A Compact Setup
Saturday, 13. September 2008, 00:05:44
I've been playing around with a new setup, that should be usable, useful, but also 'small' in a visual sense. So without a menu bar! Almost all Opera functions will be easily accesible. But not necessarily all from the main toolbars, which was what the ribbonesque Twelve setup tried to do. For now I've named it Compact, but suggestions are welcome for something more memorable. (No, not Chrome. Scandium maybe? Zircon?)
So starting with the Twelve setup, I removed lots of items (though many are still available from the Appearance dialog), moved the navigation controls back to their proper place below the tab bar, and created two menu buttons for access to various actions on the left end of the tab bar: one general menu with the Opera icon, and one with the page icon with page/text specific functions.
The 'manage' pages are hardly used in this setup, which relies on the panels instead. It should be more usable than the Twelve setup for those (like me) who use Opera's mail and chat clients, but note that the toolbars for the Mail and Chat tabs are still quite compact.
To try it out, install the Compact Toolbar 0.10 and the Compact Menu 0.10 that goes together with it, then hide the main menu bar.
BTW, in the screenshot I'm using the Winvista MSO2007 Blue skin.
So starting with the Twelve setup, I removed lots of items (though many are still available from the Appearance dialog), moved the navigation controls back to their proper place below the tab bar, and created two menu buttons for access to various actions on the left end of the tab bar: one general menu with the Opera icon, and one with the page icon with page/text specific functions.
The 'manage' pages are hardly used in this setup, which relies on the panels instead. It should be more usable than the Twelve setup for those (like me) who use Opera's mail and chat clients, but note that the toolbars for the Mail and Chat tabs are still quite compact.
To try it out, install the Compact Toolbar 0.10 and the Compact Menu 0.10 that goes together with it, then hide the main menu bar.
BTW, in the screenshot I'm using the Winvista MSO2007 Blue skin.
WIDGETIZE
Cyro # 15. September 2008, 18:38
cygoh # 16. September 2008, 06:30
OakdaleFTL # 3. October 2008, 04:03
Regardless of whatever "tweaks" I make, this is the basic face I wish to see.
Some of the things that you don't see I've hidden in odd places. For instance, with the standard skin icons sized 40-60%, clicking Reload reveals the clock button! Another pleasing pen for useful functions is the Start bar (seen only when needed...), which has the Home, Top 10, and Bookmarks buttons; and Fit to Width, Print Preview, Save, Sessions, and Security buttons too.
Also note the two widgets that are always there, for me: igiveTime and Time and Date 1.32.
p.s., How does one get access to recent builds of the beta version? I'm still using 10424 ...
ersi # 4. October 2008, 19:04
I took a look at your setup. I'm sure it will certainly work well for many. I particularly like your menu "webmaster and debug tools".
The most significant improvement I can suggest is to use default names for features everywhere so that they would be self-translated for non-English users. There are enough lines in language files to describe even your inventions. For example, the "webmaster and debug tools" can be "Advanced tools". It's not quite of the same clarity, but self-translatability of one's setup has its obvious advantages.
Otherwise, I think it's a very useful setup, and a great source of ideas for many. Also, can you tell maybe what's up with the setup sharing feature in My Opera Community website? http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=251935
Rijk # 13. October 2008, 10:05
hogther # 22. October 2008, 14:30
http://my.opera.com/community/customize/skins/info/?id=8534
Cheers,
Badin
Rijk # 23. October 2008, 10:09
hogther # 23. October 2008, 12:51
Now my links works
AleksOD # 29. October 2008, 15:56
phreax9802 # 6. November 2008, 09:10