Tweak

[edit 2008-06-15]Updates updated: made the setups offered here compatible with 9.5 Final. Same URLs, a few new versions.

I'm going from light blogging to no blogging apparently... a bad trend. I'm a little bit active on Twitter now, but not in a way that compares to my past blogging here. When 9.5 Final and Firefox 3 get released, I'll probably make an update for the Top 150 Extensions list.

But my customized setups can already use some updates, the 9.2 versions will have some broken functionality when used with Kestrel builds. So here are provisional 9.5-compatible setups, suitable for Kestrel Beta 2. Copying some description text from a blog post in April 2007 BTW

Below you can find the auto-install links, with links to old blog posts for some background info. Remember: use Ctrl+F12 > Advanced > Toolbars to get back to your previous menus, shortcuts and toolbars.

Twelve
Ribbon-inspired radical setup. Use the menu and toolbar together. Hide the main menu with Alt+F11 after tweaking the shortcuts.

• Twelve menu 0.40 0.41
• Twelve toolbar 0.40 0.42

Hugin
Mail-only setup. Use at least the menu and toolbar together.

• Hugin menu 2.60 2.62
• Hugin toolbar 2.61 2.62
• Hugin keyboard shortcuts 2.61 2.63

More Mail
Sort of a Hugin-lite that adds more mail-specific menus, shortcuts and buttons, but doesn't remove the browsing functionality. Use at least the menu and toolbar together.

• More Mail menu 2.60 2.62
• More Mail toolbar 2.60 2.62
• More Mail keyboard shortcuts 2.60 2.61

Bigger Menus
Just what it says.

• Bigger Menus 1.20 1.22

Classic Clutter
Return to the toolbar-bonanza of Opera 7.23. With an additional Startbar even...

• Classic Clutter toolbar 1.50

My Personal Setup
Use at least the menu and toolbar together.

• Rijk's menu 2.60 2.62
• Rijk's toolbar 2.65 2.67
• Rijk's keyboard shortcuts 2.75 2.77
• Gesture experiments for 7.2 (yeah, this mouse gesture setup is old)

Yippee, Kestrel's finally out. As buggy alpha for now, remember! You are best of testing this in a seperate installation, installing in a new directory does that trick. If you decide to upgrade, you really want to have a backup of mail (and bookmarks, wand, cookies etc if these are important for you).

Among many else, this release aims to become more usable out of the box. That means no surprising non-obvious shortcuts where you need to read the documentation to figure out how to get your normal browser back after pressing the wrong key by accident. Yes, this did happen. Quite a lot. Our Elektrans testers made it very clear that power users will dearly miss some of the one-key shortcuts like 1/2 for tab switching and z/x for navigation. So we've also thought of a way to ship with those power shortcuts in a forward-compatible manner (shipping with an extra 'classic' keyboard setup will bring problems for us later). You can find the new switch to turn these shortcuts on under 'Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Shortcuts'.

Now, what changes did we make, and why? There's a complete official list of changes available (edit: updated the link to point to the beta 2 version). And here's a list of reasons:

• Several keyboard shortcuts have been changed or added for better cross-browser compatability.
• All single letter and single number keyboard shortcuts have been removed. These one-key shortcuts are powerful, but also caused serious problems for many users. For most of them alternatives are available. They can also be switched on separately in the Preferences.
• All Shift+letter and Shift+number keyboard shortcuts have been changed or removed for the same reasons.
• All Alt+letter keyboard shortcuts have been changed or removed. These keyboard shortcuts are not compatible with many Opera localizations, because Alt+letter is used to access the main menu. Exceptions: Alt+P and the new Alt+D, both available for historical reasons. Preferred alternatives are available for the actions they perform.
• All Ctrl+Alt+letter keyboard shortcuts have been changed or removed. Windows user interface guidelines reserve these shortcuts for system wide use and as alternative input method for some keyboards.
• Keyboard shortcuts for seldomly used features have been removed, including two series of shortcuts that didn't show in the normal user interface: Ctrl+Shift+number shortcuts for 'manage' pages and Site Navigation keyboard shortcuts (think <link rel=home ...>)
• Duplicated keyboard shortcuts that served no purpose anymore have been removed, those that were needed for compliance to operating systems guidelines have been made specific for those operating systems.

We've been rather busy with getting 9.2 out of the door, its been over a month since I last posted! To commemorate that release, I've updated all my custom setups.

Here you can find all the auto-install links, with links to old blog posts for some background info. Remember: use Ctrl+F12 > Advanced > Toolbars to get back to your previous menus and toolbars.

Twelve
Ribbon-inspired radical setup. Use the menu and toolbar together. Hide the main menu with Alt+F11 after tweaking the shortcuts.

• Twelve menu 0.33
• Twelve toolbar 0.33

Hugin
Mail-only setup. Very minor update. Use at least the menu and toolbar together.

• Hugin menu 2.51
• Hugin toolbar 2.50
• Hugin keyboard shortcuts 2.51

More Mail
Sort of a Hugin-lite that adds more mail-specific menus, shortcuts and buttons, but doesn't remove the browsing functionality. Use at least the menu and toolbar together.

• More Mail menu 2.51
• More Mail toolbar 2.50
• More Mail keyboard shortcuts 2.50

Bigger Menus
Just what it says.

• Bigger Menus 1.15

OperaFox
Firefox lookalike. Menu and toolbar updated to be more like FF 2.0. Use at least the menu and toolbar together.

• OperaFox menu 0.95
• OperaFox toolbar 0.95
• OperaFoxIE keyboard shortcuts 0.95
• Recommended skin is still wFFTBrad Native by Ralf Demuth

Opera Explorer
IE6-lookalike, minor update. Not really recommended - an IE7 lookalike would be better Use at least the menu and toolbar together.

• Opera Explorer menu 1.13
• Opera Explorer toolbar 1.03
• OperaFoxIE keyboard shortcuts 0.95
• Recommended skin is still IE6XP by Lars Kleinschmidt

Seven-Five
Return to the looks and shortcuts of Opera 7.5.

• Opera Seven-Five menu 1.04
• Opera Seven-Five toolbar 1.01
• Opera Seven-Five keyboard shortcuts 1.20

Eight
Return to the keyboard shortcuts of Opera 8.0.

• Opera Eight keyboard shortcuts 1.20

KISS
Opera setup for partners and parents. The updated KISS below is even simpler than the one described at the link above.

• KISS menu 1.23
• KISS toolbar 1.41
• KISS keyboard shortcuts 0.95

Classic Clutter
Return to the toolbar-bonanza of Opera 7.23. Now with Startbar as well..

• Classic Clutter toolbar 1.41

Single line
One toolbar for menu, navigation and status field. Hide the menu with Alt+F11 after tweaking the shortcuts.

• Single line toolbar 1.3

About-this-site
Extension for the document page context menu.

• About-this-site menu 1.12

There have been a lot of new people in the Forums lately, talking enthusiastically about their switch to Opera. These are people not easily sold on Opera - it took the removal of the ad banner before they even wanted to consider it. So, this is very good news! But some of their comments make it clear, that people switching from tabbed browsers (Firefox, Safari, and in the future IE7) have expectations about how a browser should behave - and Opera is sometimes failing in ways that should be easy to fix.

This is a long introduction to announce a change we want to try out in the upcoming (RSN!) Merlin preview: making Opera's terminology and shortcuts compatabible with 'the other browsers'. So, the word 'Page' is replaced by 'Tab' to describe child windows, for example in 'Tab bar', 'New tab', 'Open in new tab'. At the same time, Merlin introduces the shortcut Ctrl+T (Cmd+T on Mac) to get a new one. Using T for Tab makes it possible for switchers coming from Firefox, Safari, Camino, iCab, Konqueror, and IE 7 to feel right at home from the start. Ctrl+N will now always open a new application window (for the same instance of Opera, such a new window doesn't mean that Opera is started again).

Now, Ctrl+T was already used in Opera to open the 'Bookmark this page' dialog, so that has to change as well. But this is easily solved by using Ctrl+D for bookmarking - another shortcut many switchers were missing. This leads to the last change: the function 'Paste and go' will now take over the Ctrl+Shift+V shortcut (a variant of the Ctrl+V 'paste' shortcut) Ctrl+B shortcut.

There are currently no changes planned in the actual operation of Opera - so removing the close button from the tabs will still give you the pure MDI, beloved by many, etc. To get back to the pre-Opera 8 MDI behavior of 'tabs', there are now several settings available in Preferences > Advanced > Tabs and Preferences > Advanced > Browsing. And Opera is of course doing a lot more in Merlin, apart from changing a word and a few shortcuts! Support for new standards, some interesting new goodies for advanced users, lots of fixes to make us more compatible with websites and standards, etc.


The tweakers among us might go back to the old shortcuts, if they like:

1. Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Shortcuts
2. Doubleclick the 'Opera Standard' keyboard setup
3. Type 'n ctrl' in the quick find field
4. Doubleclick 'New browser window' and type 'New page'
5. Type 't ctrl' in the quick find field
6. Delete the 'new page,1' entry
7. Type 'd ctrl' in the quick find field
8. Change the 'd' in 'd ctrl' and 'd ctrl shift' entries to 't'
9. Type 'b ctrl' in the quick find field
10. Change the 'b' in 'b ctrl' and 'b ctrl shift' entries to 'd'
11. Click OK, click OK

Those that do not want to tweak can also download these automatically installing keyboard shortcut files to get the previous defaults back:

• Eight (includes only the changes as detailed above)
• Seven Five (includes golden oldies like 'Ctrl+G' for User mode and 'P' for print preview)

Edit 2007-04-17: get updated versions for Opera 9.2

For those who wondered how to access the security info without using the mouse: the answer is Ctrl+I. Works when a browser window has focus.

Tim Bray writes about keyboard shortcuts [1], he doesn't believe Apple's research [2] applies to him.

I find it hard to believe Apple's research applies to me as well. But it is probably true that learning and using keyboard shortcuts only makes sense for a few shortcuts that can be applied in all applications you are working with without thinking, and maybe a few more in the one application you use all the time.

In my experience, the keyboard can be very efficient in a specific Opera use mode: two-handed operation.

In the right hand, for fine control: the mouse. Click links, highlight text, doodle around while reading.
The left hand hovers above the left part of the keyboard, and is always ready to press Z and X (back and forward), Ctrl+Tab (cycle pages) and Space (page down, next page).

I have to say that in Opera, the mouse became a lot more efficient for me with the introduction of mouse gestures. I don't have to travel accross the screen anymore for some common functions. I only use three gestures regularly:
- back
- forward
- close page
The others? I don't use them often enough, so I have to think before using them. And just as Tog explains for keyboard shortcuts, that means the speed advantage is lost. Together with the scroll wheel, this means that mouse control is now about as efficient as two-handed control for me. But I still have two hands, so why should I not keep the left hovering above the keyboard?

There are cases when you have to perform repetitive tasks, and then it also makes sense to think about the way to perform the action with the keyboard. For me, this is for example using Shift+Down to select consecutive checkboxes in a long list of messages in a webmail interface, using Space to mark a few of them (as Spam, or for deletion). The fine control of poiting to each checkbox with the mouse is too annoying. This is a shortcut (spatial navigation) that is only possible in Opera, if you would use Tab in other applications you would have to go through all the links on a page as well.

[1] <http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2005/01/09/JeremyOut>
[2] <http://asktog.com/TOI/toi06KeyboardVMouse1.html>

...because we wanted to create a consistent set of shortcuts that works well in SDI mode as well as MDI mode. SDI mode ('prefer separate windows') is how browsers like Mozilla and MSIE work: if you open a new page with Ctrl+N or by Shift-clicking a link, you get a new window with all the chrome like toolbars and menus attached.

In MDI mode ('prefer pages inside windows'), new pages typically are child windows of the main application window. MDI has been the traditional way of windowing in Windows, and it works well for many people. With the addition of a 'page bar' and auto-maximizing new pages (since Opera 4), the old complaints about MDI being confusing have become much less relevant. But people who come to Opera from MSIE might prefer to go on using SDI. And people who use Opera on Mac computers are usually even more used to SDI, as MDI is totally alien to Mac. So SDI is the default setting for Opera 7.5 for Mac, and something had to be done.

The new shortcuts are meant to make switching between SDI and MDI less painful. You have shortcuts in both modes to create new pages and a new windows, and they always work 'as expected':

- Ctrl+N will create a new page or a new window (depending on your SDI/MDI choice)
- Ctrl+Shift+N always creates a new page
- Ctrl+Alt+N always creates a new window
- Ctrl+Alt+Shift+N creates a duplicate page/window (depending on your SDI/MDI choice) in the background

- Ctrl+W (and Ctrl+F4) will close the current page *
- Ctrl+Shift+W (and Alt+F4) will close the current window
- Ctrl+Alt+W will close all open pages *
- Ctrl+Alt+Shift+W will close all ope page except the active page

* In SDI mode, closing the last page will also close the window. And the page bar will not appear when there is only one page in the window, so SDI users can get the power of multiple pages in a window (like with Firefox and Safari) if they want.

There is some duplication now, this is a bit of a compromise. But you can change the shortcuts quite easily in the prefs, if you don't need all of them.

For those who liked a simpler (and mailless) browser compared to 7.23, I made Munin. This custom setup has now been updated for Opera 7.5.

Opera 7.5 itself already is streamlined (less toolbars visible, cleaned up menus), but Munin takes another approach: it tries to mimic the setup of Firefox and MSIE.

Preparations:
- Set 'View > Toolbars > Progress bar > Show inside address bar'

Install by clicking these links:

Toolbars:
<http://people.opera.com/rijk/opera/ini/tb/munin_toolbar_750.ini>

Menu:
http://people.opera.com/rijk/opera/ini/menu/munin_menu_750.ini

Keyboard shortcuts:
http://people.opera.com/rijk/opera/ini/kb/munin_keyboard_750.ini


Restore the Opera defaults:
- Tools > Preferences > Toolbars and menus

The cool new panel selector of Opera 7.5 has no equivalent in Firefox, but I still kept it