Opera FAQs, Tips, Tricks & Tweaks

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.

   
   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.

   
   Address field in tab bar

   
   Breadcrumb URL

   To view page loading progress Tools > Appearance... > Toolbars > 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.

   
   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 10 Slim skin

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

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.

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?

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.

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.

Updates:
Jul 1, 2008
Mar 12, 2009