Save as shortcut (URL) file

Save as shortcut (URL) file

Save as shortcut (URL) file

Because shortcut drag and drop was broken in Opera 12 (http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=1436412), I thought it would be a good idea to have another option to save a shortcut from Opera > Page > Save As... (Ctrl+S).

Why would it be good to have a Save As shortcut option? That is not very user-friendly but I suppose having that possibility wouldn't hurt either. But I would rather have the bug fixed ASAP.

The old Opera way of dragging the URL to the desktop was not very user-friendly anyway because you had to minimize the window first, and you had to drag it to desktop only; dragging it to a Windows Explorer folder did not work.

What I actually want, is the ability to drag and drop the URL to any place.

And it should also be a "Save shortcut on Desktop" choice if you right-click a web page. That's one thing I like with IE and I don't understand why Opera can't offer us the same.

Edit: Font.

Originally posted by Vikingen:

Why would it be good to have a Save As shortcut option? That is not very user-friendly but I suppose having that possibility wouldn't hurt either.

The novice user probably doesn't even know that you can create a shortcut in Opera by dragging the address bar icon. It is not "spelled out" in the UI. On the other hand, the Save As dialog will show the option to create a shortcut and will be spelled out, which gives the user a chance to notice it.

Shortcut drag and drop requires you to use a mouse and requires you to switch to a window or the desktop. With Save As, you can just use the keyword shortcut Ctrl + S and navigate to a save directory by keyboard. You don't have to open (and then close) an Explorer window.

I agree that it doesn't hurt to have this option. At least, we can still save shortcuts when drag and drop is broken.

You can always save the page to the Desktop — just as good as a shortcut IMO.

Originally posted by Pesala:

You can always save the page to the Desktop — just as good as a shortcut IMO.

Saving the complete webpage is useful, but it does not serve the same purpose as a shortcut:

A saved webpage behaves like an archive. It does not reflect changes in the webpage.
A saved webpage's file size is much larger than a shortcut's file size.

Originally posted by XP1:

Originally posted by Vikingen:

Why would it be good to have a Save As shortcut option? That is not very user-friendly but I suppose having that possibility wouldn't hurt either.

The novice user probably doesn't even know that you can create a shortcut in Opera by dragging the address bar icon. It is not "spelled out" in the UI. On the other hand, the Save As dialog will show the option to create a shortcut and will be spelled out, which gives the user a chance to notice it.

Shortcut drag and drop requires you to use a mouse and requires you to switch to a window or the desktop. With Save As, you can just use the keyword shortcut Ctrl + S and navigate to a save directory by keyboard. You don't have to open (and then close) an Explorer window.

I agree that it doesn't hurt to have this option. At least, we can still save shortcuts when drag and drop is broken.

I get your point. But actually the novice user would be better off with the same solution as IE got, which I also proposed. And it would be useful for expert users too. Right click and "Save shortcut to Desktop" is very easy and often the desktop is where I want the shortcut. Other times I want to drag and drop it to a folder window, typically if it's a permanent shortcut. I don't save every shortcut as a bookmark, if I did I would have much more than the 2000+ bookmarks I already got. And I already got far too many bookmarks.

Originally posted by XP1:

Save as shortcut (URL) file

Because shortcut drag and drop was broken in Opera 12 (http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=1436412), I thought it would be a good idea to have another option to save a shortcut from Opera > Page > Save As... (Ctrl+S).

This is nice. Thanks for the info. You just have to right click the mht file to see what the shortcut is about. Another way that I found to be useful is the 'Copy to note' selection when you highlight and right click the url address. Instead of cluttering the desktop with a bunch of shortcut file icons... one can just store them in Notes. Just click a speed dial, and paste it in. Would be nice if one could just click the little note icon and it would appear in speed dial.

Originally posted by XP1:

It does not reflect changes in the webpage.

Which, of course, can be very useful if the web page is removed, or a post is edited or deleted. For shortcuts to changeable content, the copy to note function is best as it can highlight the key paragraph(s), but store the URL to the entire page.

I'm running ...

Version: 12.14
Build: 1738
Platform: Win32
System: Windows XP

... and I'm still unable to drag and drop URLs to the desktop or a desktop folder. It appears to go through the motions but no shortcut appears.

I don't see why any browser wouldn't have all of the options of drag-and-drop to desktop or folder, right-click and create shortcut as well as menu options and keyboard shortcuts to achieve the same results. The only reason would be user interface patent issues but these options are common features of all applications on Windows and other GUI-based systems so this does not apply.

I hate when they close a thread before a solution has been posted or a fix has been released. The “Shortcut to desktop (drag and drop)?” thread was set to “This topic has been closed. No new entries allowed.” within a week of being created! I'm seeing the same thing happen with Google Chrome discussions too.

Originally posted by felimdoyle:

I'm still unable to drag and drop URLs to the desktop or a desktop folder. I

It is possible if you drag&drop the entire URL field by grabbing the field head. FYI: http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=1620502

Thanks, dragging and dropping the ‘Web’ icon is working again, even to a folder. I thought I had tried that yesterday but seemingly not since I applied the latest update.

It's still frustrating that dragging and dropping by selecting the URL in the address bar gives the impression that it's working when it's not. However, it's a big improvement being able to D&D again even if it's a little non-standard in behaviour compared to other browsers and applications.

I wouldn't give it a [RESOLVED] just yet though!