Opera on Mac close (red circle) button

Opera on Mac close (red circle) button

(I tried to search firs but did not find any relevant topics)

Hi all,

I'm wondering if it is possible to disable the close button in OS X. Here's what I mean:

With this button Opera closes and I lose my current session. When I restart, I start from one tab. This is particularly not convenient when I have tabs with google documents etc. Also, this button does not require confirmation so when I click on it by accident (I travel a lot so I use my MBP on my knees quite often) it is already too late.

I have a use for the minimize button. That is the only one from the three I've been using. Placing this one in the new position of Opera menu button on Windows and removing the header would be pretty nice on OS X, too There's just too much empty space taken without much use..

Originally posted by gr09:

With this button Opera closes and I lose my current session.

You've only closed the window… If you haven't quit Opera, you can retrieve your session via the Closed Tabs button at the right end of the Tabs Bar. Or via the Window menu's Closed Tabs expansion.
Also, you can use ⌘M to minimize the window; or a custom button…

Those two things don't really solve my problem. Re-opening the tabs one by one? Also, ⌘M does not solve the big and most of the time useless stripe that they use for tabs on Windows..

Appreciate your help. However I do know how to minimize or hide Opera. My question was about something else. I would like to remove the close button or even better the whole top part of the window where Opera shows the page title.

Perhaps you would be happier using Opera in full-screen mode?

Seriously: Applications in OS X have title bars. Unless you're willing to write your own software (or your own window manager!) this ain't gonna happen…

Do you know of a single OS X application that has no title bar?

Yes, Chrome (although Opera's design is much nicer, it would be nice if they moved the tabs up like Chrome does. I know it's not everyone's preference so at least if they make it optional)

For the red close button - any chance to re-map it in Opera to work as a Minimize button?

Chrome's title bar doesn't display the title… But the red, yellow and green buttons are still there.

Well I know that..

Originally posted by gr09:

I'm wondering if it is possible to disable the close button in OS X.

I second that.

If not possible to disable it, make it mean "exit" like it does with Eclipse. That way, no more session loss. I've been using Opera on Mac OSX for nearly a year now and it's only today that I accidentaly hit the red button, and had exactly the problem gr09 is describing.

+1

Until the issue is resolved, I decided to have my open tabs backed up automatically, every hour -- in case I click on the red (x) button by mistake.

Makabra:~ pk$ crontab -l
5 * * * * cd; ./OperaSave;
Makabra:~ pk$ cat OperaSave 
cp /Users/pk/Library/Preferences/Opera\ Preferences/Sessions/autosave.win /Users/pk/Library/Preferences/Opera\ Preferences/Sessions/autosave`date +%F--%H-%M`.win;

I think maybe what you guys really want is a dialog asking for confirmation...

¿ like: prefs > advanced > browsing > confirm exit ? checkmark @ confirm exit, gives dialog

I absolutely agree with the OP about this crazy behaviour of the red close window button in Opera on the Mac. I use Opera on other platforms as well as Mac, and closing the window exits the program, then upon restarting Opera the tabs are reinstated. This is the way it should be, dammit! What possible reason would a user have for effectively minimising the window and closing all the tabs!!?? Opera does so many things right and yet this stupid problem remains. If there is a reason why anyone thinks this behaviour is desirable I would genuinely like to hear it...

Bartman12345

I would also see the 'x'-button remapped to something else... Maybe hide? It's not like it's a big problem getting the window back (Window | Closed Tabs in the menus or hitting Cmd + N and then use the "garbage bin"), but I have accidentally hit it a couple of times myself.

I think your argument is with Apple, not Opera.

There are third party programs available to alter behaviour of the buttons.

By the way haakoo, the orange button is for "hide".

Originally posted by MoonlightGambler:

By the way haakoo, the orange button is for "hide".

Not really, the '-'-button (not orange on my system) is minimize, not hide, two different behaviours in OS X.

Originally posted by daniel:

I think maybe what you guys really want is a dialog asking for confirmation: do you really want to close this window? " width="17" height="17">

I think your're right. Firefox has this, it might be useful to avoid closing a window on accident. But please make it possible to chose "always close" in the settings.

Originally posted by MoonlightGambler:

I think your argument is with Apple, not Opera.

There are third party programs available to alter behaviour of the buttons.

Eclipse does this. The red close button exits the application and it uses tabs for editor views just like Opera uses tabs for webpages. Closing a tab doesn't mean exiting the application. Clicking the red button has been mapped to "exit" with, if activated, a confirmation dialog box. if the Eclipse guys could do it with Java, Opera can also do it with C++.

Give us the choice as to the behavior, that's what some are asking for from the Opera Mac team.

I've seen the image you posted. What does the checkmark mean? I had never seen that on my system.

Edited: typo

The check marks indicate the focused page (tab) of the window.

OK. I don't use multiple windows which explains why I'd never met that before.
Thanks.

On the Mac, the close button will never exit an app that supports multiple windows.

Because of what? As if there were some rules somewhere that enforced the behavior you are mentioning. As if all applications on the Mac followed the same set of UI or UX. It's not so.

Closing the app when the last window closes can be simulated as the software is aware of the last window being closed and can inject an "exit" message in its own message queue. Unless that's forbidden/impossible on the Mac?

We, who are asking for this new behavior, want the option to make it the active behavior. What is so wrong with it that there's so much resistance to just having the option?

Originally posted by OakdaleFTL:

You've only closed the window… If you haven't quit Opera, you can retrieve your session via the Closed Tabs button at the right end of the Tabs Bar. Or via the Window menu's Closed Tabs expansion.
Also, you can use ⌘M to minimize the window; or a custom button…

Everyone knows this workaround but it's not what we want. The whole idea of using OSX is that programs that are designed for it tend to be more intuitive.

Originally posted by daniel:

Closed windows should be listed in the same menu. Also, you could hide Opera by pressing Command–H.

Hiding the window is exactly what we want when you click close. You think i'm being unreasonable... open itunes in OSX and click the 'close' button. Close is the last thing it does. Clicking close is the same as hiding the window.

Originally posted by gr09:

Appreciate your help. However I do know how to minimize or hide Opera. My question was about something else. I would like to remove the close button or even better the whole top part of the window where Opera shows the page title.

I'd say keep the close button there but adopt the chrome style title bar used in chrome for OSX. What I assume everybody wants is opera to function like it does on all other platforms. ie restoring your previous browsing session upon close. The way to do this is map the red button to "exit" or "hide" like itunes and skype and many other programs.

Originally posted by OakdaleFTL:

Perhaps you would be happier using Opera in full-screen mode?

Umm.... NO.

Originally posted by Bartman12345:

I absolutely agree with the OP about this crazy behaviour of the red close window button in Opera on the Mac. I use Opera on other platforms as well as Mac, and closing the window exits the program, then upon restarting Opera the tabs are reinstated. This is the way it should be, dammit! What possible reason would a user have for effectively minimising the window and closing all the tabs!!?? Opera does so many things right and yet this stupid problem remains. If there is a reason why anyone thinks this behaviour is desirable I would genuinely like to hear it...

I couldn't agree more. What I think opera has done is imitate safari in this instance. They shouldn't have. Opera should keep it's identity. Its why we support and use opera.

Originally posted by daniel:

The window actions are close, minimize, and zoom. " class="smilie" width="17" height="17">

Ok, now you're just being stupid. /s
Not so in the case of iTunes and skype. And not so in Opera for windows. We are ok with the program closing, but what we really want is a return to the exact same session with one click of a button as we do in opera on other platforms. We don't want a substitute such as using a combination of keys on the keyboard to get a desired effect.

DISCLAIMER: I really like Opera and what I'm talking about is only because Opera has a session manager, is quick and has less memory footprint compared to other browsers!


I really hate this old discussion because it does not belong to a specific OS and can be summarized with:

"We don't care about how users are using our browsers"

1. Example from the times before Opera on Mac OS X:

a) Some years ago I started excessively using multiple tabs and windows with opera where for example I had:

- window 1 = all tabs belonging to work stuff
- window 2 = all tabs belonging to private stuff
- maybe some additional temp windows.

And this works well as long as I hit [file] [exit]. If i start Opera again, the windows and tabs are restored as expected.

Don't ask me what this use case is. I have a valid use case where I have to keep lets say 20 tabs for lets say 2 weeks where every lets say every hour one of the tabs might change. Beside of this I might have another 15 research tabs that might only be valid for 30 minutes. Just think about that I use my web browser as a stack and I need to be able to keep this stuck independent from whether the browser crashes or or I accidentally exit the browser or click the [x].

So there is a use case, full stop!

b) Unfortunately it didn't work for opera because: As long as I hit the X on the "important" window last, my session is saved and can be restored. But if I first close the "important" window and than the "temp" window. My session will be restored with the tabs of the "temp window" and all my important tabs are lost and can't be restored once I open Opera again.

c) This brought me to the "only use one window" model that I now use for several years on Windows and Linux. Once again, because of the missing ability for configuring the behavior of the [x] when pressed on any open Window, this is only a workaround to not loose tabs when wrongly exiting.

2. Now I have Mac OS on my OS list as well and using the already existing "only use one window" workaround even does not work on Mac OS X any more because of the behavior of Mac OS X to not close a program when hitting [x]. In this case hitting the [x] destroys my window and after a OS restart or after I manually exited Opera with no open window, I can't restore my old tabs / windows when starting Opera.

Now, I really try to force myself to always hit [cmd]+ [q] and [cmd] + [m] instead of using the mouse and [x] but this is very fault intensive as I don't need to do this in any other prog on OS X and it is only because the session manager is not configurable flexibly enough.

YES! I KNOW IT IS MY FAULT! BUT I'M A HUMAN! I CAN'T AVOID DOING MISTAKES!

3. What I'm really looking for is stopping those "why do you need more than 2 tabs open for more than one hour?" discussions and focus on being a web browser that once again has a killer feature that makes it more flexible than all the other browsers in the market and that is the feature why I am using it instead of any other browser!

I just wait for a way to help me reverting my unavoidable errors without loosing data! This can also be called: I'm waiting to have a more ergonomic Opera than it is right now. I don't care about conflicting philosophies on OS level and I don't care about how it is implemented as long as it does what I need.

Many thanks,
Kai

I agree with OP. Whoever considered this behaviour to be desirable should perhaps talk to a few Opera (power) users. I have been using Opera for over ten years now. This is about the only thing that continues to drive me absolutely nuts! I work with a lot of tabs--always (for research, work and private stuff). Opera is continuously running as I use it for email too. Whether or not my usage is typical, smart or efficient is totally beside the point: I use it like I do. No doubt there will be others like me.

And yes, I very rarely click the red button by accident (laptop on a shaky plane/train/bus/car for example). I can now look forward to several hours of annoying puzzle work to restore all my tabs. Yay!

But hey, I don't even have to click the red button myself--others tend to do that for me (can I please quickly check my email/facebook/google maps/etc). When they're done they close the "session" by clicking the red button. Thanks. This has made me so paranoid that I don't let anyone touch Opera on my computer. This is of course seriously bad when it comes to promoting Opera: I'm one of its most loyal users but I'm no longer letting anyone near it on my installation... Go figure. Sorry to say, but this "close all tabs by clicking the red button" behaviour is simply retarded (and I NEVER use that word).

Please please please fix this... (by coming up with a solution, any solution, that allows us to easily bring back all those tabs) Your (power) users will be very appreciative!

In the meantime: if anyone knows how to remap the "close button" on OS X, I'd very much like to find out how. All my search efforts keep coming up with mere keyboard remapping.

Originally posted by Bartman12345:

I absolutely agree with the OP about this crazy behaviour of the red close window button in Opera on the Mac. I use Opera on other platforms as well as Mac, and closing the window exits the program, then upon restarting Opera the tabs are reinstated. This is the way it should be, dammit! What possible reason would a user have for effectively minimising the window and closing all the tabs!!?? Opera does so many things right and yet this stupid problem remains. If there is a reason why anyone thinks this behaviour is desirable I would genuinely like to hear it...

Bartman12345

That behaviour is not unusual for browsers running on a Mac. Safari does the same thing, and so does Firefox unless one is running a certain extension with a certain setting. Closing the interface does not close the underlying process.

Originally posted by haakoo:

I would also see the 'x'-button remapped to something else... Maybe hide? It's not like it's a big problem getting the window back (Window | Closed Tabs in the menus or hitting Cmd + N and then use the "garbage bin"), but I have accidentally hit it a couple of times myself.

Those buttons are under the control of the operating system, not the application. You would have to modify Mac OS to change their position or function.

Originally posted by concipity:

Those buttons are under the control of the operating system, not the application. You would have to modify Mac OS to change their position or function.

Does really OSX force Opera to close all tabs when pushing the red button? Does Opera have no control what happens (with Opera) when it receives information from the OS that a red button was pressed? I really don't know, I'd be interested if somebody can explain it.

I don't think everyone who has posted here understands the issue. The problem, which also exists on Windows and Linux Opera, is that when you have two or more windows open, closing one window (by using the red topleft circle on Mac or red topright X on Windows) will close all the tabs with no easy way of getting them back (unless you only had one or two tabs in the closed window).

This behaviour is annoying because we sometimes forget that we have more than one window open and click on the X by mistake, or someone borrows our laptop etc. as people have mentioned above.

The solution would be quite simple, just pop up the "Are you sure you want to close this window?" every time you click the X. Currently, on Windows this happens only when you are closing the last window. Currently on Mac this happens only when you are quitting (Cmd+Q) the Opera application. I don't think this is particularly hard to do. It is just like any office application.

I have just tried it on Openoffice, I opened 3 documents and changed the first letter of each. When pressing the red X on one window, it asked me if I wanted to save or discard my change. When pressing Cmd+Q, it asked me this 3 times. So I don't see why Opera can't implement something similar.

Opera is closing the tabs and apparently discarding that information as to what tabs were open with version 11. Clicking the red button closes the Opera interface (but not the underlying process). With version 10 with Windows, I could get the tabs back if I did not remove the history, but not with version 11. If you wish to remove any of those buttons from the title bar, however, you will not do that by doing anything to the application because it is Mac OS which controls their appearance and function. Trying to remap those buttons will not happen with anything you do to Opera for the same reason.

Originally posted by zero:

I don't think everyone who has posted here understands the issue. The problem, which also exists on Windows and Linux Opera, is that when you have two or more windows open, closing one window (by using the red topleft circle on Mac or red topright X on Windows) will close all the tabs with no easy way of getting them back (unless you only had one or two tabs in the closed window).

This behaviour is annoying because we sometimes forget that we have more than one window open and click on the X by mistake, or someone borrows our laptop etc. as people have mentioned above.

The solution would be quite simple, just pop up the "Are you sure you want to close this window?" every time you click the X. Currently, on Windows this happens only when you are closing the last window. Currently on Mac this happens only when you are quitting (Cmd+Q) the Opera application. I don't think this is particularly hard to do. It is just like any office application.

I have just tried it on Openoffice, I opened 3 documents and changed the first letter of each. When pressing the red X on one window, it asked me if I wanted to save or discard my change. When pressing Cmd+Q, it asked me this 3 times. So I don't see why Opera can't implement something similar.

No, the solution is to -> Menu -> Tabs and Windows -> Closed Tabs -> "Last Closed Window".

MUCH more useful for than a prompt.

People need to realize that you can restore Tabs AND Windows in Opera. We're not in the dark ages using FireFox or Safari here, we're at the cutting edge of usability .

Originally posted by TripleDude:

No, the solution is to -> Menu -> Tabs and Windows -> Closed Tabs -> "Last Closed Window".

MUCH more useful for than a prompt.

People need to realize that you can restore Tabs AND Windows in Opera. We're not in the dark ages using FireFox or Safari here, we're at the cutting edge of usability .

This is a good workaround for the bug I pointed out in http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=879732 .. (meaning that I can just close the window and reopen it - can't believe I didn't notice Opera could restore a closed window) Now... can a keyboard shortcut be assigned to open the "last closed window"?

Originally posted by TripleDude:

No, the solution is to -> Menu -> Tabs and Windows -> Closed Tabs -> "Last Closed Window".

MUCH more useful for than a prompt.

People need to realize that you can restore Tabs AND Windows in Opera. We're not in the dark ages using FireFox or Safari here, we're at the cutting edge of usability .

Hum...this settings shortcut is probably for Windows, where are this options under MAC OS X 10.6.7 (running opera 11.10)?
Thank you!

Originally posted by mirkuma:

Hum...this settings shortcut is probably for Windows, where are this options under MAC OS X 10.6.7 (running opera 11.10)?
Thank you!

Window --> Closed Tabs