Using Opera, the same task can often be performed faster and in a number of different ways. As your skills improve, you will find faster and more suitable ways of operation. You can navigate using the keyboard and context sensitive menus as well as the traditional 'point-and-click' method.
In addition, Opera has a sophisticated address list for rapid access to your most-used documents, including the option to load multiple bookmark entries at the same time.
Navigation in documents
Navigation within history/ global history
Enter URL directly (Direct Addressing)
General
The World Wide Web is explored by clicking on so-called 'links', who are
the 'front' of other Internet document addresses or URL (Uniform Resource
Locator). These links can be either text or graphics or lately, also point
to multimedia plug-in files, like streamed video or audio.
Text links can be displayed in the style you choose, but it in general they are displayed using a different colour or sometimes even a border.
When the mouse pointer is over a link, it changes to a hand, indicating that there is another document behind this text. By clicking on it, you will get transferred to that document, no matter where it is stored on the Internet.
You can also use the keyboard to navigate; hold down the CTRL key, and use the Up and Down arrow keys to select links. The chosen link will be displayed in a different colour with a different background. When you move to a link which points to a document you wish to retrieve, press the Return key.
To navigate back and forth, use CTRL in conjunction with the left and right arrow. This behaviour is unlike other browsers who use the ALT key, but because we would like to make it easy for you, you can also use ALT in conjunction with the arrow keys to jump back and forth.
To open a link in a new window
Hold down the SHIFT key while clicking or pressing enter.
To open a link in a new window without 'destroying' the window layout
Hold down the SHIFT and the CTRL key, then move onto the link, and
the link document will be loaded in the background. This only works if 'Auto
Tiling of windows' is DISABLED in Preferences/Generic.
Graphics with a number of active areas (imagemaps)
On the World Wide Web you will find more and more graphics with active points
or fields -- so-called imagemaps. Depending where you click on a graphic,
different documents will be retrieved. The active points are often marked
in some way on the graphic. There is no rule as to how they will be marked.
You click on these active points exactly as you would click on a normal graphical link within a document. You must use the mouse pointer for this, not the keyboard, since different positions will give different results.
How to stop loading a document
Occasionally it can take a long time to load a document - and sometimes you
may discover that you are not really interested in the file you have begun
to retrieve. You can cancel this process in a number of ways.
You can:
TIP: If you want to cancel a download
in the download window, click on the red button on the same line as the filename
and the transfer details.
Navigation in the document history
Opera remembers the documents you have visited in the correct order. This way you can easily re-visit places you have just been to. If you wish to go back to the last read page -- or several previous pages -- press on the left arrow in the button bar. The right arrow will move you forward again.
You can equally well move backwards and forwards in the history list by holding down the CTRL-key and using the Right and Left arrow keys.
You can also jump directly to a particular point in the history list by clicking on the list at the bottom of the document window, and choosing a document there or by simply pressing 'H'.
Global History
Opera also maintains a global history of all sites you have accessed. The
number of entries can be set in Generic
Preferences.
TIP: You can access the global history
via Window/Special Window/History. The file where Opera stores these entries
is called 'global.dat', and you can delete it if you want to remove traces
of your online surfing or if Opera crashes when you try to access it.
Enter URL directly (Direct
Addressing)
From time to time you will either be sent a URL or read about a new web address on the Net. These addresses have a special format, e.g. 'http://www.operasoftware.com' . All the documents on the World Wide Web use a similar style of addressing.
You can find documents by navigating round links, so long as you know which home page to start from. You can also search using keywords in some of the search system databases. (See http://www.operasoftware.com/search.html for details) So long as you know the address of a document you can type it in and go directly to the document.
You can write addresses in two places within Opera. In the dialog box 'Direct Addressing" (also accessible via F2) and in the history list at the bottom of the document window. When you have typed in the address, press Return. Take care that you have typed the address without spaces and in the correct syntax.
TIP: Remember that there is a difference between capital and small letters. Internet addresses often only use small letters for simplicity's sake, but don't rely on this.