Opera 7.20 released!

and it's kicking ass...

[bachius]

From the top of my head:

- Faster DOM/javascript and rendering
- BiDi support
- Much more stable
- M2 account selector + regexp
- Configurable middle-click
- Undo closing of page
- Inline search with . (text) or , (links).
- Configurable redraw-time
- Kiosk mode
- IPv6
- Smooth scrolling/scrollbar styling/marquee/blink
- Lots&lots&lots of bugfixes (13 betas!)

This one is great. Trust me. ;-)

[Sinner_G]

Anything special to do before I install it? Things like uninstalling previous version (7.11)?

<added>How is the Java? That is the part I always had most trouble with in previous Opera versions.</added>

[ppg]

You can run multiple versions as long they're installed in defferent directories. I havn't had a problem with doing that anyway.

[pendanticist]

You might want to go read their FAQ. As I recall there were some important specific issues with respect to user defined prefernces and settings of overlay vs. clean install.<added for clarification>...between 6.03 and 7.</added for clarification>

I dl'd the free version (13 Megs as I recall w/Java) a couple of hours ago and so far, looks nice.

Pendanticist.

[edited by: pendanticist at 10:52 am (utc) on Sep. 23, 2003]

[bachius]

I installed over 7.11 without any problems...

[Sinner_G]

I installed over 7.11 without any problems...

Can confirm this, it even kept my skin, customised bars and menus and all other preferences! Great!

[tosspot17]

I upgraded to 7.2 a few weeks ago, while it was still in beta, and i've found it lots faster, and hasn't crashed on me in Windows for a long time (was starting to happen daily with 7.11).

Very happy with the upgrade (and installed over 7.11 without any problems).

[BlobFisk]

No joy on a clean install for me when I tried to upgrade - I got an memory reference error and had to roll back to 7.11.

Win2k.

[Sinner_G]

Blobfisk, I'm on win2k too and had no trouble, as stated above. Was your 7.11 a final version or a beta?

[amznVibe]

#1 problem for me with Opera (still in this version 7.20)
When you try to change text size, fine lines like single pixel borders disappear!

IE and Mozilla don't have this problem. Mozilla does text size change best.

Opera simply needs to seperate the zoom and text size functions.
IE has seperate text size and zoom functions (although there is no external control for zoom - gotta use bookmarklets)

Other than that, for (not even) a 3.5meg download it's absolutely incredible.

[edited by: amznVibe at 12:53 pm (utc) on Sep. 23, 2003]

[BlobFisk]

Sinner_G: Final version - but I have a feeling that it's my machine. I'm going to defrag tonight and try again in the morning!

Stay tuned!

[MonkeeSage]

I've been using 7.20b on and off for about a week, and I have to say, it is much better than previous versions. I especially like the ability to apply skin styles to form controls, the pop-up-on-error option for the JavaScript console, &c. Speed and footprint is impressive, as well (but then it always has been for Opera).

But, as it stands, two main things keep me from trading in Firebird:

1. Opera doesn't have any kind of macroing or extensions system. Short of writing a compiled plugin I can't add any functionality to Opera beyond the very limited amount afforded by bookmarklets (or should they be called 'hotlistlets' or 'hotlets' or something?).

2. Opera doesn't handle XSL stylesheets! If you try rendering an XML file, with or without a stylesheet declaration, you always get the same thing: a raw dump of all the text nodes in the XML tree on a single (wrapped) line! Doh!

Right now 7.20 has replaced Mozilla as my secondary browser, and if they tackle these two issues in upcoming releases, I'll make it my default browser. Keep up the good work Opera team!

Jordan

[hartlandcat]

So Opera 7.2 now supports <blink> and <marquee>? Oh dear...

[bachius]

Here's the changelog:
[opera.com...]

and here's the press release:
[opera.com...]

[MonkeeSage]

Made it possible to have actions specify the action value after an action string was specified. Makes it possible to do:

Show popup menu, "Internal access points", -3

to directly show the "All messages" submenu

What and where are "action strings"? Looks like some kind of macroing system! :))

Anybody know more about them?

Jordan

[RonPK]

"[..] lets users of the ad-sponsored version choose to receive either relevant text-based ads served by Google or generic graphical ads."

It's running AdSense in the top bar. The URL of the page you visit is sent to Google, which tries to return relevant ads. I noticed that when I visit a page Google doesn't know of, they almost immediately send out "Mediapartners-Google/2.1", the AdSense spider. I'm not sure whether such pages will end up in the main index, but if you care about keeping them unknown to the rest of the world it's better not to use this Opera feature or to put them behind some kind of authentication.

[Sinner_G]

I'm not sure whether such pages will end up in the main index

I can already see all SEMs installing ad sponsored-opera to get their new sites into the index.

[trillianjedi]

Have they fixed the bug that displayed zero border tables as single border?

I always thought I'd switch when they fix that (made some sites look way too weird for me!).

Apart from that I always thought it was a great product. Very fast too, if memory serves.

TJ

[sidyadav]

I don't know why some pages from my site , just don't look good in Opera, though I like the "Skins" and all the design , speed etc. but I still see some sites that look PRETTY wierd (for me) in Opera.

Sid

[trillianjedi]

but I still see some sites that look PRETTY wierd (for me) in Opera.

That's what I'm curious to know if they've fixed in the latest version.

TJ

[sidyadav]

Nop, still see my site's text crossing against each other etc. I wonder when Opera releases a version in which this is all fixed.
1 more thing is the scrolling isn't smooth, maybe they need to fix this in the next version cause I find it very irritating when a Software's scrolling isn't smooth.

PS. I have the full version of Opera 7.20

Sid

[Archon]

I just installed Opera 7.20 for a test drive and it's fast, sleek and very usable.. just like every other prev. version of Opera. Note -- it's completely unusable for managing keywords on Overture. It hates the DTC's method of displaying your keywords on the "Manage" tab. SEOs won't like it but for the rest of the world.. download and enjoy.

[Sinner_G]

scrolling isn't smooth

Preferences/Windows => Checkbox smooth scrolling.

my site's text crossing against each other etc.

Do your pages validate? What is special about them?

[trillianjedi]

Sinner_G - can I ask a favour? Could you go to any website that uses tables with a zero border (invisible) as its layout method and tell me if it looks OK in the latest Opera?

That was my only problem with it in the last version, if they've fixed the bug, then I'll buy it straight away because apart from that it rocked.

TJ

[dillonstars]

Some of my CSS pages look slightly different in 7.2 compared to 7.11. Can't find any mention of them changing the CSS rendering engine though...

I still get the unslightly flash of unstyled content on my pages too unfortuantely :(

I like the google ads though.. thats a good deal they got themselves there i reckon...

However I do get duplicate ads when i view a page with adsense ads on it already ....

[Sinner_G]

TJ, not sure what you mean. Just pages using tables for layout with border=0? They always looked good for me, also in previous versions.

Or can you give me (sticky or your profile) a link to look at?

[olias]

I notice the AdSense ads I am getting are US targetted, which is kind of handy for me being in the UK, it means I can see ads on my site for UK visitors and Opera is showing me what is being displayed in the US

[trillianjedi]

Thanks Sinner_G - I'll maybe re-look at it.

Last version definitely had some problems for me in this regard.

Can't think of any specifics now (typical isn't it!) but you're right in that it's tables with border=0.

I did install a trial of 7 when it first came out. This did suffer the problem (Opera went and put in a 1 pixel border anyway, ignoring border=0). It maybe that they have fixed it now, as it was obviously a bug and not a "feature".

Made a lot of sites look very odd.

TJ

[juniperwasting]

That was the most painless update I have ever experienced. Approx. 5 minutes of down time and right back to where I was. Also, I do prefer the adsence to the banners much less intrusive and I might actually click on one.

[rise2it]

Been using Opera since 3.62 several years back, which I bought. (So much faster than everything else, these guys deserved the money.)

Forget about what Opera DOESN'T do.....it's not trying to be Internet Explorer, or you'd have an 80 Meg Download.

Personally, I use the non-java versions of Opera...small, fast, and sweet. Most java in webpages is only to 'pretty them up', which I don't really care about. Remember guys, 'content is king'...

If I absolutely have to go to a webpage that Opera doesn't support, then I'll fire up IE, and open my computer up to all the glitches, activex controls, etc.