Opera

The address bar is what you will use often to browse the Web. This contains an address field, a search field, and buttons, which are described briefly below with links for more information.

Address field

You are probably already familiar with using a standard address field to enter a Web address, such as http:// www.opera.com. In the Opera browser, you can use the address field to do more than just that. You can also:

• Display a list of previously visited sites.
• Search the Web directly in the address field using keywords.
• Search the actual text of any pages you have visited.

For more details, see Search with Opera. The address field may also include security information. For more details about security information, see the Security and privacy tutorial.

Search field

The search field next to the address field allows you to search the Web using a variety of search engines. Click the arrow to display the full list of options. For more details, see Search with Opera.

Address bar buttons

The default buttons on the address bar allow you to move backwards or forwards between pages you have visited, update Web pages you are viewing, return to your Home page, and manage your passwords. For more details, see Using address bar buttons.

In Opera, you can have several Web pages open at the same time within a single browser window. Each page has its own tab, so this is called "tabbed browsing". The tab bar acts like a taskbar, showing tabs for all the Web pages you currently have open. All you need to do is click the tab to view each Web page.

When you first open Opera, you will only see one tab. To open a new tab, click the new tab icon on the tab bar, to the right of the last open tab. For more information about tabs, see Using tabs.

The menu bar in Opera is similar to menus for various operating systems and offers the following key Opera functions:

• File — Use this to manage tabs, sessions, print, and quit Opera.
• Edit — Use this to copy, paste, select, and find text.
• View — Use this to change how Web pages are displayed.
• Bookmarks — Use this to add or manage bookmarks (saved Web page URLs or favorites).
• Widgets — Use this to add or manage widgets.
• Tools — Use this to set up accounts, change settings, and access panels.
• Help — Use this to access help files.

Additional menus appear when you enable other Opera features, for example:

• The Feeds menu appears when you subscribe to newsfeeds.
• The Mail menu appears when you set up an Opera Mail account.
• The Window menu appears if you chose to use multiple windows, by selecting this option from Preferences > Advanced > Browsing. This menu displays a list of all open tabs and windows.
• The Chat menu appears when you set up a chat account.

Hide the menu bar

To hide the menu bar and allow more room to display Web pages, on the menu bar, select File and in the resulting menu, uncheck "Show Menu Bar". The menu bar closes and the menu items can be accessed from the Menu Bar icon at the top, left of the window. To re-display the menu bar, click the Menu Bar icon and check "Show Menu Bar".

Context menus

You can right-click almost every element of the Opera browser to display a context menu that offers options relevant to that element. For example, if you select a word or text on a Web page and right-click it, the text context menu displays. This menu gives you options for different actions for the word or text you selected, such as searching the Web, translating it to a different language, or looking it up in a dictionary or encyclopedia. For information about the text context menu, see Select text and options. Other context menu options are included in the relevant topics throughout this tutorial.

The Closed Tabs icon at the far right of the tab bar is used to recover closed tabs, blocked pop-ups, and discarded mail messages. When you close a tab or delete a message, or Opera blocks a pop-up, the closed items are stored in Closed Tabs. For example, if you accidentally close a tab, you can recover it from Closed Tabs.

To recover a closed tab, deleted message, or blocked pop-up:

1. Click the Closed Tabs icon. A list of recently closed items displays.
2. For closed tabs or messages, click the item you want to recover in the list.
3. For blocked pop-ups, click "Blocked Pop-ups From" and select the relevant site from the list.

To clear the list in Closed Tabs, click the Closed Tabs icon and select "Clear List of Closed Tabs".

The status bar at the bottom of the browser window includes the following:

• Display controls on the right.
• Icons for Opera Link, Opera Turbo, and a status update on the left.

Display controls

The display controls on the right of the status bar help you change the appearance of a Web page as described below.

Fit to Width

For pages that use too much space and produce a horizontal scrollbar, this control readjusts the page to fit the width of your screen and remove the horizontal scrollbar.

Page zoom

This control allows you to either zoom in to enlarge text or images on Web pages, or zoom out for an overview. The default is set at 100%. Click the arrow at the right of the field to display a list of zoom levels, ranging from 20% to 1,000%. Select the required zoom level and the display is adjusted immediately for all pages that you view.

Show Images

Click the arrow at the right of the icon to display the list of options, which are:

• Show Images (default) — This shows all images on Web pages you visit.
• No Images — This disables all images, which increases your browsing speed.
• Cached Images — This shows only the images you have been loaded before that are stored in your cache. This avoids the need to fetch them again, improving browsing speed.

To the left of the status bar are the following options:

Opera Link icon

The Opera Link icon is used to enable Opera Link, which synchronizes your data, such as bookmarks, Speed Dial, and notes, between browsers in your mobile phone, computer or devices. The icon becomes green when Opera Link is enabled and synchronization first occurs. Thereafter, Opera Link continuously and automatically registers any changes you make and displays notification on the status bar. To enable Opera Link synchronization, go to File > Synchronize Opera....

Opera Turbo icon

Opera Turbo increases your Internet bandwidth speed on slow connections by compressing data and images on our servers before it reaches the Opera browser on your computer. To configure Opera Turbo to suit your browsing needs, follow the steps below.

1. Right-click the Opera Turbo icon on the status bar.
2. In the context menu, select "Configure Opera Turbo" to open the Opera Turbo Settings dialog.
3. You can choose from the following settings:
   • Automatic — This enables Opera Turbo only when a slow network is detected.
   • On — This enables Opera Turbo and optimizes pages so they load faster on slow networks.
   • Off — This loads pages normally, without Opera Turbo.
   • Notify me about network speed — The displays a network speed indicator within the Opera Turbo icon on the status bar.

Status update

The status update displays next to the above icons and provides different information depending on what you are doing in the browser. For example, when you hover over a link on a Web page, it shows the full link address. When you use Opera Mail, it shows when the server is being checked for new messages.

Opera's panels at the left of the display window give you quick access to your bookmarks, messages, contacts, browsing history, and more. To use panels, you can:

• Display a panel — Click the panel selector at the far left of the window. To identify each icon, hover your mouse over each one to display its name.
• View the context menu — Within the panel, right-click and select from the menu options.
• Toggle the panel on or off — Press F4 (Shift+F4 for Mac) or click the Panels icon at the top, left of the browser window.

Each panel is listed below, with a brief description and link to more information. This includes optional panels that only display once the function is enabled. The order may differ depending on the order you enable elements of the browser.

Bookmarks

Use this panel to save and manage your bookmarks. See also: Using bookmarks.

Mail

Use this panel to access and manage Opera Mail for e-mails and newsfeeds. This displays when you create an e-mail or news account. See also: Opera Mail tutorial

Contacts

Use this panel to access and manage your contact list. This after you create an e-mail account and send or receive messages, which creates a contacts list. See also: Opera Mail tutorial.

Widgets

Use this panel to add and manage widgets, which are small and useful Web applications that you can run outside Opera. See also: Using widgets.

Notes

Use this panel to view and manage notes from Web pages using the Notes feature. See also: Keeping notes.

Downloads

Use this panel to open files that you have downloaded. You can stop, resume or reload a download. At the bottom, information about the download speed, file size, and where you are downloading from displays. To access the full download page, go to Tools > Downloads.

History

Use this panel go to Web pages you have visited recently. Folders are arranged by time, or you can search using the Quick find field. To access the full history page, go to Tools > History.

Chat

Use this panel to start a chat session and manage chat rooms. This displays when you create a chat account. See also: Opera Help — Chat.

Links

Use this panel to view and access all the links in the current page. The list is sorted alphabetically. You can use the Quick find field to quickly search for a particular link or linked file type. See also: Using links.