Opera

Opera's Speed Dial is a set of visual bookmarks that can access your favorite Web pages quickly and easily. This is really useful if you have a few Web sites that you visit repeatedly, as it saves you from hunting through long lists of bookmarks. When you open a new tab in Opera, Speed Dial automatically displays, with a 3x3 grid of empty miniature browser windows, called "dials". The list below includes some basic tips on using Speed Dial.

Save a Web address in Speed Dial

You can save an address in three different ways:

• Click an empty dial, where it says, "Click to add a Web page" and select a Web page from the list displayed, which includes frequently visited or currently open pages.
• Click an empty dial and type in a new address in the field that says "Enter Web address here".
• Drag and drop from another open tab to a dial.

Go to a dial in a new tab

In Speed Dial, click the dial - it is that easy. Alternatively, type the number of the dial directly in the address bar to open it. For example, if the dial is the 3rd dial, type "3" in the address bar to display it.

Rearrange your Speed Dial

To change the order of your Speed Dial, you can drag and drop the dials from one space to another. If you drop a dial onto another that already has a saved Web address, the dials will be exchanged. If you drop an address from outside Speed Dial onto an already occupied dial, the old dial will be overwritten.

Delete a dial

Click on the cross on the upper right corner. Alternatively, you can right-click and select "Clear".

Edit a dial

Right-click the dial and select "Edit". You can select from a list of frequently visited or currently open pages to change the Web page in the dial.

Reload a dial

As each dial displays a thumbnail of the Web site, you may sometimes want to reload it from time to time to keep it current. Reload a single dial by right-clicking it and selecting "Reload". If you want to reload all dials, click the Reload button on the address bar.

Set automatic reload timing

You can also set a dial to automatically reload at specified intervals. This is very uself for pages with content that changes regularly, such as news sites. Right-click the dial, select "Reload every..." and select the time interval from the list.

Customize Speed Dial

You can also tailor Speed Dial to suit your needs, by changing the number of dials displayed or personalizing the background. For more information, see Customize Speed Dial.

Use the same Speed Dial on all your computers and devices

You can use Opera Link to synchronize your Speed Dial on on all your computers and devices, so that they are available wherever you go. Just click the Synchronize Opera link at the bottom. For more information, see Opera Link below.

When you are on a slow connection, Opera Turbo can increase your bandwidth speed by compressing data and images on our proxy servers before it reaches the Opera browser on your computer. You have choose to enable Opera Turbo whenever you need it, or set it to automatically switch on when a slow connection is detected. 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 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.

A session is a collection of tabs and you can save different sessions for different uses. You can choose the tabs that display each time you open the browser, but you can also save other sessions as well.

To set the tabs that display when you open the browser, go to Preferences > General and choose an option from the Startup drop-down. Click "OK" to confirm. The tabs that you specified will display automatically each time you start the browser.

To save a different session for a specific use, for example, if you are interested in skiing, save tabs displaying your favorite snow field and weather sites by using File > Sessions and naming the session. In this case, you could call it "Skiing". The next time you want to view these tabs — say, before you hit the slopes — you can just go to File > Sessions and select "Skiing" from the list. To see an example, go to Tabs and sessions on Opera Tips.

Opera Link synchronizes your data, such as bookmarks, Speed Dial, custom searches, history, and notes between all your computers and devices, so they are available to you wherever you go.

To use Opera Link:

1. On the menu bar, go to File > Synchronize Opera.... The Opera Link set up dialog displays.
2. Click "Next". A dialog displays showing check boxes for the types of data you can synchronize, such as bookmarks, Speed Dial, and so on.
3. Check each type of data that you want to synchronize and click "Finish".
4. If you have an Opera account, type your username and password, otherwise click the Sign Up button to create one.
5. Click "Log In". Synchronization now occurs and the Opera Link icon on the status bar changes to green. Opera Link automatically registers any changes you make to the browser data you selected in step 3 to an online server. When it does this, a notification message appears briefly in the status bar. Opera Link synchronizes continuously until you log out. When you log into Opera Link with a second instance of the Opera browser, all browser data from the online storage is merged with the browser data already in the new browser. So, when you use Opera Link with more than two computers or devices, a change you make on one is reflected on all others running Opera Link.

Keep bookmarks separate with Opera Link

If you want to keep the two sets of bookmarks separate, in the menu bar, go to Bookmarks > Manage Bookmarks and place them in separate folders to keep them from being merged. For example, you could place all bookmarks that you use at work in a "Work" folder, and all the bookmarks you use at home in a "Home" folder.

Disable Opera Link

To disable Opera Link at any time, go to File > Stop Synchronizing Opera.

For more details about Opera Link, see our Opera Link information page and the Opera Link video tutorial.

The Password Manager, shown by a key icon , is used to automatically fill in your log in details and also to auto-fill fields for personal information in online forms. It remembers the usernames, passwords, and personal details you choose to save, so you do not have to type this information repeatedly while browsing. To protect your privacy, your details are scrambled before being saved.

Use the Password Manager to log in to Web sites

1. Enable the Password Manager, by using Preferences > Forms > Enable Password Manager.
2. When you next log in to a password-protected Web site, Opera asks if you want to save the password. Click "Save" to confirm.
3. When you next log in to the site, the login fields will appear with a yellow border to show that there is a saved password. Click the key icon to log in automatically.

Delete saved passwords

To delete saved passwords, on the menu bar, go to Tools > Advanced > Password Manager. Delete the passwords from the list.

Auto-fill online forms

You can record personal information that you often use in online forms, such as your full name and address, to auto-fill fields in online forms. To record your details:

1. Go to Preferences > Forms.
2. Complete the relevant fields with your personal information. Tip: Use the "Other" fields for alternate addresses or other personal information you often type into forms.
3. Click "OK". Your details are saved.

To auto-fill forms, you can either:

• Click the key icon, if the field appears with a yellow border. This border shows that Opera recognizes it as a form field that has saved personal details.
• Start typing in a field and select the relevant information from the resulting drop-down.
• Right-click a form field and select "Insert Personal" and select the information from the resulting menu.

From Opera 10 onwards, your spelling is checked automatically by a spell checker whenever you type in any multiple-line input text field, such as when filling in forms, composing an Opera Mail message, typing notes, or chatting. As you type in editable fields, spelling errors are shown by a dotted red line under the word. For single line text fields, spell checking is not automatic, but you can use it by right-clicking in the field to display a context menu and checking "Check spelling". Right-click to use the context menu to select from alternative spelling suggestions, toggle the spell checker, or change dictionary languages from the default US English dictionary.

Fixing spelling errors

To view suggestions for correct spelling, right-click in the field after spell-checking to display a context menu. Select from the spelling suggestions displayed to replace the word in the field. You can also add the word to your default dictionary, ignore all instances of the word, or remove the word from the dictionary.

Adding a language dictionary

Opera uses the Hunspell dictionary format, and includes a US English dictionary by default. To add a different language dictionary to use for spell checking, follow these steps:

1. After spell checking, right-click in the field to display the context menu.
2. Select "Language", then "Add Languages..".
3. In the Spell Checker Languages dialog, select the language. You can use the Quick Find field at the top of the list to quickly search the full list.
4. Check the language you want to use and click "Next".
5. Confirm your selection by clicking "Finish".

Opera's unique mouse gestures can speed up your browsing. Move back and forth, open and close new windows, or perform other routine operations efficiently using one quick movement of your mouse.

For example, with mouse gestures if you want to open a link a new tab:

1. Point your mouse to the link.
2. Click and hold the right mouse button.
3. Move the mouse down (while still holding the mouse button).
4. Release the right mouse button. The link opens in a new tab.

To enable mouse gestures, go to Preferences > Advanced > Shortcuts and check "Enable mouse gestures".

For a list of available mouse gestures, go to mouse gestures in Opera or go to Opera Help - Using the Mouse and view the Mouse gestures topic.

Long-time use of the mouse may cause injury or pain, and some people may find surfing with a mouse difficult. Standard mouse navigation can also be a bit slow. But there are better ways to navigate.

With Opera, you can navigate without a mouse, using only the keyboard. This is often referred to as "spatial navigation". When you open menus, you will see that a keyboard shortcut is almost always suggested for every function. You can complete nearly every operation in Opera using a keyboard shortcut. This includes navigating backward and forward in your browsing history, opening and closing pages, and much more.

For a complete list of keyboard shortcuts for your operating system, go to Opera Help - Keyboard shortcuts. For more information about browsing in Opera without a mouse, see Use Opera without a mouse.

With the Opera notes feature, you can write your own notes, save selected text from Web pages, save e-mail message templates, or create "to do" lists. This is especially useful if you are using the Web to research a topic. For tips on how to use notes, refer to the list below.

Write a new note

In the Notes panel, click "Add" and select "New note" from the list. Alternatively, right-click in the Notes panel and select "New note" from the context menu. Write the new note in the panel, where it says "Write the new note here". Note that your spelling is automatically checked by the built-in spell checker.

Create a note from text in a Web page

Highlight the text in the Web page, right-click, and select "Copy to note".

Copy and paste a note

To copy and paste a note in an e-mail message, Web form field, or chat conversation, right-click an edit field and select "Insert note" from the context menu. In this way, you can use notes to store strings of text that you use repeatedly, such as standard e-mail messages, templates, and signatures.

Arrange notes in folders

To add a new folder, in the Notes panel, click "Add" and select "New folder". Folders display in alphabetical order and cannot be reordered. You can drag and drop notes into folders, where they display in alphabetical order.

Delete a note

To delete a note, highlight it and press Delete, which sends it to the trash. To retrieve a note from the trash, click the trash icon and drag the note to the note list. To empty trash, right-click it and select "Empty Trash".

Access your notes on all your computers and devices

You can use Opera Link to synchronize your notes on all your computers and devices, so that they are available wherever you go. See more information on Opera Link above.

To see an example of using notes in action, see Notes in Opera Tips.

Opera Widgets are small Web applications that run alongside the Opera browser and display on your desktop. They are a great way to quickly do things such as check weather forecasts or the time, use dictionaries, or play games, and much more. To see many of the Opera Widgets available, go to Opera Widgets. For tips on using Opera Widgets, refer to the list below.

Find and install a new Opera widget

Display the Widgets panel or on the menu bar, go to Widgets > Add Widgets. This opens a Web page where you can view a range of Opera Widgets. To add one, click the Launch button under it. Once the Widget downloads, a preview displays for you to test. A dialog displays asking if you want to keep the widget. If you select "Yes", the widget is installed.

Control widgets

You can place widgets anywhere you want on your desktop by selecting and dragging them into position. To set individual display settings for each widget, right-click to display the context menu. This includes options to treat it as any other program (Normal), display it below all other programs (Always below), or display it on top no matter which program has focus (Always on top).

Change widget settings

Although widgets are not standardized, the most common icon for widget settings is represented by a gear. Click this icon to change the particular settings for the widget.

Reload a widget

Sometimes, a widget may need reloading to reflect up-to-date information, for example, weather widgets. Right-click the widget and select "Reload" from the context menu.

Close a widget

You can close a widget by clicking the close icon in the right corner, selecting "Close" from the context menu, or closing the Opera browser. Even if Opera Widgets look and behave as separate mini-programs, they run within Opera, so when you close Opera, the widgets will also be closed.

Reopen a widget

When you have closed a widget, you can reopen it from the Widgets menu or panel.