Opera FAQs, Tips, Tricks & Tweaks

Tips for Opera browser since 2005

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Posts tagged with "Personal bar"

Maximize Opera viewing area for better browsing experience

Wednesday, December 30, 2009 11:28:31 PM

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I don't use any toolbars except tab bar to get maximum screen space for browsing. Here are a few tips to gain more space for viewing websites in Opera.

  1. Hide menu bar

    Shrink entire menu bar to a small button in tab bar File > Show Menu Bar. You can also remove menu button Right click on menu button > Customize > Remove From Toolbar and access menus using Alt key.

    Opera menu button
    Menu button

  2. Disable address bar

    Disable address bar Tools > Appearance... > Toolbars > Address bar and access address bar functions using alternate methods.

    To access address bar button functions use mouse gestures or keyboard shortcuts.

    To enter web address use keyboard shortcut, F2 or drag & drop address field from Tools > Appearance... > Toolbars > Buttons > Browser view to other toolbar. Enable show address in caption and restart Opera to show web address in title bar or use Breadcrumb URL UserJS to show web address at top left corner of the page.

    Opera address field in tab bar
    Address field in tab bar

    Opera UserJS Breadcrumb URL
    Breadcrumb URL

    To view page loading progress Tools > Appearance... > Toolbars > Progress bar > Pop-up at bottom.

    Opera progress bar pop-up at bottom
    Progress bar pop-up at bottom

    Use Get feed link UserJS to show feed icons at the top left corner of the page.

    Opera UserJS Get Feed Link
    Get feed link

    To search type search engine keyword followed by search query in address field with space in between them. For example, g opera tips will search for opera tips in Google. If there is more than one search word you can search without entering search engine keyword in default search engine.

  3. Disable status bar

    Right click on status bar > Customize > Appearance... > Toolbars then drag & drop required buttons from status bar to another toolbar and disable status bar.

  4. Personal bar

    Change the placement of personal bar to left/right and style to images only or disable it Tools > Appearance... > Toolbars > personal bar and use the following alternate methods.

    Add frequently visited sites to Speed Dial by changing number of Speed Dials to predefined layout (Ctrl+T > Configure Speed Dial > Speed Dial layout) or custom layout with custom thumbnail images.

    Add button to websites in toolbar by holding Shift key and dragging & dropping links or tab to toolbar.

  5. Full screen mode

    Run Opera in full screen mode (F11 key) without any toolbars or full screen mode with toolbars.

  6. Space saving skin

    Use space saving skin with smaller toolbars like Opera Standard 10 Slim Skin to get a little extra space.

    Opera Standard Slim Skin
    Opera Standard 10 Slim skin

  7. Auto-hide toolbars after certain time.
  8. Hide title bar (Windows only)

62 comments

Opera Standard 10 Slim Skin

Wednesday, September 9, 2009 3:35:09 PM

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Opera Standard skin with

  1. Smaller toolbars.
  2. Clear Speed Dial (without border, number and close button).
  3. Thin drag bar [ ... ].
  4. Buttons without borders in tab bar tail.
  5. Yellow attention color.

Opera Standard Skin
Opera Standard skin

Opera Standard Slim Skin
Opera Standard 10 Slim skin

Download skin from Opera Standard Slim skin page or click direct download link.

Known Issue: Speed Dial State 2 won't work with this skin due to side effect of hiding Speed Dial number.

You can get Speed Dial background shown in screenshot from here.

103 comments

How to change the height of various toolbars in an Opera skin?

Sunday, April 5, 2009 12:38:48 PM

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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.

48 comments

Auto-hide toolbars in Opera

Monday, June 30, 2008 4:48:14 AM

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You can auto-hide any toolbar in Opera after enabling it via keyboard shortcut or mouse gesture or button.

Buttons

You can add buttons to any toolbar (main bar, tab bar, address bar, navigation bar, view bar, status bar, start bar or panels) except menu bar & personal bar simply by dragging button links to required place. Clicking on the button links without dragging will add the buttons to Tools > Appearance... > Buttons > My Buttons for later use.

When you try to add a button, a dialog box with following message will popup. Press OK to add button.

Adding new button with action

[Action]

Do you want to proceed?
To remove a button, right-click on it and select Remove From Toolbar.

You can find several custom buttons in Opera Wiki and TTT-Buttons.

Keyboard shortcuts / Mouse gestures

Create new keyboard shortcuts or mouse gestures in Application section with following action codes.

Toolbar Action code for keyboard shortcut or mouse gesture Button
Short Long name
Menu bar Enable menu bar & Delay, 12000 & Disable menu bar MB Menu Bar
Main bar View main bar, 6 & Delay, 10000 & View main bar, 0 Ma Main Bar
Personal bar View personal bar, 6 & Delay, 12000 & View personal bar, 0 PB Personal Bar
Tab bar View page bar, 6 & Delay, 10000 & View page bar, 0 TB Tab Bar
Address bar View address bar, 6 & Delay, 10000 & View address bar, 0 AB Address Bar
Navigation bar View navigation bar, 6 & Delay, 10000 & View navigation bar, 0 NB Navigation Bar
View bar Set alignment, "Document view toolbar", 6 & Delay, 8000 & Set alignment, "Document view toolbar", 0 VB View Bar
Status bar View status bar, 6 & Delay, 12000 & View status bar, 0 SB Status Bar

To modify auto-hide time, change Delay, X value (time in milliseconds) in above code. You have to edit Toolbar Configuration file to modify button name or delay value.

To hide/show a toolbar without auto-hide use the following.

Toolbar Action code for keyboard shortcut or mouse gesture Button
Short Long name
Menu bar Enable menu bar | Disable menu bar MB Menu Bar
Main bar View main bar, 6 | View main bar, 0 Ma Main Bar
Personal bar View personal bar, 6 | View personal bar, 0 PB Personal Bar
Tab bar View page bar, 6 | View page bar, 0 TB Tab Bar
Address bar View address bar, 6 | View address bar, 0 AB Address Bar
Navigation bar View navigation bar, 6 | View navigation bar, 0 NB Navigation Bar
View bar Set alignment, "Document view toolbar", 6 | Set alignment, "Document view toolbar", 0 VB View Bar
Status bar View status bar, 6 | View status bar, 0 SB Status Bar

If you drag & drop buttons with short name to a toolbar from Tools > Appearance... > Buttons > My Buttons, space will be added to button name.

Updates:
Jul 1, 2008
Mar 12, 2009

84 comments

How to have more bookmarks in Opera personal bar?

Friday, April 11, 2008 12:56:44 PM

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Opera Personal Bar
Opera personal bar (default)


Right click on a bookmark in personal bar > Properties... > Name (rename with short name)

Opera Personal Bar
Opera personal bar with short names


Right click on personal bar > Customize... > Style > Images only

Opera Personal Bar Images Only
Opera personal bar with images only


Bookmarks > Manage Bookmarks... > Right click on a folder > Properties... > Show on personal bar

Opera Personal Bar
Opera personal bar with folders

37 comments

How to correct wrong favicons in Opera bookmarks & personal bar?

Thursday, October 19, 2006 9:56:29 AM

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Delete wrong icon file for sites in images directory in your profile and then reload those sites. You can set Read only attribute to icon files to prevent change.

19 comments

How to change Opera bookmark/feed/panel favicon?

Wednesday, September 20, 2006 1:10:26 AM

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Opera bookmarks before changing favicon
Before changing favicon

Opera bookmarks after changing favicon
After changing favicon

Save image you want to use in images directory in profile. Close Opera, search for bookmark/feed/panel you want to change favicon in opera6.adr, enter your image file name with extension in the line ICONFILE= and save.

Set Read-only attribute to image to prevent deletion when you use Delete private data with Clear bookmark visited time option selected.

#URL
ID=14
NAME=Mouse Gestures
URL=http://www.opera.com/features/mouse/
ICONFILE=www.opera.com.ico
IN PANEL=YES
PANEL_POS=9

changed to

#URL
ID=14
NAME=Mouse Gestures
URL=http://www.opera.com/features/mouse/
ICONFILE=mouse.ico
IN PANEL=YES
PANEL_POS=9

39 comments

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