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Dialogs in Opera

Throughout the usage of Opera, you'll probably come across a lot of dialogs and menus that you may have to configure in one way or another in order for Opera to perform at its best. This document contains a reference to these menus that do not logically fit within other documents of this Help. Please view the listings below if you find yourself wondering exactly what these menus will offer you in terms of usability.

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Listing of documented menus

These are the menus that are covered in this document. Please view the documents entitled Menus in Opera and The Preference Menus for explanations of other menus.

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Set home page...

Setting a home page for your browser couldn't be easier than Opera's way of doing it! Just go to "Navigation" on the Opera menu bar, and select the "Set home page" entry to be taken to this dialog. There are two fields here:

Window home page
This will set a home page to the current active window. You may do so either by typing in the URI or by clicking the "Use active" button, which will set the window home page to the URI of the active window.

When you close the active window in the Opera workspace, this setting is discarded, but it's a great way of maintaining a user-defined starting point as long as the window is open.

Global home page
This field is used to set a global home page that will be accessed when you press the button on the Opera button bar labeled "Go to the home page". Either type in the URI to the page you wish to be the global home page, or use the "Use active" button to set the global home page to the URI of the active window in the Opera workspace.

This setting is kept until you change it again. If you do not wish Opera to have a global home page, simply remove the URI in the field and press the "OK" button to save your choice.

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Open remote

If you select this entry on the Opera "Navigation" menu, you'll be presented with the "Direct URL addressing" box, basically a floating dialog into which you can enter a URI for the active window in the Opera workspace to go to.

Simply type the URI into the box and press the "OK" button to open the page in Opera.

Tip! This dialog uses CAC , which is the feature that lets the browser automatically complete an Internet address for your use. If you wish this not to apply, press the spacebar on your keyboard once before typing in the URI.

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Transfer window

The transfer window is one of most useful special dialogs in Opera. It is accessed either automatically when the user starts downloading a file and chooses to save it, but it can also be accessed through the menu structure in Opera, "Window/Special Window/Transfer". This window contains the following options:

Main field

The main field in this window has the entries of the files you are currently transferring. You will notice the following columns:

Status
The status column details the status of the transfer, either as being in process, as being finished completely, as being finished incompletely, as being cancelled or being broken.

Name
The name of the file is detailed here, naturally enough.

Progress
The progress field tells you how much progress has been made on transferring the file in percent. A finished file will be displayed as "Done", while files that are of another status may be displayed otherwise.

Time remaining
Here, you'll see a calculated remaining time, based on the size of the file, your connection speed and how much Internet traffic lies between you and the source of the file.

Transfer speed
The average speed of the transfer is shown here. This is vital to calculating the remaining time of the transfer.

File details

Below the main field are the file details listed. These are:

Source
The source of the file, i.e. where it came from.

Destination
The destination of the file, aka. where it's going.

Size
The size of the file, as stated by the source of the file.

Transferred
This field shows how much of the file that has been transferred from the source to the destination of the file.

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Register Opera...

The "Help" menu also contains the box that lets you register your copy of Opera with the license you have purchased for it from Opera Software. You'll see these fields:

Name
This is where you enter your name. The copy will be registered to the name you enter, although you may change this later.

Organization
In this field, you'll simply be able to enter the name of the organization you work for, if this is a valid entry. This field may be omitted.

Registration code
Here, you add the Registration Code.

Tip! Instead of manually typing in your Registration Code, you should copy it from the e-mail in which you receive it by using CTRL + C and then paste it into this field by using CTRL + V, as this removes the risk of mistyping it.

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Script execution error

The script execution error message is a dialog you won't see unless you access a page that has a bad scripting markup which will not execute. Then, you'll be presented with the following:

Error message

This part of the menu contains the error message, in this part, you'll find:

URL
This field contains the URL of the document whose script will not be executed.

Error
This field contains details about what exactly it is in the document that will not be executed, and is something you'll probably refer to only if you are in the process of developing a script to have on your Web site or on subsequent documents.

Do not show this dialog again
If you do not wish to be presented with this dialog again, please check this box. As stated, you may go to "File/Preferences", "Plug-ins" to turn it back on again.

There are also two buttons on this page: the generic "OK" button, and a button which is labelled "Stop executing scripts on this page". Clicking the latter will disable scripting languages on the page you are currently on.

Tip! In order to disable scripting languages in their entirety, please go to "File/Preferences", "Plug-ins" and remove the checkbox in front of "Enable scripting languages".

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Cookie security breach

Cookies are sometimes set to monitor your activities on the Internet, in order to provide valuable demographic data that may be used for things that may not be in accordance with the user's wishes, such as selecting ad banners for a Web site to display to you. Opera solves some of these problems by letting the users explicitly define their own cookie filters, which may be set to have the cookies be prompted for the user to selectively accept or decline, which will be enough in most cases where users are concerned about protecting their privacy on the Internet.

However, there is one particularly intrusive way of setting a cookie that Opera will not under any circumstances allow: If the cookie is set to be recording your movement and action on other servers and domains than the server or domain to which it was set, such as setting cookies to monitor your activities on all ".com" domains.

If a cookie is attempted set like this, Opera will not accept it at all; there's no way you may be able to let Opera accept it either, but the browser will notify you about this by sending a warning message to the screen detailing this. Other Web browsers that support cookies will in most cases disregard the cookie silently, but Opera implements newer and more strict rules.

You will see the URL of the page that attempts to set the cookie, as well as the cookie itself, displayed in this dialog. Below this field, you may check a box to disable further warning messages of this kind at your discretion, but do note that checking this box will not disable this security setting in Opera.

Note, however, that this is most often caused by a badly configured server, and not with malicious intent on the domain's side.

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Unknown file type

When Opera comes across a file whose MIME type has not been associated with an action or another application in the "File/Preferences", "File types" menu, this dialog box will show up. You can then decide what you would like to do with this file. In most cases, you are likely to save it on your hard disk, and open it with another application. These are the options presented to you in the "Action" part of the menu:

Type
Here is displayed what type of file this is, if the type is known.

Save to disk
Click on this button to bring up your operating system's standard "Save as..." dialog box in order to save the file to your local drive(s).

Show in Opera
If the file type is of a type that you are positive Opera will be able to handle, you can click on "Use Opera", to have Opera show the file. If the file type is unknown to Opera, however, the file will display on-screen as text.

Associate...
The "Associate..." button will bring up the "File/Preferences", "File types" menu, in which you can associate the file type to whatever action and/or application or plug-in that fits the file type the best.

Show with application
Here you can choose an external program to display the file. You can click on the "..." button to bring up your operating system's standard dialog for browsing, and browse your way to a program. When you have found the program, you simply click on "Show" to see the file.

The "Cancel" button will cancel the transfer of the file, along with its eventual execution on your machine, while the "Help" button will show you the Help.

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Locked document

This dialog box opens when you try to retrieve a protected document. You must type in a user name and password to gain access. Take care that this is not your normal user name and password. You should not use the same name and password for different services.

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Links in frame

The Links in frame dialog is accessed through pressing CTRL + J in a Web document in the Opera workspace. This dialog lists all the links from the current document, and is a handy tool for those who know how to use it.

In the dialog, these fields become apparent:

Active link field
This field contains a reference of the active link that is highlighted in the field below.

Link listing
The main meat of the dialog, this field lists all the links going from the active document to other documents, or to the same document.

Sort
If enabled, the links listed in the Link listing field are sorted alphabetically. Leave it disabled to have the links listed in appearing order.

URL's
The complete URL's of all the links in the Link listing field will be displayed unless you disable this option here.

First letter cycle
If this option is enabled, it is possible to navigate the list of links by pressing the corresponding character on your keyboard as the first letter of the titles of the links.

However, if the option is disabled, typing something on the keyboard will take you to the correct link as far as you type it correctly.

Open
Use this button to open the currently active link in the Link listing field.

Copy all >>
This button lets you to copy the current listing of links to be pasted as one of the following:

  • Copy as text
    The links will be copied as plain text, which can be pasted into any application that can process this format, such as word-processors.

  • Copy as HTML
    The links will be copied as HTML, which can be pasted into any application that can process this format, typically an HTML editor.

  • Copy as Hotlist items
    The links will be copied as Hotlist items, which may in turn be pasted into the Opera bookmark list. In order to paste into this format, enable the Hotlist F4 and use the context sensitive menu (CTRL + M) to paste the links into the folder you highlight.

    Tip! The links will be pasted into the bookmark list as a separate folder, bearing the name of the title of the Web document they are copied from, so there's no need to create a separate folder in order to use this function.

Refresh
Refresh the Link listing by pressing this button. Great for when you are developing a Web site and want an updated listing, or if the list has changed since you first brought it up.

Cancel
This button closes the Links in frame dialog.

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Windows

Unlike other Web browsers, Opera uses a Multiple Document Interface (MDI) environment to present several windows inside the program itself, freeing up needed system resources which aren't needed in such an environment. But some times, the number of windows open can be a bit confusing, particularly since Opera will let you open as many windows as your system can possibly bear, which is why the Window listing dialog exists.

In this dialog, this is what you will find:

Window list
The left part of this dialog contains the main window listing. Use this list to highlight and select the window you wish to activate.

Cancel
This button closes the Window listing dialog.

Activate
Use this button to activate the window, or windows, you have highlighted in the Window list. Note that if you wish to activate several windows at the same time, hold CTRL or SHIFT as you highlight them to be able to select more than one window at a time.

Reload
Use this button to reload the active window(s).

Minimize
The Minimize button will minimize the currently selected window. If the window is minimized, press the "Activate" button to restore it to its previous state.

Close windows
This button closes the highlighted window(s).

Disclaimer: We cannot guarantee that the instructions in these documents will work on every computer and every platform. Please inform us if you have problems with Opera, but please, first check our online support section, as this section is updated on a regular basis with information about the Opera Browser.

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