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Features in Opera

Welcome to Opera 4.0! Although too numerous to relate almost, this document contains references to most new features in Opera 4.0, as well as some those that have been changed, updated or otherwise enhanced.

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What's New?

There are a lot of new features in this, the fourth generation Internet browser from Opera Software, both under the hood and highly visible ones. Opera 4.01 and Opera 4.02 are mainly bugfixes for Opera 4.0 which was released to the public in 28th of June, 2000, but anyways, here's a listing of the particularly important features of Opera 4.02:

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New Technologies

Opera has always been very conscious of the open Web standards that are made by the World Wide Web Consortium and Internet Engineering Task Force in that the technologies the browser supports have always been standards compliant. These are the latest additions and updated technologies in Opera:

HTML 4.01

Opera now has support for the latest HyperText Markup Language recommendation, HTML 4.01, from the World Wide Web Consortium, commonly referred to as the "W3C". Opera versions prior to Opera 4.0 supported the HTML 3.2 recommendation from the W3C, but now this support has been upgraded to fit the dynamic nature of the World Wide Web as it lives and breathes today.

XML 1.0

XML, the acronym of "eXtensible Markup Language", seems to be the buzzword of the day in development circles the world over, and this version of Opera has generic XML 1.0 support! HTML is a subset of a much larger and static markup language, known as Standard Generalized Markup Language, or SGML for short, which doesn't lend itself to the Internet in a flexible enough manner, so the W3C created a working group for creating a new kind of markup language, and XML 1.0 is the result. Opera 4.0 has full support of the XML 1.0 recommendation!

XHTML 1.0

eXtensible HyperText Markup Language, XHTML 1.0, claims to be the bridge between the old Internet, based on HTML, and the new one, which will be based on XML, as detailed by the W3C's XHTML 1.0 specification's working group. Opera 4.0 has full support of XHTML 1.0, for your viewing pleasure!

CSS Level 1 and Level 2

Building on our award-winning implementation of Cascading Style Sheets Level 1 in the 3.x series of Opera, we have now updated this support to include all parts of CSS Level 1 and most parts of CSS Level 2, which excludes only the Aural CSS parts of the W3C recommendation, as Opera is not an aural browser. The idea behind CSS is that the technology is used to separate style and layout from content, and used together with either HTML, XHTML or even XML, the results can be staggering!

WAP and WML

Opera is also one of the first Internet browsers to support Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and Wireless Markup Language (WML) all in one package. These two technologies will enable you to view the Internet on your mobile phone with Opera, and their usages cannot be belittled.

ECMA-262

ECMA-262, also known as "ECMAScript", is the open Web standard scripting language, and is build around the core of AOL's Netscape Communications Corporation's JavaScript 1.3. Opera 4.0 makes good use of the scripting module, and even lets the user easily disable this technology at will in the "Preferences".

HTTP/1.1

HTTP is the acronym for "HyperText Transfer Protocol", and is the protocol that is used for transferring text, images, sound and files over the World Wide Web. The latest version of the protocol is HTTP/1.1, which is now supported in Opera!

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Native Java

Opera 4.0 is the first Opera version with native Java support. This means that Opera uses the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) directly instead of using a plug-in to run Java applets. The runtime environments supported by this version is the "Java Runtime Environment" from Sun version 1.2 and above.

It is not possible to use the Java plug-in version 1.1.3 with Opera 4.0, which means that those of you who have been running this version of the JRE/plug-in will have to install a new version of JRE to run applets in Opera 4.0, but users of both Opera 4.0 and Opera 3.62 should not worry as the 1.3 version of the plug-ins works on Opera 3.62 too for backward compatibility.

Since its version 1.2, the Java Runtime Environment and the Java Plug-in are the same download and installation. Please view the instructions on installing Java to work with Opera, in order to get Java up and running as soon as possible!

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E-mail client

Opera 4.0 comes with its very own, built-in, fully-featured, modular, e-mail client! Users of Opera and commercial partners alike have been asking for this feature almost since the browser's inception, and now it's here! Please read more about this in the e-mail settings page in order to make the most of Opera's e-mail client.

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Contact manager

Along with the e-mailer comes the "Contact list", Opera's very own contact manager! Use the contact manager with the e-mail client, managing your contacts in Opera. It stores their name, phone number, e-mail, Web page URL, and any other important notes, as easy as that! Group your friends together in a folder, your colleagues in another folder, and simply drag and drop them to the Opera workspace to open up an e-mail with all their e-mail addresses in the "To:" field!

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Select your language!

Also features is the simplest and easiest way of selecting your own language preferences in Opera! That's right, the browser may now be displayed in more than the English language at will, simple and easy. Go to the preference menus to read more about this feature.

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Print preview mode

Ever wanted to check how the printout of a Web page would be before seeing the actual printout? We here at Opera Software have, so we added a print preview function. Press the P key on your keyboard to automatically go into it, or use the "File" menu and select "Print preview mode". It's as easy as that!

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Window bar

Maybe the most sought-after feature, judging from user feedback on earlier versions of Opera, is the exclusion of a "window bar". Opera 4.0 now comes with this feature, allowing easy point-and-click access of the open windows in the Opera workspace. Please go to "View/Window bar" to enable it, and select whether you want it to be displayed at the top of the Opera workspace, at the bottom, in the right side of the workspace, or in the left side.

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Full Screen Mode/Opera Presentation Mode

Opera has long had a full screen mode, but never before has it been more easily accessible to the user! Just press F11 to start it, and press F11 again to return to normal browsing. While in the full screen mode, you may navigate freely, and access the Hotlists pane by using F4, the URL line by pressing CTRL + F8. The menu bar, the button bar and the window bar will not be displayed.

Very much connected to this is Opera's new presentation mode. By using the CSS Level 2 media types declaration @media in conjunction with the pseudo-class projection in your Web documents, you can run a whole presentation from Opera's full screen mode by using the Page Up and Page Down keys on your computer, even clicking on links and enabling a lot of other cool media stuff!

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Resuming of transfers

Something that'll please the techies and masses alike is Opera's ability to resume transfers! No, your eyes do not deceive you, it's true! Starting the Transfer window you'll now find that any transfer that's been either cancelled or otherwise disrupted will be resumable through the action button's "Resume transfer" entry.

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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