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A Ribbon for Opera

Tuesday, 7. February 2006, 02:30:18

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Inspired by the new Ribbon interface design that is being developed for MS Office 12 [1], I wanted to see what you get in Opera, when doing away with the normal top-menu, panels and toolbars. Without sacrificing access to all the functionality Opera has to offer, of course. In this new setup, each function is available in one, easy to find, place.

Here's a screenshot of the result of this exercise, 'Twelve':

2006-06-29: updated screenshot

To try this setup yourself, install both the menu and toolbar from here:

Edit 2007-04-17: the links point to 9.2-compatible setups now

I did this by making the Alt+F11 shortcut work under Windows as well as Linux:

  • Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Shortcuts
  • Doubleclick the active keyboard setup, and enter 'F11' in the Quick Find field
  • Remove 'Platform Unix, ' from 'Platform Unix, F11 alt', then click OK a lot
  • Now toggle the menu bar away with Alt+F11

Use 'Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Toolbars' to return to your previous setup.

For more info, explanation, and screenshots, visit the page 'Twelve' on my website.

[1] You can read some background information on the Ribbon

My visited countriesPreview 2

Comments

lsaplai 7. February 2006, 23:56

Very Nice Rijk. I'll try to keep this new set up on for a few days, to see how usable it is.

A remark though: using the Tile button does its job but it's be even better if it could apply ERA at the same time. Ot kinds of kill the purpose like this.

Also, clicking the Chat button gives a black page only (I'm using Op2)

Rijk 8. February 2006, 00:41

Thanks. You can't turn ERA on for all already open pages I'm afraid, only for the active page.
Lawmune's idea was to set ERA as default for al new pages (possible in Merlin), but I've found that some widgets don't agree with that setting! Still, it actually works very nice when I tried it for tiling.

The Chat button does indeed give a black page when you don't have a chat account set up. I have no clue how to properly solve this... I did place the 'new account' option in the 'Tools' menu, contrary to all the logic applied in this setup, for this reason alone.



Anonymous 9. February 2006, 21:38

profiT writes:

You included 'Copy' button on your source editor panel. It didn't work before, and it's not working now, on 8212.

Yatta 10. February 2006, 10:59

Rijk,

I use your short-cut to get rid of the menu bar. As i see it this is just an addeption on an already excisting short-cut combination. Is it possible to creat a new short-cut aso and where can I find some info about how to do so. I wanna see if I can create a short-cut to de- / activate the Proxyserver cause that function still fails in the F12 section.

Thanks in advance, Rob Beentjes

Rijk 10. February 2006, 12:18

Yatta: sure you can.

* Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Shortcuts
* Doubleclick the setup you want to change
* Select the right section - that should be 'Application' for you
* Click the 'New' button
* Type the shortcut you want to create in the left column, see the other shortcuts to learn how this is done - make sure it is something not used yet
* Type the action in the right column, let the autocomplete help you - in your case:
Enable proxy servers | Disable proxy servers

People in the 'Customize' forum will be glad to help your further; for their collective wisdom you can visit the Opera wiki at http://nontroppo.org/wiki/

Rijk 10. February 2006, 12:36

@profiT:
Right, that was something I tried and forgot to remove. I think it *should* work, looks like a bug to me...

Yatta 10. February 2006, 13:00

Well.. thnx for the lesson.. it works fine for dis-abling but en-abling is still only possible through: Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Network > Proxyservers

Thank anyway... I learnt something new :smile:

Rijk 10. February 2006, 13:13

Try this:
Enable proxy servers > Disable proxy servers

If that also doesn't work, separate shortcuts for
Enable proxy servers
Disable proxy servers

Yatta 10. February 2006, 16:49

Sorry.. tried it all even making proxy servers to one word but nothing will enable the proxy.. disable the proxy still works fine though.

Never mind.. guess it will be handeled in TP3 , Beta 1 or Final :smile:

Have a good weekend and thnx again

Yatta 16. March 2006, 21:49

Rijk, someone found a work around for this proxy activation and I posted it in the dutch/flamish forum. Maybe it will provide you and your co-workers the clue to fix it properly.

With kind regards, Rob aka Yatta

yadavankur 25. March 2006, 07:23

Hey Rijk, I love this new way of organizing menu's. Kudos to MS Office team for coming up with it, and to you for bringing it to Opera. I rarely used the File menu anyway.

Well but I don't know if this is because of Opera's weekly release or is it your menu/toolbat but I have a slight problem, here is a screenshot http://my.opera.com/yadavankur/homes/files/Menu12.png

The first button should read 'open' and the second button should read 'bookmarks'. Another thing, I followed the steps for activating ERA on every page (opera:config -> rendering mode -> -1) but that does not work either.

Rijk 25. March 2006, 10:15

@yadavankur: that screenshot shows a known problem with the weekly build from March 20.

Setting "Rendering mode=-1" affects all newly opened pages. But not the currently opened pages. Use the button of Ctrl+F11 to toggle it.

elcid73 11. April 2006, 16:34

I've been reading this blog (the Office 12) on a regular basis. This is very interesting to see these ideas applied to Opera.

I'm going to start working on a hybrid version of this. Namely, is there a reason you put the Go/View/Keep buttons on the main bar(ie- above the tabs?)

Not only does this go against (what I believe is) the proper respresentation (tabs at the top, address bar below), but most importantly, it seems strange to have the menu associated with the Go/View/Keep buttons appear with the tab bar in between it and the buttons.

Just a thought.

Rijk 11. April 2006, 21:46

@elcid73:
I figured I needed at least three ribbon 'tabs', which should replace each other when the tab header (Go/View/Keep) was clicked. And there happen to be three toolbars in Opera that can replace each other: the address bar, the view bar, and the site navigation bar; all these are toolbars for the document window.

There are only two toolbars for the application window, apart from the specialized tab bar and the personal bar. Those are the main bar and the status bar an both of these are placed above the tab bar, when set to 'top' position. So that limited my options quite a lot. By putting the ribbon tabs on one of the toolbars attached to the document, I would only have two toolbars left to mimic the ribbon itself.

I agree fully though, that in my setup the main bar and the tab bar *should* be swapped to achieve better usability. Or the address field and back/forward buttons could go into the Go tab, but especially the address field should get a lot of room IMHO.

elcid73 11. April 2006, 22:39

ah- I figured it was something along those lines. Thanks for the followup.

You managed to get anyone else at Opera thinking about this idea?

It'd be interesting to see something along the lines of Jensens' blog over here- ie, a UI/design/usability related blog. Maybe the desktop team blog could be used to post some related topics.

yadavankur 21. June 2006, 04:14

Will you make changes to twelve, so that it works with Opera 9? Basically menu entry for widgets?

Rijk 21. June 2006, 14:09

Yadavankur: I already did :smile: The links above will install a Twelve menu suitable for Opera 9, including Widgets, Site prefs and content blocking. 'Widgets' is an entry under the 'Tools' menu. Maybe I should instead add a 'Widgets' button to the left of the 'new page' button, that opens the 'Manage Widgets' page.

Edit: just uploaded an improved version that has a Widgets button.

Ninat 29. June 2006, 02:19

Rijk I have been using the twelve(Ilove it!!) under Opera 8.5 in Ubuntu. Recently upgraded to Opera 9 and now I cannot get the menu bar to toggle off with Alt F11. I have edited the current keyboard setup as you outlined (which worked in 8.5) What am I doing wrong or does this not work in Opera9 and Ubuntu 6.06?

Rijk 29. June 2006, 09:18

Ninat: it should work just the same in Opera 9. Make sure your edited keyboard setup is actually set as the active setup.

profiT 17. August 2006, 18:03

Some guy asked me which skin have you used in your screenshots, and I couldn't find any information about it. Can you submit it to my.opera.com?

Rijk 17. August 2006, 18:33

That is just Windows Native - but then I have a nice Windows Theme to make everything look different.

DimiON 18. August 2006, 07:08

Hi, I "Some guy" :smile:
You use Windows theme 'Codename: Opus', true?
But buttons not such as on screenshots - http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/7303/twelveio3.png
What is a theme?

Rijk 18. August 2006, 09:09

Let's see... ah, I'm using Black Mesa 2 right now.

fishdance 27. August 2006, 19:26

I like this setup - I've moved a few of the items around so that the back and forward buttons are more toward the middle of the screen, but one thing I would really like is the panel button to do what it used to do. I have a very wide screen and I liked having all the panel buttons showing on the side without having to click the panel button and scrolling to the one I wanted. Can you tell me how to do this? Thanks.

Will

fishdance 27. August 2006, 19:27

BTW thanks for the reference in your last post to my blog (http://faith2hope2faith.wordpress.com)

Will

Rijk 27. August 2006, 22:38

Hi Will, press F4 to open the panels quickly. Use Tools > Appearance to get the appearance dialog, go to the 'toolbars' tab, make sure to check 'Show hidden toolbars'. Then click the Panel selector bar you want to see permanently so it gets a yellow glow, and set it's position to 'Left' in the Appearance dialog.

fishdance 28. August 2006, 06:04

Thanks so much. I'm learning more everyday, thanks to folks like you.
Will

edijus 30. August 2006, 10:49

Yeh, nice :smile: You are reall Opera's fan

phreax9802 17. September 2006, 11:41

Hello..I stumbled upon this whilst looking to customize my opera. I must say I love it! Double thumbs up for you :smile: However, can this setup display my tabs all on 1 line? Cause I don't really like my tabs on more than 1 line..thanks a lot!

Rijk 17. September 2006, 21:12

Tools > Appearance, tab 'Toolbars', click on the Tab bar (gets a yellow outline), set 'Wrapping' to a value you like.

yadavankur 19. September 2006, 17:12

Simply out of curiosity, why do you think tabs in multiple lines are better?

Rijk 19. September 2006, 19:58

In short:
One click access! I've got reasonably large screens. And once a third row shows up, I make sure to actually read & close some of them. I'm not like Csant, who keeps 300 tabs open :smile:

dapxin 10. January 2008, 02:04

Just wondering, do you work for Opera ? How the hell do you find the time in the world to figure out all these Opera hacks....
Thumbs up!

Rijk 10. January 2008, 19:38

Yes, I work for Opera :smile:

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