Opera 7 for Windows Changelog

New in Opera 7.0

Opera version 7.0 is now available for download.

Opera 7 is faster and smaller than Opera 6, yet adds many new features! Again, Opera has proven that less is more. Opera has a completely new rendering engine, a revolutionary e-mail client, and can combine SDI, MDI, and tabbed browsing.

Changelog

Opera 7.0 for Windows has the following changelog:

Opera's new rendering engine (also known as "Presto")

• Support for page/document reflow
• Support for DOM (Document Object Model) level 2
• Support for dynamic HTML
• Extended CSS2 support, including e.g. styling of form elements
• 100% ECMAScript support
• Improved HTML 4.01 support
• Complete WML 1.3 and 2.0 support

See the Opera specifications for more details.

M2, Opera's new e-mail and news client

• Automatically generated access points, a revolutionary method of viewing and organizing e-mail
• Support for SMTP authentication
• Support for news servers with password authentication
• Integrated spam filter
• E-mail import
  • Eudora
  • Outlook Express
  • Netscape, versions 6/7
• Account wizard helps users set up e-mail and news accounts
• Possible to label messages, which makes messages easily accessible
• Support for POP3, IMAP, and ESMTP
• Support for threaded display of mailing lists
• Quick reply can send a reply without opening a compose window
• Pressing compose has the following possibilities:
  • When in a newsgroup: will automatically fill in the Newsgroups header
  • In a mailing list: fill in the mailing list as To: header
  • In a contact: view the contact address.
• It is possible to rename any access point, also rename e.g. Unread to Today (if that's your favorite way of viewing e-mail)
• It is possible to see e-mail from the day, week, month, last 3 months, year, or forever
• M2 will compress mailboxes automatically (see below)
• Reply and QuickReply can strip quote levels automatically
• Support for canceling usenet messages
• Use the forms multiline font for e-mail compose window so it can be changed from Opera preferences

For more information about M2, please refer to the M2 tutorial.

User interface features

• New MDI/SDI combination gives users the best of two worlds by allowing surfing in both MDI or SDI, with tabs (or even a combination) without restarting Opera
• Extended and vastly improved drag-and-drop support
  • Rearrange or move toolbar items using drag-and-drop customization
  • Move bookmarks, tabs, and MDI pages between SDI windows
  • Open or save any page link, or make it a desktop shortcut
  • Rearrange the address, search, and zoom fields
• Menu items can be moved, added, or removed by editing "menu.ini"
• Support for one-click download-and-install skinning
  • If the server returns content-type "application/x-opera-skin" and the file has "zip" extension, Opera will download and install the skin directly
• Color schemes can be selected from the view menu, and new schemes can be added by editing the "menu.ini" file
• Page bar replaces MDI window bar
• User mode address-bar icon has a drop-down menu that lets you choose alternative ways to view a Web page
• New 3D buttons
• Enhanced alphablended effects
• Introduced FastForward for quick navigation to the next most likely Web page
• Double-click will select the full URL in Address bar
• View > Encoding will change encoding immediately
• Progress line added
• Status field now draggable
• "Paste and go" added to the address field context menu
• Minimized pages are now hidden
• Minimizing a page activates the next one
• Middle button click closes a page tab
• Users can drag folders on the Personal bar while pressing Ctrl, or if the "Customize toolbars" dialog is open

Hotlist features

• New floatable download and transfer manager, with drag-and-drop support
• Bookmarks can be shown as panels
• History is implemented as a panel
• E-mail manager
• Hotlist can float or dock either left or right
• Single-click opening of bookmarks can be enabled in the "opera6.ini" file by changing the "Hotlist Single Click=0" setting in the "[HotListWindow]" section
• New links panel
  • Shows links for active window
  • Panel can be "locked" to keep the links
  • Drag and drop and quick download
  • Quick-find filter
  • Detect images/music, etc and give them distinct icon
• New Contacts panel
• Rearrange, Show, or Hide panels at will

More features

• Introduced the Wand, a password and form manager
  • Wand shortcut is available from text areas
  • Enabled use of security password in the Wand
• Installer supports both multiple user accounts (profile strategy) and single-user installation, i.e. Opera can install with separate settings for each user on Windows NT/2000/XP
• Press Shift+F11 to enable small-screen mode, which emulates a hand-held (small-screen) device running Opera
• Support for multiple user style sheets, including 100% CSS-made text browser, that can be applied to any Web page
• New JavaScript console can be opened from "Window > Special > JavaScript console"
• Opera's new session manager lets you choose between (multiple) saved sessions from the start-up dialog
• Opera's FTP client supports the EPLF directory format as well as resume download "guessing"
• Added a 14-day banner free period
• Start-up speed optimization
• Added support for printing during print preview
• Added support for the HTTP Content-Location header
• Added a preference setting to control whether the JavaScript console is auto-created on encountering the first error
• Added quick download to normal link menus

Accessibility and usability

• Support for alternate style sheets
• Built-in accessibility user style sheet
• Move focus to page elements with Shift+arrow keys
• Support for access keys on Web pages using Shift+Esc with access key
• Mouse wheel now affects what is under the cursor, not necessarily what has keyboard focus
• New navigation bar supports page/document navigation defined using link tags
• Keyboard shortcuts for all actions can be customized (added, removed, or modified) in "input.ini", and Opera even supports shortcut sequences
• Dynamic on-the-fly generation of access keys in menus
• Press Shift+Tab to get out of compose window
• Shortcut for "Close all but active", Ctrl+Alt+W
• Paste and go
  • Pressing Ctrl+D will use clipboard URL to go to new Web page (replaces F8, Ctrl+V, Enter sequence)
  • Also works if focus is set to the Address field or a search field
  • Added to the Address field context menu

Miscellaneous

• Global setting-file location changed from Windows directory to opera.exe directory -- used to include new settings added by the installer
• Support for accepting requested pop-ups only
• Support for favicon and icon files
• Improved "Send link in e-mail", which supports the RFC1738 format
• Updated "Identify as MSIE" version number from 5.5 to 6.0, and added keyboard shortcuts
• Status bar is off by default, and tooltip for link addresses is on by default
• DOCTYPE switching enabled (see separate document for details)
• Imported OpenSSL v0.9.7
• Help function
  • Files are updated
  • New layout
  • Better support for OperaShow
  • The help will now open in an ordinary browser window
  • Table of contents added
  • Help function makes full use of the Navigation bar
  • Added support for "opera:/help/" for direct access to help files

Changelogs after Beta 2

• M2 will compress mailboxes automatically
  • If a mailbox uses more than 25% of unnecessary disk space, remaining messages are moved to the currently active mailbox and cleared from the old one
  • This happens right after trash is emptied (if needed)
• Drag-and-drop move between IMAP folders implemented
• Reply and QuickReply can strip quote levels automatically
• Added support for cancelling usenet messages
• Sound alert for new e-mail works
• Use the forms multiline font for e-mail compose window so it can be changed from Opera preferences
• Opera will automatically fill in correct values for OperaMail accounts, including SMTP authentication, if "smtpx.operamail.com" is kept as server
• Activated new download dialog
• Made the Wand shortcut available from text areas
• Enabled use of security password in the Wand
• Added support for full name in personal information pop-up menu list
• Double-click will select the full URL in Address bar
• View > Encoding will change encoding immediately
• Progress line added
• Status field now draggable
• "Paste and go" added
• Shortcut added for "Close all but active" Ctrl+Alt+w (added to Page bar context menus)
• Minimized pages are now hidden
• Minimizing a page activates the next one
• Middle button click closes a page tab
• Imported OpenSSL v0.9.7
• The account wizard is opened if user attempts to compose, check, or send messages and no account is present
• Support for SDI open in background
• SDI "new" gesture will open new window (not new page)
• Speed column in transfer window is not reset after transfer is done

See the changelog for Opera 7, beta 2.

And the Opera specifications.