Bugs and irritations in Opera 10.51

Bugs and irritations in Opera 10.51

I don't want to be accused of trolling or anything like that, I have been a die-hard Operaddict since v5, but there are several "features" in Opera 10.5 that are just driving me mad. Maybe there are options buried away that will correct some of them that I just haven't found yet, but there are definitely some that are faults within the software.

• Server name autocompletion doesn't work properly. When I have it selected as the default action, it should not require a trailing slash in order to work - just as it always has done before. Typing the domain name and hitting Enter has become such an instinctive action over the years that even when I'm consciously thinking about the slash, half the time my fingers have hit Enter without time for the need for a slash (if you'll pardon the expression) getting through to them. Not only is this irritating because it wastes time by going to Google rather than the page I want, but there is also a privacy aspect - maybe I don't want Google to know what sites I'm visiting.
• Tab appearance is just trying too hard. Removing the minimise button is unhelpful, and has gained nothing at all - just the loss of a standard item of the window chrome. Rounded corners might look nice in theory, but in practice they don't work well, particularly at the bottom where they wrap around the square corners of the page and the scrollbar.
• Issues with tab placement. I have it set to 'Cascade' (and why can't I set the default tab size for that?), but it is opening new tabs too high up the page, so half of the title bar is hidden behind the menu bar. When I open a page in a background tab, it does that but the title bar of the active tab goes fully or partially (depending on skin) behind the background tab, which gets very confusing and difficult to move tabs around to where I want them.
• Lack of a tooltip giving the href of a link is annoying. I don't like having the status bar on screen all the time, but I do like to have a tooltip giving the link destination - why has this been removed?
• Google Streetview still doesn't work properly. I don't know whether it's Opera's fault or Google's, but it's still an irritation!

A general point about upgrades - when I upgrade, I expect things to work the same as they did before, or better, but I don't expect them to change. Yet frequently when Opera upgrades, there are things that stop working - like server name autocompletion, like single key shortcuts a few years ago. I can understand why those might be the default settings for a new installation, but when it's an upgrade, I would much rather that the settings I have come to know and love be left alone, or that I be given a prompt whether to retain the old settings or switch to the new defaults.

If you type the server name, Opera will remember it the next time you type it, and take you to the server instead of the Google search. This will probably be hooked up to some setting in a future version.

The MDI controls on the main menu have been disabled by default for a long time, so that's nothing new. What's new in 10.5x is that MDI had to be reimplemented from scratch due to Vega. Reimplementing it completely has simply not been a priority, but the MDI controls on the main menu will return, probably in the next update.

There may be more issues with MDI, but again, it is not top priority. Any issues will probably be ironed out over time.

Link tooltips will appear if you disable the status bar.

I'm not sure about Google Street View. It could be browser sniffing again...

Opera 10.50 is a major upgrade, and it is probably one of the most significant upgrades in Opera's history. Things will be ironed out over time, but they need to be prioritized. Not everything can be fixed at once, unfortunately.

Originally posted by haavard:

the MDI controls on the main menu will return, probably in the next update.

This makes me happy! I'll be eagerly waiting for that update.

Hmmm, interesting. I never realised tabs could be windows (as it were). Having tried it, I can see how you might get to like that, although I struggle (personally) to see why you'd use "cascade" rather than "maximise". If you can see a tab bar, why would you have your windows smaller than they need be, and still only be able to see the top one? "Tiled" might be nice, though

However to add to the OP's point about the initial position of a new tab, I'd like to point out that normally in an MDI, "cascade" means that each child window appears in a new position, diagonally down and right from the previous one. Opera opens each and every new tab in the exact same place, it appears.

... and I agree about autocompletion, that was one of the joys of using Opera. I'll just have to try and remember to type a slash now. As others have said - if the address bar is the address bar, and the search bar is the search bar, why would you want them to do each others' jobs?

Originally posted by haavard:

If you type the server name, Opera will remember it the next time you type it, and take you to the server instead of the Google search. This will probably be hooked up to some setting in a future version.

Why not link it to current option "Enable server name completition"?

Link tooltips will appear if you disable the status bar.

Is there a way to control the waiting time for tooltip to appear? I want it to show up instantly, but i have to wait.

Originally posted by ncarring:

I struggle (personally) to see why you'd use "cascade" rather than "maximise". If you can see a tab bar, why would you have your windows smaller than they need be, and still only be able to see the top one?

With a big screen, maximised windows are usually a lot larger than they need to be. Many sites are optimised for average sized screens and you end up with a load of unused space at the edges when maximised. Others fill the whole page width with text, making it harder to read than a narrower text column in my opinion. With the tabs cascading, or remembering their last size, I find that they're more likely to show sites at a comfortable size, without the need to resize the main Opera window.

Additionally, having tabs automatically cascaded makes it quicker and easier to move and resize them when you want to put sites side by side, use a follower tab, or organise them in a particular way. For example, you can drag a cascaded tab out of the way and partially off screen while you're looking at something else, while still keeping it handy for when you want to go back to it. With a lot of tabs open, when shopping around or researching a topic for example, that can be quicker than looking for sites in the tab bar. You can combine it with minimising tabs to keep it uncluttered and efficient.

Originally posted by ncarring:

However to add to the OP's point about the initial position of a new tab, I'd like to point out that normally in an MDI, "cascade" means that each child window appears in a new position, diagonally down and right from the previous one. Opera opens each and every new tab in the exact same place, it appears.

Previous versions of Opera used standard Windows MDI, providing that cascaded window positioning. Hopefully that's another thing that will return when MDI is finally worked on.

The ability to put sites side by side or one above the other is an obvious advantage and one that I will explore (but that's not "cascaded" )

Pardon my ignorance, what's a "follower tab"?

Taken from [F1]

Follower Tab: Opens a background tab. Any link you click in the current tab will open in the follower tab.

Originally posted by ncarring:

The ability to put sites side by side or one above the other is an obvious advantage and one that I will explore

If you bid on eBay in the last few seconds of an auction...

During the last few minutes open the item page.

Minimize all tabs, then restore and clone the item page.

From the Window menu, Tile Vertically (or from a tab's right-click > Arrange).

Now you can watch the countdown timer in one tab and place your maximum bid in the other, but only confirm it with 3 or 4 seconds to go.

With MDI, you can place the current tab on one side of the window, maybe using Fit to Width to keep it narrow, while the follower tab fills the other side. That effectively allows one tab to act like an index frame, allowing you to browse through its links without opening and switching between multiple tabs. Great for looking through a collection of photographs, or a site that's broken up into small sections.

There are a whole load of neat things you can do with tabs when they aren't always maximised. MDI browsing can be very versatile and efficient.

I don't have a Window menu. Is that what the OP was referring to when he mentioned the minimise button?

OTOH, I do see the arrange entry on the tab right-click menu - and there's a Tile option already! Cool!

@stevejyates - you learn something new every day. Until today I didn't know you could have tabs as windows (I imagine I'm far from alone)

Originally posted by haavard:

Opera 10.50 is a major upgrade, and it is probably one of the most significant upgrades in Opera's history.

A quick question Haarvard (apologies for being slightly OT). Why do you think it was released as 10.5 and not 11.0?

Originally posted by haavard:

If you type the server name, Opera will remember it the next time you type it, and take you to the server instead of the Google search. This will probably be hooked up to some setting in a future version.

Fair enough, but it still works less well than it has done in every version up to now.

The MDI controls on the main menu have been disabled by default for a long time, so that's nothing new. What's new in 10.5x is that MDI had to be reimplemented from scratch due to Vega. Reimplementing it completely has simply not been a priority, but the MDI controls on the main menu will return, probably in the next update.

Not sure what you mean by "the MDI controls on the main menu"?

Link tooltips will appear if you disable the status bar.

Sorry, but they just don't. I have the status bar disabled, and it is showing any title attribute as a tooltip, but it is not showing the link destination.

Originally posted by ncarring:

Hmmm, interesting. I never realised tabs could be windows (as it were). Having tried it, I can see how you might get to like that, although I struggle (personally) to see why you'd use "cascade" rather than "maximise". If you can see a tab bar, why would you have your windows smaller than they need be, and still only be able to see the top one?

I have my screen set to 1280×1024, which is great for most uses, but few web pages work well at that size. If the lines expand to fill the screen then you get very long lines, which are difficult to read. If the site is constrained then you end up with acres of space on either side, which isn't great. Tiling the tabs would generally make them too small to be of any use, but it is often useful to be able to see bits of other tabs. eg as I browse the Opera forums, I have Facebook open in a tab behind it, so that I can see the top of the page and I'll see if any messages or updates come in, but I still have a useful sized tab to work in.

(But the default tab size is just slightly too small for most common websites, which is why I would like to be able to change it. I used to use "remember last tab size" but too often I would change the size/shape of one tab and then get irritated by having to resize every tab I opened afterwards)

(When I'm using my laptop, which only goes up to 1024×768, I pretty much invariably do maximise tabs)

However to add to the OP's point about the initial position of a new tab, I'd like to point out that normally in an MDI, "cascade" means that each child window appears in a new position, diagonally down and right from the previous one. Opera opens each and every new tab in the exact same place, it appears.

Yes, that's another negative change that's happened as a result of 10.5. I hope that it's one of those bugs that will be ironed out.

Originally posted by ncarring:

I don't have a Window menu.

You can now: Preferences > Advanced > Browsing > Show window menu

A very annoying bug: URL opening half working

Another annoying issue: when a tooltip is displayed and I start scrolling with the mouse, rendering is broken. The place in the page where the tooltip was previously displayed, is not updated (redrawn) correctly.

Google Streetview and new "features" are not irritating. More like agonizingly painful.

UI issues:

Lack of minimize button (I can work around the rest of the MDI changes)
Removed my personal bar on low-res (1024x768) screen
Can't find "multimode back/forward buttons" to add to UI - no more history selection on back/forward
Search engine selector maximizes to full-screen monster on high resolution screen (1680x1050), covers up everything
Color contrast on active/inactive tabs using default skin too low, hard to tell apart
Right-click "open in new/background tab" doesn't work if link is image

Originally posted by pjk0:

Can't find "multimode back/forward buttons" to add to UI - no more history selection on back/forward

Default back/forward buttons are multimodal — click and hold to show the history. Old style buttons with drop list icons can be found in Appearance, Buttons, Browser.

Originally posted by pjk0:

Lack of minimize button

Preferences, Tabs, Additional Tab options, Click on tab to minimize.
Min

Originally posted by pjk0:

Color contrast on active/inactive tabs using default skin too low, hard to tell apart

No problem at all on Window XP Theme: Olive green colour scheme. Contrast is excellent.
Try using selecting a colour scheme in the Opera Appearance dialogue, Skin.

Originally posted by Pesala:

Originally posted by pjk0:

Can't find "multimode back/forward buttons" to add to UI - no more history selection on back/forward

Default back/forward buttons are multimodal — click and hold to show the history. Old style buttons with drop list icons can be found in Appearance, Buttons, Browser.

Well the interesting thing about that is that when I first tried this, the buttons weren't available in the pick list. But when I tried it again today, I found the buttons with the little 'dropdown mark' on them. First I tried changing the default skin/back forth before trying to find the buttons, I'm guessing that previously it may have "stuck" on an old skin that wasn't 10.x compliant or something, or perhaps it took a few sessions and reboot cycles to get settled.

Originally posted by Pesala:

Originally posted by pjk0:

Lack of minimize button

Preferences, Tabs, Additional Tab options, Click on tab to minimize.

I set that option today, and it helps a little in some cases, but it's not really as useful to me as the previous feature. If a small non-maximized tab is open, it's much quicker and easier to minimize it right from the area I'm already working, rather than moving the cursor all the way down (in my case) to the tab bar to minimize that tab content, then going back up to work in other tabs.

Originally posted by Pesala:

Originally posted by pjk0:

Color contrast on active/inactive tabs using default skin too low, hard to tell apart

No problem at all on Window XP Theme: Olive green colour scheme. Contrast is excellent.
Try using selecting a colour scheme in the Opera Appearance dialogue, Skin.

I tried the choices available at the time and none really thrilled me, I suppose I will eventually find something I like again.

Thanks for your suggestions.