Opera 8 tips

[bill]

I was hoping we could make a little collection of usage tips for Opera 8. Opera has a lot of hidden functionality, and I'm finding a lot of new additions that are already saving me time.

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inline find

To activate:

Tools ¦ Preferences... ¦ Advanced ¦ Search

click the "use inline find in page" option

• When you press Ctrl+F now, the focus will shift to the search field in your address bar. Type the term you're looking for and Opera finds it while you type. To go to the next search result, just press Enter or F3.
  
• press . (period) or / (forward slash). A small search dialog will pop up in the bottom left corner and you can just type. F3 will take you to the next search result.

[Hester]

Great topic idea bill!

I can go one better than your search idea. See the Google search form on the address toolbar? Go into Preferences and change this to "Find in page search". Then you have a permanent form for finding text on a page. Now just type into the form, and it finds what you type in real-time, letter by letter.

If you don't want to lose the Google search form then use the new Start toolbar instead, and either change one of the existing search forms there, or drag a new form to the bar from the Customize toolbars window. (Right-click on a toolbar to access this.)

I've even placed the inline search form on the Status bar at the bottom, so I had room for more icons on the address bar.

Opera allows virtually any icon or form to be moved around and placed on a different toolbar. It's worth looking through the lists of available icons and features in the Customize window to see what's available. (Tip: choose to show all available toolbars while you're there.)

Links can also be dragged to a toolbar, which gives you a nice button for instant access to the linked site. (If you don't want the name of the site in the button, the Customize toolbars window allows you to show just the image, which will be the site's favicon.)

[MatthewHSE]

Is there any way to get Opera toolbar or menu buttons on the same "row" as the tabs? The FireFox Toolbar Enhancements extension does this, and I'd be very surprised if Opera doesn't have the same functionality. But I haven't been able to find out how to do it yet.

Also, could someone explain the Opera "layouts" that are available? They look like just a lot of toolbar options and positions to me, but I've heard they can add extra functionality as well.

[Hester]

Good idea about the tabs/icons. As far as I know, this isn't possible from the browser windows, but as with everything to do with Opera, you can usually tweak the INI files to get what you want!

What do you mean by Opera "layouts"? Custom toolbar skins?

[MatthewHSE]

Unfortunately I don't know how to edit ini files; do you know of any good tutorials?

I guess the "layouts" I meant are actually called "setups"

[my.opera.com...]

Maybe I'm missing something, but what is the point of these? Do they offer any extra functionality, or are they just different positions for the buttons and toolbars?

[TGecho]

Is there any way to get Opera toolbar or menu buttons on the same "row" as the tabs?

If you right click the toolbars and click customize you can drag buttons and fields to either side of the tabs. That trash can is just another button.

Also, take a look at "Fit to window width" (under View). As you shrink the window width, it juggles/resizes stuff to keep it from scrolling horizontally. After a certain point it seems to transition to small screen mode.

[andyp77]

Hi guys ... this is a really cool forum and here's my first post :)

Ever since installing Opera8, my "Mail" item on the menu has disappeared and I can't figure out how to get it back! I've got File, Edit, View, Bookmarks, Tools and Help, but no Mail :(

Any ideas?

Thanks!

[BlobFisk]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, andyp77!

Right click on the panel area and select customise.

In the Panels tab make sure that Mail is checked.

HTH

[Hester]

Re: setups/layouts:

Maybe I'm missing something, but what is the point of these? Do they offer any extra functionality, or are they just different positions for the buttons and toolbars?

There are a large number of extra icons (buttons) you can add to the toolbars, such as a tickbox to toggle JavaScript on and off easily. Many users have taken the time to come up with what they see as the "perfect" Opera setup. They have made these available online, so other users can try them out. That's all the setups are, just ultra-customized versions of Opera, designed for speed and convenience. (Note: you don't need to download the whole browser to try them, just a small file.)

Don't forget you can also download skins. These radically change the browser look, and can be switched on and off while Opera is running.

Regarding editing of INI files (the simple text files that reside in Opera's folders and allow advanced tweaking of everything from the default CSS used for rendering, to the features running (even ones that have recently been removed)), I suggest asking on the Opera Forums for help. (I'm sure there's a tutorial out there, but I don't have a link myself.)

Enjoy customizing!

[andyp77]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, andyp77!

Right click on the panel area and select customise.

In the Panels tab make sure that Mail is checked.

Thanks 4 the welcome!
I tried that but it won't actually let me check the mail box. Very weird....? Its not greyed out at all, but just won't let me place the tick in there :(

[TGecho]

Go to Tools, "Mail and chat accounts..."
Make sure you've got a mail account set up.

[bill]

Opera Search.ini Editor 1.23

Download [operapl.prv.pl] this editor, recently updated to support Opera 8, and easily add/remove/change the search engines available in your copy of Opera.

There is a database of installable Opera search engines at the Opera Search Plugin Manager [nontroppo.org] page.