the default file (standard_toolbar.ini or minimal_toolbar.ini) will be in the program directory under the defaults sub-directory. The toolbars are usually controlled by drag-n-drop manipulation of the UI, so you seldom have to edit this file manually.
• search.ini — Defines the Search options, found in the profile directory although there is also a copy in the program directory. Opera will use the copy in the profile directory if found, and otherwise use the copy in the program directory. Edit the version in the profile directory. More detail on editing search.ini can be found on Martin Schrode's search.ini page.
• dialog.ini — Formats the program dialogs, found in the main Opera program directory. Will be overwritten on reinstall.
• skin.ini — To edit the skin.ini file you'll need to find the skin .ZIP file first, these files are either found in the main program directory or the profile directory under the skins subfolder. You'll need an unzipping program or a file manager that handles .ZIP files; extract the skin.ini file to edit and save it back. Note that you cannot save it if Opera is currently using that Skin, if so simply change skins, save, then reselect the skin to see your changes instantly. See OperaSkinning? for more info.

For those files which are overwritten on upgrades or reinstalls, you can get your old copies back from the \Uninst\Backup subdirectory in the program directory.

A Tutorial on Customising a Menu in Opera

We will use an example tip from the OperaTips page - adding 'Open in FireFox' and 'Open in IE' to the right-click menu (but you can generalise the tecniques to other types of editing). From V7.1x, it is better to edit the files in the profile directory, not the defaults directory. So find your profile directory (see above), then go to the menu subdirectory. By default there is NO file here, so you have two options:

1. EASIER: Copy standard_menu.ini from the defaults directory to profile/menu. Then edit this file - first edit the [version] section for the tip we are using and change the name line to something (e.g. Name=My customised menu - this is name string shown when you display the Preferences dialog). Next you need to go to the [Document Popup Menu] section and add the lines specified in the tip there. Save the file, then go to Opera Preferences » Toolbars and menus and select your new menu file.
2. HARDER (but much better): Find your profile directory location and you'll find a menu subdirectory (if not, create it). Create an empty file in menu (my_menu.ini) and edit that, adding:

Opera Preferences version 2.0
; Menu specification file for Opera 7.0
; This file is stored in UTF-8 encoding

[Version]
File Version=2

[Info]
Name=My menu prefs
Description=Personal Opera menu setup
Comments=This file contains only modified items...
Author=
Version=1

This needs to be present at the top of each custom INI file. One created, then, for each menu section you want to customise, copy the whole section from the defaults/standard_menu.ini and paste in your new menu file; for the tip example we are dealing with, we want to modify [Document Popup Menu] section, so we copy that over and then make our edits. The full customised my_menu.ini should finally look like this:

Opera Preferences version 2.0
; Menu specification file for Opera 7.0
; This file is stored in UTF-8 encoding

[Version]
File Version=2

[Info]
Name=My menu prefs
Description=Personal Opera menu setup
Comments=This file contains only modified items...
Author=
Version=1

[Document Popup Menu]

Item, 50426,				= Back
Item, 50427,				= Forward
Item, 67648,				= Rewind
Item, 67649,				= Fast Forward
--------------------1
Item, 50428,				= Reload 
Submenu, 200000, Reload Menu
--------------------2
Item, 70464		= Add to bookmarks, 1
Item, 50215			= Copy document address
Item, 65178		= Send document address in mail
Item, "Open in IE"		= Execute program, "iexplore","%u"
Item, "Open in Firefox"	= Execute program, "firefox","%u"
--------------------3
Item, 50004				= Print document
Item, 44002				= View document source
Item, 70465			= Validate frame source
--------------------4
Include, Internal Frame
Include, Internal Document Background
--------------------5
Item, 50995			= Enter fullscreen | Leave fullscreen

Save this version, then go to Opera Preferences » Advanced » Toolbars and select your new menu file. This second method is much more future proof - Opera only loads the differences you made - so if a new version of Opera has new menu items in other menus, they will automatically appear, whereas with the simpler method, you'll have to re-edit everything each update (and that can be a lot of work...)

Need help determine which ini section handle which menu?
Use the Opera Browser helper menu.
It adds a menu item to each menu that will display a alert box with the menu section name.

Note: If you want to use a JavaScript Bookmarklet as a menu item you have to replace all quotation marks in the source code with single quotes.

A Tutorial on Customising the Mouse Gestures and Keyboard Bindings

OK, here is our next foray into customising Opera (assuming you have never done this before). This time, we will use the example of how to change the way Opera closes page tabs, so that after closing one, the tab to the right becomes active (like in FireFox). This uses the wonderful GUI built into preferences, so we don't even have to touch an INI file (Opera does the editing for you!) Opera contains an extensive list of internal commands that control every aspect of it's function. So, to close a page, there is the nice intuitive command "Close page", and to make the next tab along active, we use the command "Switch to next page". To add commands together we use the ampersand "&" to connect them.

The mouse gesture normally used to close pages is DOWN-RIGHT, to change it we do the following:

• Open Preferences » Mouse and Keyboard
• You'll find two parts, one for mouse gestures (mouse setup) and one for the keyboard (keyboard setup). Click on "Opera Standard" in the mouse setup list, and click "Duplicate", to make a copy of the default (gets saved in your profile/mouse dirrectory). Next click "Rename" and give it a distinctive name.
• With your new mouse gesture file selected, click "Edit...". You will see a tree-view of all the different parts of Opera you can customise the mouse gestures for. In this example we are only interested with "Application"; click it to open it up. You will see a list of gestures (on the left) and program commands (on the right).
• Find "GestureDown, GestureRight", and double-click on the command on the right "Close page".
• This will open an edit box, press delete to remove the old command, and you'll find a dropdown with all the commands available in Opera. This auto-completes, so as you type, it matches the commands that fit what you enter. Start typing "close" and you'll see all commands that have this text in them. Select "Close page", type a space, then an "&", then another space, then start typing "switch to" and select "Switch to next page"
• The full line should be

  GestureDown, GestureRight	   Close page & Switch to next page

• Click "OK", and save your preferences.

To change the keyboard binding (Ctrl+W) to close a page in the same way, follow the procedure above but this time for the keyboard setup. The program command will be the same as above, but the key command "Ctrl+W" is actually written as "w ctrl" in the Opera keyboard system. So find "w ctrl" in the list (there is a quick find search box at the top of the dialog to make it easier), and edit the command as above. Nice and simple huh?

If you want to get Opera to do Command-A OR Command-B, then you use the "|" symbol; for example to close the page tab, and if no more page tabs are open then close Opera instead, use this command:

Close page & Switch to next page | Exit

See CustomCommands for some more 'ready-made' commands you can use to customise your mouse and keyboard setup.

Available gestures

Button1 - left click (not subject to change)

Button2 - right click (not subject to change)

Button3 - middle click = mouse wheel click (action on link is not subject to change the described way, it can only be customized in Preferences - Advanced - Shortcuts - Middle click options)

Button4 to Button{x} - additional mouse buttons (like a thumb button for back, mouse wheel left+right for horizontal scrolling; some mouse drivers apply special functions and not the button clicks, but with them sometimes you can apply keyboard-shortcuts and make use of them in Opera with the drawback they may be useless in other applications; not sure what exactly works with Opera)

FlipForward - hold left button and click right button

FlipBack - hold right button and click left button

GestureUp - hold right button and move up

GestureDown - hold right button and move down

GestureRight - hold right button and move right

GestureLeft - hold right button and move left

• You can combine gestures comma seperated like

  GestureDown, GestureRight=Close page, 1

  = move the mouse down and afterwards right without releasing the right button opens a new page=tab

• also more than two gestures can be combined like

  GestureDown, GestureRight, GestureUp=New browser window

  = drawing U while right mouse button is pressed opens a new Opera window)

• You can add "shift", "ctrl" and "alt" to make the action work only when the special key is pressed while you perform the gesture like

  GestureLeft shift=Rewind

• there are also gestures with mouse wheel, but there seems to be no way to customize them

Footnotes

[1] - This is somewhat complicated, because Opera's difference engine only works per section and not per line. So if you want to change a key command in the [Application] section, you have to copy THE WHOLE SECTION ([Application]), even if you only change one line within it...

Categories:

CategoryOpera
CategoryTutorial

Backlinks

1. AllActionsSpanish
2. BbCode
3. BlokowanieReklam
4. CustomCommands
5. EdycjaMenuOpery
6. JekyllAndHyde
7. OldOpera7Tips
8. Opera
9. Opera7
10. Opera7SkinTips
11. Opera7Tips
12. Opera7TipsDe
13. OperaJA
14. OperaProfiles
15. OperaSkinTips
16. OperaTippek
17. OperaTips
18. RemovingMail
19. SearchINIEditing

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