Opera is a World Wide Web client, ie. a program for retrieving information on the World Wide Web via documents created with the HyperText Markup Language (HTML). Opera was designed from scratch and doesn't use code based on NCSA Mosaic. The advantages for you, the user, are obvious: no unnecessary overheads, no bloat, no speed compromise - only the latest programming techniques and expertise, resulting in fast, stable code that - unlike many competitors - adheres to the HTML standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
What makes Opera so different is the combination of small size, speed of loading both Internet and local HTML documents, versatility in loading and displaying webpages, its many customization option and its sheer functionality.
Through its unique features, Opera can help you save precious online time and avoid frustration, particularly when you are on the road.
Features you don't want to miss
Opera is the only commercial browser that supports the highest level of security: 128bit SSL 2 and 3, as well as TLS 1.0. No need to compromise your security with only 40bits or 56bits. 128bit encryption is considered impossible to hack, making for a secure online shopping, banking and soon also e-mail communication experience.
Opera can open multiple windows (SHIFT-Left mouse button Click) rather than multiple browsers, which saves memory and time and provides you with a lot of power when it comes to document navigation and management.
Another unique feature to open a new document window in the background, without overlapping the one you are currently reading (SHIFT-CTRL-Left mouse button Click). A real boon and timesaver when you surf through large search engine listings or links pages.
You can toggle the graphics display in realtime (G), and not just via your general preferences. This means that if a document loads slowly because of too many graphics or large image sizes, one click speeds up the loading process dramatically.
Many web documents are not nice to look at. So if you come across a document that has a light text colour on a dark background, you can toggle between the document settings and the user settings with one click (CTRL-G).
If the font size of a document is too small, you can zoom in and out + and - -- from 20% to 1000%!
Opera supports a large number of Netscape-compatible plug-ins, including the 32bit Java Plug-in from Sun. A number of supported plug-ins can be found here.
Opera can also be used to retrieve information using FTP, Gopher and WAIS, and for reading newsgroups. The same simple user interface is used for all these services. You can also send electronic mail using Opera or link to an external mail program.
Furthermore Opera can play MID and WAV sound files (utilizing a plug-in), display GIF and JPG images, play AVI videos (provided you have Video for Windows installed). With the use of plug-ins, Opera can also display a large number of multimedia files.
Opera has been written for Microsoft Windows, and uses the standard Windows program design philosophy. Users will therefore recognize most of the functions from other programs, such as text editing, etc.
The menus follow the standards, the button bar has the normal sequence, and other features -- ie. the ability to have multiple windows open simultaneously -- will be familiar from the normal MS Windows use.
The many customization options will soon convince you, too, and show the web the way you want -- using your personal preferences.
The developers of Opera have always made sure that the program is easy to use for as many people as possible. As a result, they have included the ability to use the program with the keyboard, which will be useful for all those who are not comfortable with prolonged use of a mouse. The emphasis has been on fast and simple access to the important functions, making it also friendly for those with different handicaps.
Opera's developers are also concerned that it should be possible to use the Internet without being a language specialist. It is always useful to learn another language, but the intention is that you will be able to buy this program in your own language. Opera has already been produced in:
We also are working on these languages:
Before you explore the Web with Opera, you may want to read the following tips on how to perform certain standard tasks.
By default, Opera has been set up in such a way that you can start browsing immediately, without any further ado, but you can fine-tune Opera according to your personal preferences.
Load an online document
Import bookmarks
MSIE:
Netscape:
Opera will insert the 'Favourites' URLs and insert them into the selected
(sub)folder.
Add a bookmark
With 'Hot List' visible (docked or floating)
- Right-click on the subfolder in the top half of the Hot List. A popup menu appears.
- Click on 'Add Current Document'
With 'Hot List' invisible/disabled
- Click on 'Hot List' in the top menu
- Scroll down until the highlighted bar is on the desired (sub)folder.
- Click on 'Add Current Document' at the top of the folder's submenu.
The option 'Docked Hot List' (Ctrl+F2) in the View menu will toggle the Hot List
on and off. If you don't have enough screen real estate (ie. 640x480 resolution
or a small monitor) it is better to leave the docked Hot List disabled or
make it floating and not 'stay on top' rather than docked.
Download a file
Opera has a new and very informative Transfer Window that shows you the progress of the download(s), and also allows you to install/extract a file straight from that window.
Note: Opera does not yet have a built-in feature that allows you to resume aborted downloads. You can achieve this functionality by downloading and installing a separate “download manager” program. See our plug-in page for some choices.
Send E-mail
If you haven't set up your e-mail preferences (name, address, server), select
'Mail...' from the 'Preferences' menu and
enter the appropriate names, ie:
Example:
Name: James A. Smith
E-mail Address: ja.smith@home.com
Mail Server: smtp-mail.home.comClick on the 'OK' button.
If you don't know the name of your mail server, please ask your service provider.
If you are using an external mail program such as Pegasus, Agent or Eudora, you can enter a command line parameter to call them up instead of Opera's own sendmail window.
You can also specify your signature line, plus a file in which Opera should
store all outgoing mail that is sent with Opera.
Retrieve USENET messages and images
Opera can now also retrieve JPG images from newsgroups; both MIME and UUENCODE
formats are supported.
That's all to get you started. We recommend, however, that you do the following
before you start the real surf:
- Read as much as you can of the Help guide
- Have a look at the keyboard shortcuts
- Find out about the (new) features of Opera
- Refer to the Preferences menu to tailor Opera, so that it operates in the preferred manner.
If there is a problem with the uninstall you may have to delete Opera manually. To do that, find the Opera program directory and delete it. You will also need to delete the file named opera.ini which is found in the \Windows directory by default. You may also have other Opera--specific files that were created or that you manipulated after the installation. These include the Cache directory, newsreader files (*.rc), history (global.dat) and cookies (cookies.dat).
"Happy Surfing with Opera! We thank you very much for giving us the opportunity
to present our product to you, and we hope you will find Opera fast, powerful,
flexible, but always easy to navigate and use. We also hope that it adds
joy and satisfaction to your time on the Internet."
Important Settings
To have the full benefits of Opera, you must set up certain preferences after installation. Start up the program by clicking on the Opera icon in the Opera program group and follow the procedure below.
If Opera doesn't connect to the web right away...
Windows uses a communications module (winsock) to accomplish Internet connections. This file is either called winsock.dll (16bit) or wsock32.dll (32bit). You should have only one file with this name on your computer. If you use Win 3.1x, make sure you only have this one copy of winsock.dll on your disk (usually the one that came with the dialer) and make sure it is in the path statement of your AUTOEXEC.BAT. Rename or delete all other winsock.dll copies from your computer.
Once you have followed these steps, you should not have any
more problems, because a) Windows knows where to find the
module, and there are no conflicts with other winsock.dll's
on your disk.
There are several other things that can potentially hinder Opera from loading websites or displaying them properly. These include:
Communications Module (winsock)
In order for Opera to work with non-standard modules there are a number of options under Advanced Preferences. Most people will not need to worry about these, but if there are communications problems, it can be worth investigating changing some of these parameters. Problems do not usually occur until several documents are loaded simultaneously.
Some Known Problems:
Microsoft TCP/IP Older versions of Microsoft TCP/IP need you to run Opera with a Synchronous Name Service (DNS).
To set the synchronous name service and size of the network buffer
Note: If you have tried both Synchronous DNS and the size of the network buffer to no advantage, you can try setting the number of connections down , eg. to 1, both in total and to a single server. This means that Opera will run more slowly, but will interact better with the communications module.
Proxy servers
Opera has no direct support for the WAIS and Gopher protocols, but needs to use a proxy server to retrieve documents from those types of server.
Ask your system administrator or Internet supplier about their proxy servers.
To set up proxy servers:
- You will have to consult with your system provider/administrator to get proper settings. Then you can configure your proxy settings in Opera.
- Go to Opera's 'Preferences/Proxy Servers' and enter your settings.
Examples of the syntax: (use your own numbers, these are fictional)Put
proxy.myproxy.com:8080 (where 8080 represents the port number)
or
111.0.0.1:8080
in each of the protocol boxes that you wish to use (and check the box in front).
That is:
HTTP : for HTTP servers (ordinary web documents)
HTTPS : for secure documents (use ONLY if you are behind a firewall)
FTP : for FTP files
Gopher : Always needed if you want access gopher servers
Wais : Always needed if you want to access wais serversThe No Proxy field can be used to specify which HTTP servers should be accessed directly because they are so close that the proxy would be a bottleneck even if it had the document stored locally.
- Click on the 'OK' button.
Opera [inifile.ini] [document] [/nowin] [/e] [/k]
Note: Don't forget to specify your full path to the .ini file, ie
C:\Data\Opera\personal.ini
| /k or /kioskMode | Kiosk mode is what is assumed to be the most suitable default configuration
when running Opera in an unattended environment. Thus the /k is a shortcut
for:
/NoChangeFullScreen /NoChangeMenu /NoChangeButtons /NoSysMenu
In Opera 3.51 /NoExit was included with /k but for Opera 3.6 it will have
to be added separately. |
| /noChangeFullScreen | This disallows to restore a fullscreen mode. IOW, the screen always shows fullscreen. |
| /noChangeMenu | This disallows the changing of the menus. |
| /noChangeButtons | This disallows changing the Opera toolbar icons. |
| /noSysMenu | This disables the System Menu (Alt,left,down) |
| /noMinMaxButtons | This removes the Minimize/Maximize Buttons at the top right of the main window. |
| /noKeyboardShortcuts | This disallows access to the Opera keyboard shortcuts. |
| /e | Ignore cmd.line args following this switch. |
| /noWin | Do not open saved windows. |
| /noSplashScreen | Skip splash screen. |
| /noExit | This disables exiting Opera. |
Addresses as command line
parameters
You can also provide several addresses as parameters to Opera. These documents will be loaded at start up.The addresses must either be in Internet format (eg.http://opera.nta.no/opera) or the full address for local files(eg.c:\opera\operatmp.htm).
Alternatively, you can also write the startup file into a different .ini file and start Opera using that .ini file.
To set parameters for Opera:
By having multiple icons you can start up Opera with different set-ups and
different documents, making it extremely handy for situations where many
users access the same copy of Opera, or where you would need different
non-interfering settings for your work with Opera.
How to start Opera
There are a number of ways to start up Opera:
Window Settings upon Opera
Startup
Opera can also start with different window settings:
Options 2 and 3 need to have had a previous set-up saved in an earlier session.
You can do that by choosing 'Save Window
Set-up' from the 'Preferences' menu, or by saving the Window Set-up when
exiting from Opera.(By putting a cross in the exit dialog box). Starting
set-up is chosen in the 'General
Preferences/Generic...'.
Network personnel
Network personnel have the option to control the user selections in Opera, and so control for example the size of the disk cache for all. You do this by:
See also:
System Administrator's Handbook
Preferences