Opera Guide

Intro

I created this guide for avid Firefox user that wants to make Opera similar to Firefox. Opera is very useful out of the box, but I hope you find the tips and tricks below as useful as I did.

Hacks

Opera doesn’t have the cool hacking ability that Firefox does, but it does allow for external javascripts for additions similar to Firefox Extensions and/or Greasemonkey scripts. Two great sites where you can find these scripts are; UserJS and UserScripts.

Tips and Tricks

Turn off the Context Menu when Double clicking on text via Tools - Preferences - Advanced - Toolbars - Uncheck “Double click to display context menu.”

Remove the close button on the tabs, and place it to the right via Tools - Preferences - Advanced - Tabs - Uncheck “Show close button on each tab.”

Change the tab close button location via Tools – Settings – Tab

The “Close Current Page” button at http://operawiki.info/CustomButtons can be dragged into the top right if the user wishes to retain both buttons on each tab and one at the right to close the tab.

Activate the Thumbnail Preview function in CTRL-TAB via opera:config - UserPrefs - UseThumbnailsinTabTooltips

Web Developer Toolbar For Opera: http://operawiki.info/WebDevToolbar

When using the ctrl-tab menu, you can hold down the right mouse button and use the scroll to very easily scroll back and forth in the list. When your hand is already on the mouse this trick will save time by allowing the user to select the tab he wants faster.

Hold Ctrl while using Alt-Tab to scroll backwards aka Ctrl+Alt+Tab

Undo closing a tab with Ctrl+Z

To navigate between tabs I use the keyboard numbers 1 and 2 (previous and next tab).

To go back or forward in history, depending on the direction you want to go, click either left or right-mouse button followed by the opposite mouse button slightly after, i.e. back = right+left mouse button, forward = left+right button.

Find in page options for Opera, very similar to Firefox. Opera will also search inside of text boxes unlike Firefox.
- Ctrl-F gives a dialog as is familiar in most software packages, with options like match whole word only, and only searching when you click “Find”
- There is a Find-in-page entry on the search box next to the address bar, which finds as you type (it can also be added to other toolbars)
- Pressing ‘.’ or ‘/’ will popup a thing in the corner, sort of like FF, also find-as-you-type
- Pressing ‘,’ will find links containing the searched text, although this can be done differently from the Links Panel (Ctrl-9) or its expanded version Ctrl-J.

Extending Opera Guide - I found this site very useful for someone who has spend some serious time figuring out how to really hack up Opera.