Opera FAQs, Tips, Tricks & Tweaks

The height of toolbars in current default skin is large compared to previous default skin and it can be reduced to increase browsing space.

Create a backup of your current skin or the skin you want to change the height of toolbars.

1. Extract skin.ini from zipped skin file.
2. Reduce the values of Padding Top and Padding Bottom under the sections mentioned in the following table. You can also specify negative values.

   Toolbar	Section
   Menu bar	[Menu Button Skin]
   Main bar	[Mainbar Skin]
   Personal bar	[Personalbar Skin]
   Tab bar	[Pagebar Button Skin]
   Address bar	[Addressbar Skin]
   Navigation bar	[Navigationbar Skin]
   View bar	[Viewbar Skin]
   Status bar	[Statusbar Skin]

3. Update skin.ini in zipped skin file.
   You can't update an active skin.
4. Activate modified skin from Tools > Appearance... > Skin or using Skin button.

See Opera Skinning article to know more about basics of skinning Opera.

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.

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

^! = 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

You can change default hotclick dictionary site & encyclopedia site with preferred site.

Hotclick menu

If you don't know how to edit menu setup, see this.

To change dictionary site, under [Hotclick Popup Menu] replace

Item, MI_IDM_SELDICTIONARY = Hotclick search, 50

with

Item, MI_IDM_SELDICTIONARY = Go to page, "http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/%t"

To change encyclopedia site, under [Hotclick Popup Menu] replace

Item, MI_IDM_SELENCYCLOPED = Hotclick search, 51

with

Item, MI_IDM_SELENCYCLOPED = Go to page, "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=%t"

Go to your preferred dictionary/encyclopedia site → Right click on search box → Create Search... → Details >> → Copy address → Cancel. Replace search URL in above code with copied address and change %s to %t.

Sometimes we need to specify two parameters for search as in the following search.

http://images.google.com/images?imgtype=face&q=monkey

It is possible to create search engine for the above using JavaScript.

By creating a search engine with the following JavaScript in address field, you can search Google Images from address bar by typing <search engine keyword><space><search parameter 1><space><search parameter 2> (example: gi face monkey)

javascript:var s='%s';var p=s.indexOf('+');if(p>-1){var s1=s.split('+');var s2=s.slice(p+1)};window.location.href='http://images.google.com/images?imgtype='+s1[0]+'&q='+s2;

To create search engine for another site, modify images.google.com/images?imgtype='+s1[0]+'&q='+s2; part in the above JavaScript. When you perform search, s1[0] will be replaced by first parameter & s2 with second parameter.

If <search parameter 1> is more than one word use the following JavaScript. Use dot instead of space as separtor between search parameters.

javascript:var s='%s';var p=s.indexOf('.');if(p>-1){var s1=s.split('.');var s2=s.slice(p+1)};window.location.href='http://images.google.com/images?imgtype='+s1[0]+'&q='+s2;

Update: Apr 28, 2008

You can install & run Opera alpha/beta version without affecting your current Opera settings.

Windows
Install Opera beta in different folder such as Opera Beta. Your settings will be stored inside %APPDATA%\Opera\Opera Beta folder.

Linux
Download Opera beta package in TAR.GZ or TAR.BZ2 format, extract it and run opera shell script. Your settings will be stored inside profile folder.

Mac
Running Multiple Versions of Opera on OS X

See How to transfer all settings from one Opera installation to another? & Test Opera weekly/beta/final with & without changing current Opera settings using Sandboxie.

Update: Feb 20, 2009