bpm's Operations Room

last edited 2010-5-20: getting SavLocGen to work with 10.53 (added void)

It's possible to use Opera as a WYSIWYG word-processor, using three types of functions. Two of these are built in by Opera.ASA, but not promoted or attached in the UI anywhere: switches which make HTML editable (there are two - Design Mode, and the contentEditable attribute), and format commands (via execCommand). The third essential component is functions to save the edited page to disk; Opera.ASA doesn't provide these, but users have, using javascript. Here's the toolbar I've developed to bring it all together. It uses the Navigation bar, stripped of the default Nav buttons. It includes a Design Mode toggle, ten format buttons (four of them bringing up menus) and two save functions - plus a few other things.

The two basic use modes are: saving, excerpting, and marking up web pages; and starting HTML files of your own, stored locally, which are word processing documents which offer all the control and resources of HTML. For an idea of how that might be useful, see the Macro manager and Zoom File posts (linked on the sidebar).

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textarea version added 2010-2-13
Opera 10.5-compatible update 2010-2-21



You can think of this as the My Buttons customization page on steroids, or a buttonmaker-with-icon-chart which takes the next step by adding storage - it's both. Unlike the My Buttons page, it lets you view and edit button actions, add comments, organize buttons into groups with headings, and include macros which are not buttons. It also generates (in addition to button-installer tags) installer tag code (BBCode & HTML formats) you can paste into forum posts or web pages, and toggles between compact and expanded views by item or globally.

Two versions: full view version (now 10.5-compatible) (which I prefer) uses fit-to-content editable areas (via the contentEditable attribute) to allow actions and remarks to be seen in their entirety even if long (but is a little flaky for editing); textarea version uses more familiar fixed-length textareas to present the editable elements - less quirky, but hides the ends of long items.

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For when you find a button that's almost what you want.

Rightclick the button-installer tag, and select the editor from your popup menu; a dialog is generated, with the original tag, plus its code both onscreen and in a text box to modify. There's a button to click to generate installer tags for your amended versions - as many as you like.

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(green links are button-installer tags)

No need to wait for official implementation - here are three ways to make and store HTML snips - complete with in-selection formatting and links (even pictures, if image has absolute URL), timestamps and source-page links.

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