Opera Mail Tutorial

Customize Opera Mail

As with the Opera browser in general, Opera Mail can be customized in many ways. In this topic, we have listed just a few ideas about how to customize it to suit you.

In this topic:

Change default mail settings

If you want to change the global default settings for Opera Mail, click the Default Mail Settings icon -- marked with a wrench symbol -- at the top-right of a selected message, as show below.

Default Mail Settings icon

The settings are described in the table below.

Setting Allows you to...
Mail layout Change the layout of the message list and message view. Options are (from left to right):
  • Show the message list to the left and the content of a selected message to the right (default)
  • Show the message list at the top and the content of a selected message below
  • Just show the message list without any message views
Default list sorting/Sort Acending Change the way lists are automatically sorted and grouped
Threaded Enable or disable the display of threaded messages
Prefer Plain Text Toggle plain text; HTML formatting is the default for messages
Fit to width Toggle Fit to width, which fits messages to the available window width
Show Quick Reply Toggle the Quick Reply message box below the message display; this is off by default
Mark as Read Choose to mark messages as read manually, or automatically after a certain time

Note: For contacts view, there are additional options to select whether you want to see messages to someone, from someone, or both to and from someone.

Change individual view lists

You can change how messages are sorted, and what kinds of messages display, for each view using the Settings for This View icon at the top-right of the message list.

You need to enable the option to override default sorting, which is set using the default mail settings described above.

Settings for This View icon

The Settings for This View icon gives you quick access to some of the most common functions, described below:

Setting Allows you to...
Flat or Threaded Choose the type of message display
  • Flat view shows messages in a flat, unthreaded list (default for mail views).
  • Threaded view groups messages that belong to the same discussion (default for newsgroup and mailing list views). For more on threads, go to View and manage threads.
Sort by... Sort the selected message list by a range of criteria
Show Select the type of messages to display in the current view, for example, if you want to see only unread messages for one of the mailing lists you are subscribed to, not the ones you have already seen
Period Display messages from a specified time period (default is Forever)

Edit Opera Mail and news accounts

You can customize Opera Mail by editing the account details. To edit account details:

  1. Select Mail and Chat Accounts from the menu.
  2. Select the account.
  3. Select Edit. The Account Properties dialog displays. See the table below for information on how you can edit accounts in this dialog.

Useful ways of customizing Opera Mail accounts

If you want to...Then Edit account details and...
Use low bandwidth mode On the Incoming tab, check Low bandwidth mode. For POP, this means that Opera does not fetch more than the first 100 lines of a message unless requested. For IMAP, Opera only synchronizes new messages and does not fetch attachments unless requested.
Add a custom account category to organize accounts into categories
  1. On the General tab, add a custom account category.
  2. Type a new category name or choose an existing category from the drop-down.
Set up an alternate address people should send replies to
  1. Select the General tab.
  2. Type the email address in the Reply-To field.
Send copies (Cc) or blind copies (Bcc) of all messages sent to a particular email address
  1. Select the General tab.
  2. Type the email address in the CC or BCC fields.
Show a warning for empty subject line
  1. Select the Outgoing tab.
  2. Check this option.
Add a signature or message line on all sent messages
  1. Select the Outgoing tab.
  2. Type the signature or message line in the Signature field.
Change incoming server settings:
  1. Select the Incoming tab.
  2. Click the relevant checkboxes to:
    • leave or store messages on server.
    • download or store message bodies.
    • change timeframe for checking for new messages or disable automatic checking.
    • set a sound to play when new messages arrive.

Account settings storage

Account settings are stored in the accounts.ini file, located in your Mail directory. See: Help > About for the exact location of this file. Information for each account is stored in a separate section of the configuration file. To find the relevant account section, search for your email address and change the settings for that account.

Important note: Close Opera before making configuration file changes.

Switch off notification for new messages

To switch off notification for new messages, you need to use the Opera browser settings.

  1. Select Settings > Preferences > Advanced > Notifications.
  2. Uncheck Show notification for new messages.

Customize the Mail window

You can customize the Mail window in Opera Mail, as outlined in the table below.

If you want to...Then...
Restrict the display of messages to one account, one account type, or a category
  1. Right-click anywhere in the Mail panel.
  2. Select Show messages from.
  3. Select from the account options listed (default is All). The Mail and News account settings restrict message display to only email accounts or newsgroup accounts respectively. Choosing one of your email or news accounts will restrict message display to only that account. If you have set up a custom account category, select the custom category to display messages from that category exclusively.
Customize the Mail toolbar
  1. Select Appearance > Buttons.
  2. Select Mail or Mail view.
  3. Drag-and-drop buttons or fields to the Mail toolbar.
  4. To remove a buttons or field, right-click it and select Remove from toolbar.
Change the color of Unread message status The color of Unread messages follows the color settings of normal links.
  1. Select Settings > Preferences > Webpages.
  2. Select Normal link color.
  3. Select a color and select OK to confirm.

Customize the Mail panel

You can re-order the headers in the Mail panel by dragging them where you want them. You can also decide what headers to show by selecting the View button at the top of the panel and checking or unchecking items in the list.


Customize mail headers

You can customize how the mail headers display, for example, you can remove the To field from display. To customize headers, right-click a header and select Customize. In the dialog, you have options to:

Customize composition settings

There are ways to further customize settings for composing messages:

If you want to...Then...
Set automatic completion of Reply-To, CC or BCC fields
  1. Select Mail and Chat Accounts from the menu.
  2. Select the account and select Edit.
  3. Select the General tab.
  4. Type the recipient(s) in the relevant field.
Change the font used in the message composition window
  1. Select Settings > Preferences > Advanced.
  2. Select Fonts.
  3. Select Email compose.
  4. Select Choose and choose a font from the list.
Override the encoding setting for your account on a per-message basis
  1. Select Page > Encoding.
  2. If the current message contains characters that are not part of the selected encoding, select the Settings button at the top-right and check Encoding. The default override value is UTF-8.

Remove the signature

Your automatic signature displays at the bottom of the message. If you want to remove your signature, for example, if you top-post when you reply to messages, follow the steps below:

  1. From the menu, select Mail and Chat Accounts
  2. Select the relevant account and click Edit.
  3. Select Outgoing > Edit signature and remove any signature text.
  4. Click Save and OK to save this change.

Page 9 of 10 previousnext