Opera FAQs, Tips, Tricks & Tweaks

Tips for Opera browser since 2005

How to add/change icon for custom buttons or menu items in Opera?

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One can locate a menu item easily and quickly by seeing an icon rather than text.

To add/change icon
  1. Create/find an image in any image format (GIF, JPG, ICO or PNG but PNG is recommended) and resize it to 16 x 16 pixels. If you use large size, Opera will show resized icon. For example, we will add Google favicon as icon for Google Auto Translation menu item.
  2. Place icon image inside a folder (for example, custom_buttons) and add folder to zipped skin file after creating a backup.
  3. Open skin.ini from zipped skin file, add relative path to image with icon name as shown below under [Images] section and update it in skin file.
    google = custom_buttons/google.ico
  4. To add/change icon for menu item, open menu configuration! file, find menu item and specify icon name. For Google Auto Translation menu item, change
    Item, Google Auto Translation = Go to page, "http://translate.google.com/translate_c?u=%u"
    to
    Item, Google Auto Translation = Go to page, "http://translate.google.com/translate_c?u=%u", , , google
  5. Activate modified skin and menu setup or restart Opera.

Similarly, you can add/change icon for custom buttons by editing toolbar configuration file.

Opera custom menu icon
Google Auto Translation menu item without and with icon

The general syntax for a button/menu item is

Button/Menu item = Command, parameter-1, parameter-2, button tooltip, icon name
If there is no parameter-1 or parameter-2 or button tooltip leave them blank. Since there is no parameter-2 and button tooltip in Google Auto Translation menu item, they are left blank.

To remove icon

To remove icon from menu item, remove icon name and if there is no icon name then you have to specify a dummy name to override the default icon as shown in the following example.

To remove icon for Go to Web Address from hotclick menu, in menu configuration! file under [Hotclick Popup Menu] change

Item, M_HOTCLICK_POPUP_MENU_GOTO_URL = Go to page, "%t"
to
Item, M_HOTCLICK_POPUP_MENU_GOTO_URL = Go to page, "%t", , , Dummy

Opera will ignore icons on an action that follows an "&" symbol.

! = You should not modify ui\standard_menu.ini (defaults\standard_menu.ini for versions below 10) file as Opera will overwrite it during update. Create a copy of standard menu and edit it.

You can use existing skin images as icons without modifying skin file.

Updates:
Feb 7, 2009
Aug 2, 2009

Full screen mode with toolbars in OperaStop offer phone calls and SMS from Airtel India

Comments

Mağruf ÇolakoğluZAHEK Sunday, February 1, 2009 9:44:31 PM

cheers

Olenkolenk Sunday, February 1, 2009 10:12:10 PM

yes i hate parameter lol

lucideer Sunday, February 1, 2009 10:12:27 PM

I suppose I could just experiment and find this out for myself, but I'm lazy so I'll see if you know. Are bmp/apng/svg supported (seeing as they're supported by the browser in pages)?

Tamil Sunday, February 1, 2009 10:15:52 PM

I don't know.

lucideer Sunday, February 1, 2009 10:56:33 PM

I checked
Animated pngs? - yes
svgs? - no

Charles SchlossChas4 Monday, February 2, 2009 1:48:59 AM

cool

MarikeMarike79 Monday, February 2, 2009 1:39:55 PM

up

HenryAOTEAROAnz Thursday, February 5, 2009 5:36:11 AM

cool
up

Unregistered user Saturday, February 14, 2009 4:05:08 PM

Anonymous writes: Hi Tamil. Since I updated to 9.63 and using old look skin I cannot drag-and-drop bookmarks buttons to address toolbar. I even tried previously back-ups of standard_toolbar (1) .ini files, but no success. :doh:

Tamil Saturday, February 14, 2009 4:07:59 PM

Unregistered user Saturday, February 14, 2009 5:29:19 PM

Anonymous writes: Faq #74: SHIFT key option works, but Tools → Appearance dialog shows no drag enable (not for me, anyways). Many thanks, Tamil. A pray and :banana: go to you ! I'll recommend ur blog.

Tamil Saturday, February 14, 2009 9:50:03 PM

Martin RauscherHades32 Thursday, March 19, 2009 9:20:36 AM

Hy Tamil,

is it possible to use this with the "double click 'search with'" menu?
I would very like to have favicons here...

Tamil Thursday, March 19, 2009 9:22:14 AM

Nope.

tabanhachi Thursday, April 16, 2009 6:49:23 AM

Hi Tamil.

Love the blog! It's really helpful smile.

A quick question.

In your response to Hades32 above, does this mean that any menu item that is a "Submenu" cannot have its custom icon (I'm trying to add an icon to the following command in [Document Popup Menu]: Submenu, Tab History, Internal Page History).

If not, is it possible to somehow simulate the behaviour of the above command with an "Item" so that an custom icon can be specified. Thanks in advance.

Tamil Thursday, April 16, 2009 10:54:31 AM

Originally posted by tabanhachi:

If not, is it possible to somehow simulate the behaviour of the above command with an "Item" so that an custom icon can be specified.

AFAIK, not possible.

tunayx Thursday, May 21, 2009 11:46:18 AM

My question is does adding icons slowdown menu appearance speed?

lucideer Thursday, May 21, 2009 4:01:06 PM

Originally posted by tunayx:

My question is does adding icons slowdown menu appearance speed?


No, but it increases RAM usage (a tiny tiny bit)

Unregistered user Tuesday, June 9, 2009 5:46:08 PM

Jack writes: Hello, is there a way to save the images in another place than the skin file? I often change my opera skin and I have a lot of custom icons, so it would be great if there was one folder for all skins. Best regards!

Tamil Tuesday, June 9, 2009 5:51:18 PM

is there a way to save the images in another place than the skin file?

Nope.

Unregistered user Tuesday, June 9, 2009 6:22:50 PM

Jack writes: > Nope. What a bummer! I think I have to write an own script...

Unregistered user Tuesday, June 9, 2009 7:51:10 PM

Jack writes: I also would like to have tooltips, whether it's possible. My menu entry looks like that: item, "Go to xy"=Go to page, "http://www.foobar.com", ,"tooltip" Thank you!

Unregistered user Saturday, June 13, 2009 8:36:36 AM

Gerk writes: Hi, Some of the bookmarks i assigned to my personal bar don't have an actual image, so they all end up with the same default grey star. I came here hoping this would be a way to change them, but i don't think that they are menu-items. Does anybody know of another way to chance said icons? Kind regards, Gerk

Unregistered user Saturday, June 13, 2009 3:11:24 PM

Gerk writes: Thank you for your quick response. It seemed just what i needed. However, i should've mentioned that i'm using Opera 9.64. " Tamil # 12. June 2009, 08:29: This will work up to Opera 9.27 and format is changed after that. " So i'm afraid it doesn't work for me. I haven't been able to locate the imagefolder, either, maybe due to ineptitude, or due to the fact that the format changed. I'll keep on searching, but thanks anyway! Kind regards, Gerk

Unregistered user Saturday, June 13, 2009 3:15:53 PM

Gerk writes: It seems i jumped to conclusions too soon. There IS some helpful information there, however it's pretty dificult to understand as it's translated from Bulgarian. That doesn't mean it's not funny though: "1. Guidance is where the entrails" is definitely advice that should apply to other parts of life as well. I'll keep on trying then. Thanks, Gerk

Tamil Saturday, June 13, 2009 3:16:11 PM

Did you see next comment?

Unregistered user Saturday, June 13, 2009 3:29:58 PM

Gerk writes: " Tamil is written on the subject in 2006, but recently, it appeared that the writing is flat and does not work, and need to dine while. " - I'll try the fish. On a side note, i was able to locate the image-folder in the way described, but it turns out to be such an amount of hassle that i'll rather just remember which grey star has what function. Still, your solutions have proven useful in many other instances and i thank you once again. Kind regards, Gerk

Unregistered user Friday, June 19, 2009 8:10:27 AM

Nitzan writes: Hey guys so I added this google word translate submenu under the [Hotclick Popup Menu] section and put some thing out, looks like: now I wanted to add the google icon to that submenu, so I put the code "Submenu, Google Word Translate, Google Word Translate, , , google" of course I edited the zip with folder "custom_buttons" and inside put google.png file, edited skin.ini to contain "google = custom_buttons/google.png" under [Images] section but still as you can see in the picture, the icon doesn't appear. how come?

Unregistered user Friday, June 19, 2009 8:11:10 AM

Nitzan writes: oops :P forgot to post the pic link: http://i39.tinypic.com/2lkcznl.png

Tamil Friday, June 19, 2009 8:58:23 AM

I put the code "Submenu, Google Word Translate, Google Word Translate, , , google"

It won't work for submenu command.

Unregistered user Friday, June 19, 2009 8:45:52 PM

Nitzan writes: ohh so it won't work for submenus? what a shame. thanks anyway.. great blog! :)

DaveDava Friday, July 3, 2009 1:22:54 PM

Edit: Just read the above comments on Submenus.

Thanks for the guide.

Dava monkey

Tamil Friday, July 3, 2009 3:50:58 PM

Originally posted by Tamil:

I put the code "Submenu, Google Word Translate, Google Word Translate, , , google"

It won't work for submenu command.

Sorry, it will work. Try
Submenu, Google Word Translate, Google Word Translate, , google

DaveDava Wednesday, July 8, 2009 12:02:34 PM

Tamil,

Does that mean that you can add an icon for the Menu submenu in the right-click menu as described in one of your previous blog entries: http://my.opera.com/Tamil/blog/toggle-remove-menu-bar

I had a play around with several variations on the above methods without success.

Dava monkey

Tamil Wednesday, July 8, 2009 12:15:35 PM

yes (click smiley)

DaveDava Wednesday, July 8, 2009 1:19:15 PM

Good stuff smile

Would you like to share what method you used to achieve that? Did you append something to the tail of the Submenu, Menu, Browser Menu Bar entry?

Dava monkey

Tamil Wednesday, July 8, 2009 2:06:20 PM

Submenu, Menu, Browser Menu Bar, , "Window Document Unread Icon"

DaveDava Wednesday, July 8, 2009 7:11:10 PM

Sadly I can't get that to work sad

Oh well, nothing major.

Thanks for your help.

Dava monkey

Tamil Thursday, July 9, 2009 5:18:25 AM

confused

Unregistered user Sunday, July 12, 2009 8:28:59 PM

Anonymous writes: @Tamil & Dava: Same problem here... Submenu icon doesn't work ;-(

Tamil Monday, July 13, 2009 4:17:11 AM

What is your Opera version?

Unregistered user Wednesday, July 15, 2009 1:58:12 PM

Anonymous writes: @ Tamil: I have Opera 9.64

Tamil Wednesday, July 15, 2009 2:26:50 PM

Submenu icon doesn't work in 9.64 sad and works in Opera 10. smile

Unregistered user Thursday, July 16, 2009 1:57:28 PM

Anonymous writes: Ok, thank you Tamil!

Øzikzakatak Tuesday, August 18, 2009 4:59:16 AM

in toolbar menu i wasnt able to change the icon of the "visted bookmark" that seems to be the deafult for any icons with out icon/image.

i add a custom icon folder on skin.ini with an icon for delicious, then look for "add to delcious" button on toolbar.ini and add the path to the new custom icon but didnt work, changes were not visible at all.

what can be wrong?.

there is a number 1 in the end of the string.

im trying this on opera 10 (1708), standard skin.

Tamil Tuesday, August 18, 2009 8:55:47 AM

Originally posted by zikzakatak:

i add a custom icon folder on skin.ini with an icon for delicious, then look for "add to delcious" button on toolbar.ini and add the path to the new custom icon but didnt work, changes were not visible at all.

You should not add path to icon in toolbar file. Mention a name for delicious icon with path to icon under [Images] section in skin and use that name in toolbar.

Øzikzakatak Tuesday, August 18, 2009 6:24:07 PM

yes thats what i did i call deli in skin.ini with path under "images" but didnt change at all.

Tamil Thursday, August 20, 2009 12:00:30 PM

What is button code for that in toolbar file?

Øzikzakatak Monday, August 24, 2009 7:22:29 PM

"post to del.icio.us"="Go to page, "javascript:location.href='http://del.icio.us/post?v=4;url='+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+';title='+encodeURIComponent(document.title)","deli""

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