Opera User Tips

This is a WikiPage? for Opera Tips (see WhatIsAWiki for more details) - this means YOU can add any tips you have about using Opera - simply click double-click to edit the page. Please add your tips to the top of the page. Note: due to recent abuse you must register before editing.

For help on editing the INI files many of the tips below require, see EditingINIFiles.

For some general performance tips, see OperaPerformance. For pointers on modifying a skin for general users, see OperaSkinTips.

Stopping Opera freeze on startup.[⊗]

When opera starts, if you have mail and RSS accounts, it will connect nd start to download. Because integrity of of mail data is paramount, opera prioritises this over everything else (forcing writes to disk), and if a lot of disk activity occurs, this may temporarily freeze opera. The best solution involves changing the time each mail account starts to connect when first run. To change it, you need to edit your accounts.ini file which will be in your Mail directory (see opera:about to see where that is. Each account will have a section [Account1], [Account2] etc. In each find the following line:

Initial Poll Delay=X

Change X to the delay in number of seconds. I set mine to at least 120 (and set RSS to longer so mail gets priority) - this allows time for any sessions etc. to load. You can force opera to read mail using the Check/send button in the mail panel (press F5 to reload individual web feeds).

Auto-complete .com, .net...[⊗]

On Opera 9 pressing Ctrl-Enter adds www. to the beginning of what you typed and .com at the end.
You can customize and add other top level domain names (.co.uk, .net, .org, .fr...) by clicking Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Shorcuts > Edit (next to keyboard setup), expand Advanced then Address drop-down widget.
Example: set shift-enter for .net top level domain names:
Shorcut: enter shift, Actions: Autocomplet server name, "htpp://www", "net"

Making the find dialog close itself upon pressing enter.[⊗]

It is possible to make the find dialog close itself upon pressing enter. To do so, open up the dialog.ini, search for [Find Text Dialog] and replace this line:

Button, 68055, Find_next_button, 220, 23, 120, 23, Move right

with the following:

Button, 68055, Find_next_button, 220, 23, 120, 23, Move right = Cancel

Advanced go to & hotclick popup menu searching.[⊗]

The macro (Opera function) method: add any of the following to the [Hotclick Popup Menu].

Search selected text in current/new/background tab:

Item, Google = copy & go to page, "http://www.google.com/search?q=%c"
Item, Google new = copy & new page & go to page, "http://www.google.com/search?q=%c"
Item, Google background = copy & new page & go to page, "http://www.google.com/search?q=%c" & minimize page

Same as above, but for pagelaunch from text links:

Item, Go to = Go to page, "%t"
Item, Go to new = copy & new page & go to page, "%c"
Item, Go to background = copy & new page & go to page, "%c" & minimize page

Note that use of capital variables - %C and %T - wraps selected string in quotes, changing searches from wordset search to phrase search. Both forms useful.

But the macro functions are flawed, due to flaws in Opera variables and missing functions. %t doesn't work with selections in editable text, while %c requires Copy which obliterates clipboard; and Minimize (used to achieve Open-in-background) messes up tiling. Here are flaw-free selection searches (by Lex1?), using javascript - free of variables, and getting open-in-background from a clean Blur command that has no other effects:

Item, "&Phrase search, new tab" = Go to Page, "javascript: window.open('http://www.google.com/search?q=\x22'+encodeURIComponent(document.selection.createRange().text)+'\x22');void(0)",,,"zoom"
Item, "&Wordset search, new tab" =Go to Page, "javascript: window.open('http://www.google.com/search?q='+encodeURIComponent(document.selection.createRange().text));void(0)",,,"zoom"
Item, "phrase search, &Background" =Go to Page, "javascript: window.open('http://www.google.com/search?q=\x22'+encodeURIComponent(document.selection.createRange().text)+'\x22').blur();",,,"zoom"
Item, "w&Ordset search, background" =Go to Page, "javascript: window.open('http://www.google.com/search?q='+encodeURIComponent(document.selection.createRange().text)).blur();",,,"zoom"

Required setting: open-in-background requires this preference to be selected:

opera:config#Allow script to lower window

(Opera:config links don't work here; paste that into address field to bring up the checkbox). Since they work on editable text, add to Edit Widget Popup as well as Hotclick Popup. Set up for Google, but adaptable to any search. Background & kb/gesture/button setup here

Related, flaw-free launch-text-URL (2009-11-28). To make it work on incomplete addresses (e.g. www.google.com), which are otherwise interpreted as relative addresses, http is added if missing. Again, works on editable text so add to Edit Widget Popup too. Open-in-background again requires that config setting. Discussion & kb/gesture/button setup here.

Item, "Go, new"= Go to page, "javascript: var url=(document.selection.createRange().text) if (url.indexOf('http://')==-1) var url=('http://'+url); window.open(url)();void(0)",,,"forward"
Item, "Launch, background"= Go to Page, "javascript: var url=(document.selection.createRange().text) if (url.indexOf('http://')==-1) var url=('http://'+url); window.open(url).blur();",,,"open link"

Stop Tabs from Focus Stealing[⊗]

On Fri, 14 Oct 2005 07:28:57 +0200, Robert Svoboda wrote:

Hi Opera users,

I'm using 8.5 version (but what I'm going to describe
was in previous versions too).

There are some pages which once loaded force browser
to switch to their tab. They even steal focus so I
have to press F9 to get focus back.
...
Is there any way to avoid switching and focus
stealing?

Johan Schön <js at opera.com> [2005-10-14 08:50] replied helpfully:

Unfortunately it's quite well hidden:

Tools | Preferences | Advanced | Content |
JavaScript options | Allow raising of windows

  // Johan

-- 
Johan Schön
Opera Software

I've noticed that Gmail has this habit. This fix works nicely. Enjoy.

Offline Help with Opera 8[⊗]

Opera 8+ is delivered without help content. Reading help pages requires an online connection. Although read pages are stored in a permanent cache (which can be read offline), there is no quick and easy way to fill this cache with all help pages.

The following describes a way to turn the help behaviour back to Opera 7 style.

first get all help pages, you can use GNU WGET. The Windows binaries for wget can be downloaded from http://xoomer.virgilio.it/hherold/

wget -N -r -np http://help.opera.com/Windows/8.52/en/

then copy the downloaded files to a new created subdirectory help in the Opera program folder

edit the following line in OperaDef6.ini

Help Directory=C:\program files\Opera852\help

(of course correct the path to your Opera program folder, if different)

This offline help is fully functional, although the search feature still needs the online connection.

As Opera may update the online help files, it is possibly a good idea to repeat the download after a while. A bookmark to http://help.opera.com also accesses the up to date online help.

Greets, MM

Starting Opera with Actions[⊗]

You can start Opera with actions, in not so complicated way:
First, you need utility: Microsoft Scriptit (~ 300KB)
This is little tool that you can program to start Opera and send it keystrokes. So you actually apply key of your will to action you would like to execute with opera (for instance, your custom Fullscreen). Let that key be F11.
ScriptIt needs text script to be run, and the script is, in this case edit script.ini to be:

[SCRIPT]
run=c:\program files\opera\opera.exe

Opera={F11}

When you execute scriptit simply use:

ScriptIt <file_path> script.ini

from command line Opera will be started and F11 will be sent to it, and action will be executed.

Now just change Opera shortcut to point to ScriptIt with argument opera.ini and that's it.

Spurl - Social bookmarks in Opera[⊗]

You can use Spurl social bookmarking service in Opera. Go to spurl.net, get an account, follow the instructions for Opera - add a bookmarklet to your personal bar and add a new panel.

You can also create a keyboard shortcut for Spurl bar.

go to Preferences/Mouse and Keyboard/Keyboard setup Edit
create a new item in Application group. The key combination can be "0 ctrl".
The action "Focus panel, 11". The number may need to be changed if there are
other custom panels already installed.

Now you can activate the Spurl bookmarks just like you would normal Opera bookmarks. The great thing about Spurl are, of course, tags and the ability to share the bookmarks with others. Spurl can also be connected with your existing del.icio.us account.

Import mail messages into Sent folder [⊗]

Opera prior to version 8 couldn't import messages from generic (UNIX) mailboxes into the Sent folder. So all messages that you have sent, for example, in The Bat! mail client appear in the Received after importing (and in the relevant filter, of course). This clearly sucks, but it can be fixed.

To do this you need a copy of Eudora and a copy of mbxtools. Then do the following:

1. Select all messages sent from your address in The Bat!
2. Copy these to a new Bat folder, such as Export2Opera?.
3. Select all messages in that folder; export to a mailbox file in Eudora's data directory.
4. Start up Eudora (you need to create an account there), which will automatically index the new mailbox.
5. Close Eudora.
6. Start mbxtools; select the mailbox you have made, and "mark all sent".
7. Close mbxtools.
8. Start Opera, and import from Eudora the mailbox you have just prepared.

The sent messages should now be visible in the Sent folder. Contacts and threads should work properly now. Importing received messages from The Bat! is much easier and doesn't require these intermediary steps.

credit: based on a post by Andrew Brown.

Regain Ability to Manage Opera's History and Notes[⊗]

For some bizarre unknown reason, Opera removed the button to allow controlling the display of the browser history in the panel - though the functionality is still there. To get this ship-lost-at-sea back into harbour - do the following:

Add this to your toolbar.ini (I centre the full toolbar content - remove spacers to suit your taste):

[History Full Toolbar.content]
Spacer0, 1
Quickfind1
Spacer2
Button3, 11292="Open link + Show popup menu, "Bookmarks Panel Open Menu""
Button4, 26544="Show popup menu, "History Panel View Menu", , , "View""
Button5, 67218=Delete
Spacer6, 1
 
[History Panel Toolbar.content]
Button0, 11292="Open link + Show popup menu, "Bookmarks Panel Open Menu""
Button1, 26544="Show popup menu, "History Panel View Menu", , , "View""
Button2, 67218=Delete
Quickfind3

And to your menu.ini:

[History Panel View Menu]
Item, "Default Sort"= Sort by column, -1
---
Item, 67381=Sort by column, 0
Item, 67383=Sort by column, 1
Item, 67386=Sort by column, 2
Item, "Sort by popularity"=Sort by column, 3
---0
Item, 67387= Sort direction, 1
Item, 67388= Sort direction, 0

To do the same for Notes, you need to add to the [Notes Full Toolbar.content] and [Notes Panel Toolbar.content] the following line:

Button, ="Show popup menu, "Notes Panel View Menu", , , "View""

and then add this to your menu.ini. I have chosen to allow you to use split view and full view here as options, more useful for the page than panel, but it allows the folder hierarchy, the folder contents, and the note content to all be visible:

[Notes Panel View Menu]
Item, 67644 = View style, 0
Item, 67645 = View style, 1
Item, 67646 = View style, 2
----
Item, 67380	= Sort by column, -1
Item, 67381	= Sort by column, 0
—-
Item, 67387	= Sort direction, 1
Item, 67388	= Sort direction, 0

Note: both JekyllAndHyde and WebDevToolbar have this tweak already applied if you don't like getting your hands dirtyō

Change the Sensitivity of Your Mouse Gestures[⊗]

Some users find mouse gestures can be too sensitive to trigger, especially for those on a laptop. To change the sensitivity of your gestures, edit your opera6.ini and add the following to your [User Prefs] section:

Gesture Threshold=10

The units are in pixels, so the above line means "only trigger a gesture if the user dragged the mouse more than 10 pixels".

Add Internet Explorer's printing capabilities to Opera (Windows only)[⊗]

Locate and edit your custom menu .INI file, then add the following "Print" command to any menu:

Item, "Print" = Execute program, "rundll32.exe", "mshtml.dll,PrintHTML %U"

NOTE: If you replace Opera's default Print command (Item, 50004=Print document) with this customization, then Opera's "Print preview" mode may not resemble the final output.

Surf in fullscreen [⊗]

Opera's keyboard shortcuts come really handy when you are using fullscreen mode (F11). You can hide/show the address bar (Ctrl F8), panels (F4) and scroll bar (Ctrl F7). Also try some of these fullscreen buttons which you can drag and drop onto your toolbars (hint: drag upwards). You could also edit your keyboard shortcuts or mouse gestures to enable toolbars in fullscreen.

Fastforward (Shift Z) and Rewind (Shift X) are a blessing when you are reading forums in fullscreen. If you accidentally close your only active window (when you thought you closed a page that had opened in new window) just press Ctrl Z to recover it.

Toggle Flash On/Off using User CSS [⊗]

To allow Flash to be toggled on/off, you can use a user CSS file to convert flash embeds into text entries. See OperaUserCSS for how to install this, the contents of the CSS file would be:

embed[type="application/x-shockwave-flash"] {content:"Flash"; outline: 1px dotted gray; color: #DD0000; background: black}

Save chat conversations [⊗]

The chat window is like any other "browser" window. So, you can use the "Save" function to save your chat log. Opera will allow you to save it as HTML (encoded as UTF-16le) or as TXT (will become a little messed).

Blocking Ad Banners As a Menu Option [⊗]

It is possible to block ad banners "on the fly" using a third-party program called Opera Ad Filter. Download and install the program, follow the instructions and you are done. However, if you don't want to run it all the time, simply add this line to the [Image Link Popup Menu] section of your menu.ini:

Item, "Block this ad" = Copy image address & Execute program, "<path-to-operaadfilter>\operaadfilter.exe"

Note: OAD's new website is currently unavailable, but the installation file can still be downloaded from the old site here.

Getting Panel Expand Button to Hide the Panel [⊗]

V7.5+ introduces management pages for bookmarks etc. that can be accessed through an icon in the panel header. However this buton results in TWO interfaces for the same function, so to correct this confusing behaviour, edit your toolbar.ini to the following:

[Hotlist Panel Header.content]
Button0, , 135="Show popup menu, "Internal panels""
Spacer1, 1
Button2="Manage,,,, "Caption Restore" & Set collapse, "hotlist""
Button3=Set collapse, "hotlist", 0,,"Panel Collapse Small" > Set alignment, "hotlist", 0,,"Panel Collapse Small" & Focus page

This can be taken further, as for each manage page we can add a buton to collapse the page back to its panel state, for example for the Bookmarks manage page we edit the [Bookmarks Full Toolbar.content] section of the toolbar.ini and append this button:

Button, "Show as Panel"=Close page, , , , "Scrollbar Vertical Down Skin" & Focus panel, "Bookmarks" & Focus page

For the other panels, just change the Focus panel, xxx command, e.g. for the links panel edit [Links Full Toolbar.content] and append:

Button, "Show as Panel"=Close page, , , , "Scrollbar Vertical Down Skin" & Focus panel, "Links" & Focus page

Forcing Opera to Cache Secure Web Pages[⊗]

If you need to allow Opera to cache pages / resources from secure (HTTPS) sites (some sites misuse HTTPS for image delivery) add this to the [Disk Cache] section of Opera6.ini:

Cache HTTPS=1

Remember that this is a potential security risk as it will expose secure documents to being viewed outside of Opera.

Improving the Default Wrapping for Text Files[⊗]

Arve has a nice CSS addition to allow text files to wrap if they do not have explicit line feeds. He suggests adding the following to browser.css (Opera V7.5+ only):

@media projection { 
body > pre:first-child { 
font-weight: bold; 
font-size: 1.3em; 
padding: 1em; 
margin-left: auto; 
margin-right: auto; 
border: 2px solid #ccc; 
} 
}

body > pre:first-child { 
white-space: -o-pre-wrap; 
max-width: 76ex; 
} 

This makes it apply to ALL pages (even HTML pages if pre is the first child of body - which is however very rare). If you want to be able to selectively toggle it, then simply make it a user style-sheet instead; see OperaUserCSS for details on how.

Save images quickly[⊗]

You can save any image to disk by ctrl+clicking it.

News-Sidebar [⊗]

If you don't want to use the built-in RSS reader, you can make a Sidebar with as much News as you like. The Newssite must have a RSS-Feed.

Then go to to this Page and Enter the address from the RSS-File or address line from the xmlmania service in the field "Or enter your own RSS URL". Then click on update. Change the other rate how do you like. When you disable the option "Compact View", you get also the description of the News.

Copy the javascript-code to a new HTML-Site and after the code enter a <br>. You can do this for every news-item. When you have done it, you can save your html-file and make a panel from the HTML File. When you like a refresh Button, you can make a Frameset. This works Perfect :)

Filter your own messages and its replies automatically in M2 [⊗]

• Add a small but unique string to the Personalization setting for the account in account.ini (I usually use "Personalization=fgoc", as in FrodeGillOperaCom?), and then make a new view (My Messages) adding a filter searching for headers containing "<Personalization>@<FQDN>". (for example fgoc@news.opera.com). This will match your FUTURE messages, and its replies.
• You could enhance by adding a filter 'From Header' contains <YourFromAddress?> and check 'filter existing messages' so it catches your old messages as well (but it will not catch its replies). Only edit accounts.ini with Opera closed ! It seems to work fine with 4 characters personalization strings. (Theoretically it could be up to 497 characters, but it is recommended to keep it as short as possible to conserve resources).
• The way this trick works is that the personalization string will be appended to the message id (hence it needs to be small AND unique) as in Message-ID: <oprzctxzdzkhl721fgoc@news.opera.com> so the filters can find the message and since the Message-ID gets carried over in the References header of the replies, it can find the replies as well.

Improve the status bar in MDI mode, using the address bar [⊗]

This customization uses the page Address Bar to replace the global Status Bar, and is intended for Opera users that prefer:

• MDI (prefer pages inside window) mode [default].
• The drop-down address bar field appearing on the Main Bar (like IE, Mozilla, etc.)
• The Status Bar appearing at the bottom of Opera (like IE, Mozilla, etc.)
• The default page Address Bar turned off.
• Progress fields appearing "inside" the Status Bar (like IE, Mozilla, etc.)

RESOLUTION:

This customization effectively fixes the following issues associated with the global Status Bar in MDI mode:

• Progress fields are not always updated/reset after documents finish loading.
• The status field only displays URLs of the active window during anchor:hover.
• Multiple pages cannot control/update the window.status text field simultaneously.

STEPS:

The following main steps are used to accomplish this customization:

1. Move the drop-down address bar field onto the Main Bar (rather than inside the Address Bar).
2. Show the Address Bar at the bottom of the page (rather than top of page).
3. Right-click and remove most buttons from the Address Bar.
4. Insert the status field onto the Address Bar.
5. Make the Progress Bar show inside the Address Bar (rather than popup at bottom of page).
6. (Optional) Always maximize new pages in the Opera window.

When you are finished, your active toolbar .INI file (located in your profile directory) should contain sections that resemble:

 
[Document Toolbar]
  Button style=0
  Large Images=0
  Wrapping=0
  Status0
[Progress Toolbar]
  Button style=0
  Large Images=0
  Wrapping=0
  Progress0, 0
  Progress1, 1
  Progress2, 2
  Progress3, 3
  Progress4, 4
  Progress5, 5

Likewise, your opera6.ini file (also located in your profile directory) should specify:

  [User Prefs] 
  Show Progress As Popup=0
  AddressBar Alignment=4

NOTE: The settings listed above are by no means absolute, and may be used in conjunction with other settings and values. This example is just one of many possibilities.

SUMMARY:

In general, this customization allows each page in MDI mode to host their own status bar, and effectively utilizes the page Address Bar for this purpose. When finished, your Opera setup will not exhibit the issues outlined in the RESOLUTION section shown above.

One minor drawback to this customization is that when status bars are hosted on each page, they consume valuable screen real estate when many pages are tiled. However, if pages are mostly maximized, then this is not really an issue.

Create a desktop URL shortcut [⊗]

If you want to create a desktop shortcut to a website, this is possible. Resize the Opera window so (a part of) your desktop is visible, and drag the icon left of the URL in the addressbar to your desktop.
A URL shortcut pointing to the page will be created.

You can also manually create a URL shortcut anywhere you like: just create a normal shortcut in Windows, but instead of putting in a file path, paste the URL.

Open some bookmarks in new pages [⊗]

If you have 'Reuse existing page' checked in Preferences - Windows, all bookmarks will open in the currently opened page. This also applies to any searches spawned from a Hotclick, or other menu items.
If you press and hold the Shift key while selecting the bookmark, search or similar, the page will open in a new page, leaving the original page intact: in essence giving the same behaviour as if 'Reuse existing page' was unchecked for that single page.

This can be very handy if you do not want to lose your place on the original page.

Holding Ctrl+Shift also works: this will open the new page in a background page, so your browsing needs not be interrupted at all.

Middle click also can open the bookmark or link in a new page or background page. Look for "Middle click options" at Preferences.

Taking control over Opera user accounts [⊗]

Instead of relying on the multi-user install which is tied to the OS login or being limited to a single account for multiple users, you can simulate multiple user accounts and have them available in the same logon session, across all logon sessions or even running simultaneously. No more arguing with you housemates over settings or unnecessary logouts. If you're really paranoid you would use the Opera master password anyway. The following applies to Windows, something similar applies to Linux.

• Create an Operauser superfolder (e.g. c:\Operauser) with subfolders for the users (e.g. c:\Operauser\user1...) FOR each user (example : user1) repeat steps 2-5
• Create a fresh opera6.ini file in c:\Operauser\user1 containing (replace user1 with the desired username):

Opera Preferences version 2.0

[User Prefs]
Opera Directory=C:\Operauser\user1
Title=Opera - user1
Local CSS File=C:\Operauser\user1\styles\user.css
Hot List File Ver2=C:\Operauser\user1\bookmarks.adr
Mouse Configuration=C:\Operauser\user1\mouse\mouse.ini
Windows Storage File=C:\Operauser\user1\sessions\autosave.win
Download Directory=C:\Operauser\user1\download\
Toolbar Configuration=C:\Operauser\user1\toolbar\toolbar.ini
Menu Configuration=C:\Operauser\user1\menu\menu.ini
Keyboard Configuration=C:\Operauser\user1\keyboard\keyboard.ini
[Mail]
Mail Root Directory=C:\Operauser\user1\mail
[Saved Settings]
Save Dir=C:\Operauser\user1\download
Open Dir=C:\Operauser\user1\download

(note: it's possible that some of these directories are redundant — but we're just making sure)

• Create c:\Operauser\user1\download and styles. Copy over user.css from the standard styles dir in the installation. This is not really necessary but it makes sense to have separated style and downloaddirectory settings for each user. All other directories will be created by Opera after first run (and close) and when preferences differ from the defaults. If you want to use an existing mail database you can copy over the corresponding mail directory.
• Create a shortcut on the Desktop named 'Opera for user1'

Target = "C:\Program Files\Opera720\opera.exe" /Settings c:\Operauser\user1\opera6.ini
Start in = "c:\Operauser\user1"

• Launch the shortcut, and verify in Help|About that all the paths point to the user specified directories.

The different profiles can now be configured individually. Different instances belonging to different users will say the username in the title bar so you can keep them apart on the taskbar in case you're running different profiles simultaneously.

Sharing ALL Opera settings and mail between OS partitions[⊗]

Steps to configure Opera so that all settings (bookmarks, notes, contacts, cookies, wand, email, preferences,…) will be shared between a Windows and a Linux partition (or more general n OS partitions that run Opera).

• Make a new directory named "Opera7" in a FAT32 partition (D:\Opera7 or /mnt/win_d/Opera7), and add a subdirectory named "profile".
• Move all files *except* "opera6.ini" from C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Opera\Opera7\profile (or C:\program files\Opera720\profile depending on your setup) to the new D:\Opera7\profile directory.
• Move the "Mail" folder into the new D:\Opera7\profile directory and renamed it "mail" (needed for O7 for Linux).
• Edit "opera6.ini" (for windows) as follows:

[User Prefs]
Opera Directory=D:\Opera7\profile
Windows Storage File=D:\Opera7\profile\opera.win
Direct History File=D:\Opera7\profile\opera.dir
Global History File=D:\Opera7\profile\global.dat
Viewer History File=D:\Opera7\profile\viewers.dat
Hot List File Ver2=D:\Opera7\profile\opera6.adr
Local CSS File=D:\Opera7\profile\styles\user.css
Toolbar Configuration=D:\Opera7\profile\toolbar\standard_toolbar (1).ini
Cache Directory4=D:\Opera7\profile\cache4\
[Mail]
Mail Root Directory=D:\Opera7\profile\mail

• In Linux make a new ~/.opera after renaming the old one. The only two files needed in this new ~/.opera are "opera6.ini", "opera.reg" (if you have a registered version).
• Copy some Linux specific files from the old ~/.opera into /mnt/win_d/Opera7/profile - e.g. "javapath.txt"
• Edit "opera6.ini" (for linux) as follows:

[User Prefs]
Opera Directory=/mnt/win_d/Opera7/profile/
Cache Directory4=/mnt/win_d/Opera7/profile/cache4/

The linux version expects to find the "mail" directory located in the Opera Directory hence the move and rename in step 3. Remember to backup everything first and do not edit opera6.ini while Opera is running.

Fix word breaking done with <WBR>[⊗]

The <WBR> tag is not supported by Opera, but is used by some people and page management systems to break up long strings. You can make this tag work for you by adding the following to your UserStyleSheet:

/* Fix <wbr>: this enters a soft hyphen after any occurance 
of this tag. */ 
wbr:after { 
content: "\00AD"; 
}

A soft hyphen is normally invisible, but will show if the string it occurs in is too wide: then it is identical in appearance to the normal hyphen (-).

Stop <blink>[⊗]

You can prevent blinking done with the <blink> tag by adding the following to your UserStyleSheet:

/* Prevent blinking */ 
blink, .blink { 
text-decoration : inherit !important; 
}

Also, here's a JavaScript bookmarklet to accomplish nearly the same thing:

javascript:var b=document.getElementsByTagName("blink");for(var i=0;i<b.length;i++) b[i].style.textDecoration="inherit";if (b.length) return false;

 —-

Stop <marquee> [⊗]

Opera 7.20 added support for animated (scrolling) text done with <marquee>. You can disable this by using what is probably a bug in Opera, by adding the following to your UserStyleSheet:

/* Disable marquee: this exploits what is probably a bug */ 
marquee { 
	display : table-row !important; 
	font-size : 1em !important; 
}

Also, here's a JavaScript bookmarklet to accomplish nearly the same thing:

javascript:var m=document.getElementsByTagName("marquee");for(var i=0;i%lt;m.length;i++) m[i].style.display="table-row";if (m.length) return false;

 —-

Accessing server views in M2[⊗]

The 'News at news.opera.com' parent in the Mail hotlist behaves like an accesspoint you can open to show all messages in ALL subscribed groups on that server. Only accessing it is a bit tricky…

From the Mail hotlist open a view of a newsgroup you subscribed to, e.g. opera.general.
a) Use the cursor-up key just as long as you hit 'News at news.opera.com' to show the view
b) Use the view collapse mouse gesture, that will select it as wel.

This will work for any News or IMAP server in the hotlist. —-

Add 3-Pane View to Notes Panel[⊗]

Normally the Notes panel uses a standard split-pane view, but a 3-pane view makes managing notes easier:

1. Open the bookmarks hotlist (Ctrl+1).
2. Open the "Customize toolbars…" dialog to the "Small" tab. Drag the "View" button from the bookmark hotlist toolbar to the Customize panel.
3. Now Focus the Notes panel in Hotlist (Ctrl+9).
4. Drag the new "View" button from the Customize panel to the Notes toolbar.
5. Close the "Customize toolbars…" dialog.
6. In the Notes "View" select "Split view".

That's all. You should now have 3 fields in your Notes panel (not remembered on a restart), you can sort the notes now "by name" or by "my order". The other entries don't work. Example:

Folders

Content of the Current Folder

Content of the Current Note

Add "View Cookie" to Opera's menu[⊗]

Edit your_menu.ini file, find the [Browser View Menu] section, then add this simple JavaScript command:

[Browser View Menu] 
... 
Item, "Cookie" = Go to page, "javascript:alert(document.cookie);" 
...

Save your menu.ini file, and reload. Now you can readily see the info stored in cookies for any website.

Comment: The above javascript: URL can also be used as a bookmark, i.e. a so called bookmarklet. Just select the bookmark and the cookie will be shown.—-

Copy Mail Source To Clipboard [⊗]

Sometimes you want to report an E-mail as spam, or for various other reasons need to copy the source of an E-mail. To do so, select the E-mail in the list of mails and press the [C] key. The mail source will be placed on the clipboard.

Using Mouse Gestures to Access The Browsing History [⊗]

By default, Opera has two mouse gestures each to go 'back' (right-click:drag-left & hold-right:click-left) and 'forwards' (right-click:drag-right & hold-left:click-right).
I want the second type (called FlipBack/FlipForward) to instead open the page
history - simple enough; Preferences > Mouse & Keyboard > edit mouse settings:

 
FlipBack		Show popup menu, "Internal Back History" 
FlipForward		Show popup menu, "Internal Forward History" 

If you want to use the rewind and fast forward histories:

 
FlipBack		Show popup menu, "Internal Rewind History" 
FlipForward		Show popup menu, "Internal Fast Forward History" 

Or, to switch to the next or the previous page/tab:

 
FlipBack		Switch to previous page 
FlipForward		Switch to next page 

 —-

Cycling to the Next New Page after Closing a Page[⊗]

Normally I open up lots of new pages within the MDI workspace, when I click on and read the first page, and then close it via ctrl-w, the focus moves to the tab to the left of the one I closed. To move to the next unread page, try editing the keyboard mapping:

 
w ctrl = Close page & Switch to next page  

Add an Empty Trash Button[⊗]

[Author: MarcFou?]
Open your toolbar INI file and add the following section & button. (note the section in brackets may already exist.)

 
[Notes Panel Toolbar]  
Buttonx, "Empty"="Empty trash, , , , "Show Trash""  

Where "x" is the next available button number. Now when your working in the Notes hotlist you can easily empty the trash with a single click. You can also place the same button under the following Panels as well.

 
[Mail Panel Toolbar]  
Buttonx, "Empty"="Empty trash, , "", , "Show Trash""  

 
[Bookmarks Panel Toolbar]  
Buttonx, "Empty"="Empty trash, , "", , "Show Trash""  

 
[Contacts Panel Toolbar]  
Buttonx, &;amp;;amp;;quot;Empty"="Empty trash, , "", , "Show Trash""  

Mail button shows mail & Mail Hotlist Panel[⊗]

Change toolbar.ini with the following:

 
[Browser Toolbar]  
ButtonX, "Mail"=Read mail & View hotlist, 7 & Focus panel, "Mail"  

where X is the button number in your toolbar.ini.

Setting Up Opera to Use HTTP1.1 for Proxies[⊗]

To most benefit from the speed increases of multiple connections and pipelining (HTTP1.1 features) when using a proxy (e.g. TheProxomitron) remember to select it in Preferences » Network » Proxy Servers.

Removing the Trash Can[⊗]

Some people find the new Trash can in the Bookmarks, Notes and Contacts panels annoying. The solution is simple: Preferences > Mouse and Keyboard > Keyboard setup > Edit. Then under Bookmarks, Notes and/or Contacts Panel, add a new shortcut key:

Del = Delete & Empty Trash

Now, deleting items will skip the Trash can.

Increasing size of mail notification Unknown action "a id="T25""

You want your notification box bigger then 1 line? Well, just use this simple tip!

Change your lines in the english.lng file to the following:

67067="\n\n&;#92;n\n\n\n\n %u New Message(s) was Received \n\n\n\n\n\n\n"

and

67361="\n\n\n\n\n\n\n %u Message(s) was Sent \n\n\n\n\n\n\n"

Now you will have a huge box that pops up on sending and receiving, and you can modify the tooltip font sizes to any size at your leisure.

Understanding the Cryptic Numbers in the INI Files[⊗]

When editing many INI files, one sees the text label indexed by a cryptic number - e.g:

Item, 54022 = Open link address in background

This number actually refers to the entry in the language file (in the English version it is called english.lng). To change the text therefore you can either replace the number with the text, or edit the language file. —-

To get keyboard navigation between mail panel and mail window[⊗]

Add to input.ini:

[Application]  
j= switch to next page & switch to previous page  
m= Activate hotlist window & Focus next widget & Focus next widget & Focus next widget

j will bring focus to email view window and m will bring focus back to hotlist mail tree, so you can browse the mail/news tree with the arrow keys again.

When browsing, hitting 'm' twice will work like a kind of the missing manage mail function. It will bring up the hotlist and focus on the mail panel, but only when it was previously used in the hotlist.

J will only work in MDI with another window open, but hey, that's why we using Opera. The command is quite silly. But it's working fine! No problems.

Note from CrazyTerabyte: you can use keyboard navigation in M2 very easily. F7 brings focus to hotlist, F8 to message list and F9 to message itself.

Adding New Buttons to the UI [⊗]

You can edit the skin to define extra images. Add lines like this to the skin.ini file under the [Images] section:

Quirk = pathinzip/filename.png

… and of course add the files to the zip file in the correct position.

Now after you dragged bookmarks to toolbar (not the Personal bar), you can close Opera and edit toolbar.ini:

Button22, "Quirks?"="Go to page, "javascript:alert(document.compatMode)",  
"", , "Quirk""

The last parameter is the image name as defined in the skin. See AllActions for more details.

Displaying a List of Open Pages on Document Right-Click[⊗]

To display a list of open pages in Opera, including their loading status, add the following line to the bottom of the [Document Popup Menu] section of menu.ini:

Include, Internal Window List

This is especially useful if you don't want to display the Page bar to save some vertical screen space, but do want an idea of your open pages (better than ctrl+tab if you don't want to switch pages).

Removing the Menu[⊗]

If you want to save some vertical space, then Ctrl+F11 toggles the menu on and off: When you need to open something from Menu bar, you can add the following to menu.ini to show the menu bar with a right click.

[Document popup Menu] 
---------------- 
Submenu, "Main menu", Browser Menu Bar, =

And/Or you can rewrite input.ini to bring up the Menu bar with e.g. F10:

[Application]  
F10 = Show popup menu, "Browser Menu Bar"

If you want the main menu as a toolbar button, see CustomButtons for pre-made buttons to do this. —-

Opening Bookmarks in the Hotlist with a Single-Click [⊗]

Edit the [HotListWindow] section of opera6.ini and add:

Hotlist Single Click=1

Making the bookmark properties panel more ergonomic[⊗]

Edit dialog.ini in the Opera 7 directory and replace the [Bookmark Properties Dialog] with this version. Restart opera. See here
for full details.

 
[Bookmark Properties Dialog] 
Title = 22115 
Group0, 67000, , 0, 0, 420, 400, Center, End 
Label1, 25103, Name_label, 0, 0, 90, 23, Fixed 
Edit2, 0, Name_edit, 90, 0, 290, 23, Size right 
Label3, 10943, Nick_label, 0, 30, 90, 23, Fixed 
Edit4, 0, Nick_edit, 90, 30, 290, 23, Size right 
Label5, 10944, URL_label, 0, 60, 90, 23, Fixed 
Edit6, 0, URL_edit, 90, 60, 290, 23, Size right 
Label7, 10945, Description_label, 0, 90, 90, 23, Fixed 
MultilineEdit8, 0, Description_edit, 90, 90, 290, 53, Size right 
Label9, "Added", Created_label, 0, 145, 50, 23, Fixed 
Label10, , Created_text, 50, 145, 150, 23, Fixed 
Label11, 10825, Visited_label, 210, 145, 50, 23, Fixed 
Label12, , Visited_text, 260, 145, 160, 23, Fixed 
Label13, 10820, Parent_label, 0, 170, 90, 23, Fixed 
Bookmarks, 0, Parent_view, 90, 170, 290, 225, Size 
Checkbox15, 54023, ShowOnPersonalbar_check, 0, 400, 180, 23, Move down 
Checkbox16, 67323, ViewInPanel_check, 210, 400, 180, 23, Move down, Move right, End

Adding Open with IE / Mozilla into the menus[⊗]

Add the following to the menu.ini section of your choice (probably [Document Popup Menu] - see EditingINIFiles for a turorial on how to edit INI files):

Item, "Open in IE"			= Execute program, "iexplore","%u" 
Item, "Open in Mozilla"			= Execute program, "mozilla","%u" 
Item, "Open in Firefox"		= Execute program, "firefox","%u"

The words 'iexplore', 'mozilla' and 'firefox' can be used this way because the Windows Registry knows about them. You can also use a full path to the executable
there.

The commands one can use in general are:

%u = URL of currently displayed document
%t = selected text
%s = source of currently displayed document
%c = clipboard contents
%i = number of search hits (in search.ini)
%l = link (unsure which though)

If the letter is written in uppercase (ie. %S) the parameter is put inside a pair of quotes.

Note those % holder can be used for anything — therefore you can set up customised programs that get called from any menu in Opera…

To add this functionality to the a link WITHIN the page - Edit menu.ini adding the following:

[Link Popup Menu] 
Item, "Open in IE" = Copy link & Execute program, "iexplore","%c"

Edit by gun:
As you wrote above, there is a %l command. Whith this it can be done easier:

[Link Popup Menu] 
Item, "Open in IE" = Execute program, "iexplore","%l"

Using features from Google toolbar, like translation, show cache, etc. [⊗]

To get a translation of the page you are viewing and other Google services, add the following to your menu.ini file, for example under the [Document Popup Menu]:

 
Item, "Translate page" = Go to page, "http://translate.google.com/translate?sourceid=opera&hl=en&u=%u" 
Item, "Backwards Links" = Go to page, "http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=opera&q=link:%u" 
Item, "Cached snapshot of page" = Go to page, "http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=opera&q=cache:%u" 
Item, "Similar pages" = Go to page, "http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=opera&q=related:%u" 

To avoid clutter I made these menu items a Submenu.

---

Changing the Location of the Cache [⊗]

Opera defaults to storing the cache files in either the program directory or user directory (depending on install options). To put the cache somewhere else, add the following line to the [User Prefs] section of opera6.ini:

Cache Directory4=your\path\here

I put the cache in a drive other than c:\, as I like to reduce fragmentation on my main drive to a minimum, and caches, by their nature, result in somewhat increased fragmentation.

How to get Scrolling working with IBM Thinkpads [⊗]

See here for full details.

In the "Pass 0 rules" section of (either) %SYSTEM_ROOT%\System32\tp4table.dat or %SYSTEM_ROOT%\System32\tp4scrol.dat, add:

""*,*,opera.exe,*,*,*,WheelStd,0,9""

then reboot. (On some systems the tp4table.dat file may be in other locations, such as "\programs files\synaptics\synTP\")

Changing the Quoted Text Colour in Emails[⊗]

Edit the Opera7/styles/mime.css file and find:

ql.L1 ( color: forestgreen; ) etc.

replace the colours with ones of your choice - remember CSS can use RGB notation e.g. red='#FF0000'.

Mark a thread read in M2 [⊗]

To mark an entire thread as read in M2, click on the first message in the thread. Hold down shift, and click on the last message in the thread. Press k once.

Print as Option on Right Click [⊗]

To add Print… Item to your Right Click Menu:
Open file named: menu.ini (it's in the Opera folder), and scroll to the section named [Document Popup Menu]. Insert a line:
Item, "Print…" = Print document
Save the file. Start Opera.

ICQ in Opera 7[⊗]

Because AOL (owners of ICQ) keep changing the ICQ Protocol intentionally, to lock out third-party clients, the ICQ support that was in Opera6 has not returned in Opera7. However, if for some reason you must have ICQ support within the browser, you can add ICQ2Go as a side panel. This is a web-based version of ICQ, and uses Java. To add this panel, add the following URL to your bookmarks, and select 'show in hotlist panel':
ICQ2Go!.

Note: there is IRC support built into Opera since V7.5.

Opera for Web Designers [⊗]

One of the most wonderful features of Opera for web designers is tucked away in an obscure command in Tools » Advanced &raqo; Reload from cache. Sounds boring enough, until you realise that it refreshes the display by reloading a page in the cache, rather than Reload which tries to get the document from the web. When you view the source of a page (Alt+F3), it comes from the cache. And you can choose what program you want to use in the Preferences dialog. Therefore, you can view a page from the web, edit the HTML in your preferred editor (see below) and immediately see what the changes you made look like. Neither Mozilla nor IE offer such an option AFAIK.

This is great for fast development and when you want to learn from someone elses code.

For the best option to get beautifully coloured source, I recommend replacing the default Source Viewer with a tiny but feature packed editor called SciTE(loading a larger editor like UltraEdit or HomeSite is often overkill!). It is possible to download a single 260kb EXE that you can place anywhere (no install needed). It contains what is the most beautiful and clear source colouring (and collapsing) of ANY editor I know. Also features RegExp search, UTF-8 support, brace matching, good indenting support etc.

Finally, I would place the following somewhere in the [Document Popup Menu] section of menu.ini:

Item, "Refresh display" = Refresh display

And possibly re-map a keycommand for it in input.ini (I use Ctrl+r for refresh and F5 for reload).

Adding minimal overrides to the shipped styles [⊗]

Sometimes, one want only to change one thing in the style files as shipped with Opera, for example the font used to display e-mail. Editing the original file means losing the changes on upgrade, copying the file to a new location and pointing to it in the INI file means losing track of changes in coming versions. The solution is to create a minimal file that imports the original file and then overrides whatever it is you want to override. Then point to this file.

To change the font used in e-mail I have this mime.css in my ~/.opera/styles directory:

 
@import "/usr/share/opera/styles/mime.css"; 
omf|p 
( 
 font-family: "Bitstream Vera Sans Mono", "Courier New", monospace; 
 font-size: 15pt; 
) 

to which I point in my INI file:

 
[User Prefs] 
Mime Style File=/home/peter/.opera/styles/mime.css 

Change your paths as appropriate.

Right-Click Translations [⊗]

Here's a quick way to translate those pesky foreign pages, including Chinese!

Find [Document Popup Menu] in your custom menu.ini file and add the following submenu:

 
Submenu, "Translations", Translations Menu 

Then add the following section in your menu.ini:

 
[Translations Menu] 
Item, "Auto-Translate"= Go to page, "http://translate.google.com/translate_c?u=%u" 
Item, "Spanish to English"= Go to page,     "http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/urltrurl?doit=done&url=%u&lp=es_en"   
Item, "German to English"= Go to page,     "http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/urltrurl?doit=done&url=%u&lp=de_en"    
Item, "Italian to English"= Go to page,     "http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/urltrurl?doit=done&url=%u&lp=it_en"   
Item, "Russian to English"= Go to page,     "http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/urltrurl?doit=done&url=%u&lp=ru_en"   
Item, "French to English"= Go to page,     "http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/urltrurl?doit=done&url=%u&lp=fr_en"    
Item, "Portuguese to English"= Go to page,     "http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/urltrurl?doit=done&url=%u&lp=pt_en"
Item, "Chinese to English"= Go to page,     "http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/urltrurl?doit=done&url=%u&lp=zh_en"   
Item, "Japanese to English"= Go to page,     "http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/urltrurl?doit=done&url=%u&lp=ja_en"  
Item, "Korean to English"= Go to page,     "http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/urltrurl?doit=done&url=%u&lp=ko_en"    

When you run into a webpage you need to translate, just right-click the document, go into that menu and select the appropriate translation. All you have to remember is that "Auto-Translate" is only for 5 major Western European languages: French, German, Italian, Portugese and Spanish.

Be warned that online translations are still far from perfect. French->English can be quite good, but reading Chinese->English can sometimes test your sanity! :)

Alternative to Sessions [⊗]

Instead of using sessions to collect sets of webpages, you can use the hotlist. I find the main advantage to this method is that it's easier to manage and manipulate bookmarks in the hotlist than it is to edit session files. Also, I don't have to create & store separate session files, plus I don't like how session files remember things other than what pages I had Xywx (such as toolbar layouts; I want these remembered by and inherited from the browser).

To create a "session" in the hotlist:
#1 Create a new top-level folder, named "Sessions"
#2 Create a subfolder in this folder, give it the same name (or type of name) you would have used to name the session file.
#3 Give this subfolder a nickname. Make it something short, appropriate, and easy to remember.
#4 Right-click the folder and select "Add All". This will bookmark all the pages you're currently viewing into this folder.

When you want to start Opera up with this "session", instead of using the 'opera.exe /session "foo"' syntax, use 'opera.exe "nickname"', where "nickname" is the nickname you gave the folder in step #3.

Kai Middleton writes: I tried this in Opera 7.51 for linux, but the "add all" feature doesn't seem to work.

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