Tutorial: Opera 8 Tutorial

Online version: http://www.opera.com/support/tutorials/opera/

Opera Tutorial

Welcome to the Opera, a guide for new and existing users alike to show you how Opera works and how to make use of Opera's many great features and functions. It can be read from beginning to end, or you can choose to use it as reference.

Note: The tutorial sometimes refers to keyboard shortcuts, such as F8; most of these only work in Opera. This particular shortcut focuses the address field.

This tutorial was last updated for Opera version 9.0.

Whereas some differences remain between the Opera versions for Windows, UNIX, and Mac, most of this tutorial applies to Opera on all three major platforms.

Navigation

Links like the ones in the paragraph below are available throughout and will take you to the next, previous or start page of the tutorial.

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Table of contents

Click on any subject to go directly to it. Or simply start at the beginning.

  1. New Users
  2. Using Opera
  3. The User Interface
  4. Configure and Customize
  5. How to Get Help

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New Users

This part of the tutorial will tell new users how to get started using Opera.

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Start Using Opera

The first thing you need to do (if you have not done so already) is to download and install Opera.

When Opera is installed on your system, simply double-click on the Opera desktop icon, and you will be presented with the Opera portal page.

To set your own favorite page as the home page straight away, go to the menu Tools > Preferences > General, and enter the Web address of your desired home page. You can also choose how you want Opera to start. Opera has the ability to start with your home page, your saved pages, no pages, or you can choose to continue from your last Opera session.

To learn how to further make use of Opera's many great features, and customize it to work the way you want, please read the next chapters of this tutorial.

Need Help?

If you need help downloading, installing or using Opera, or you have questions, please read about the various ways you can get information and help.

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Using Opera

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Getting started

Once Opera is downloaded, installed and launched, the browser should connect to the Internet. If you experience any trouble getting Opera to connect to the Internet, please read the article Troubles Connecting With Opera.

You may also choose to set Opera as your default browser, which means that it will be used and, if not already running, launched every time you open a Web page from outside a browser. The second time you run Opera, you should be presented with this choice automatically.

Importing bookmarks and other data

You can import bookmarks/favorites, contacts and e-mail from other programs, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Outlook Express and some older versions of Opera.

To import bookmarks/favorites go to the File menu in Opera, choose Import and export, and then select the program you want to import from. The bookmarks will then be added to the default Opera bookmarks. You can view and access the bookmarks either in the panels (toggled by pressing F4), or by clicking on the Bookmarks menu. Read more about how to use and manage bookmarks in the Panels section.

Keeping up-to-date

By default, Opera will automatically check for updates, and will notify you if new versions become available. It will also check to see if there have been any site specific fixes that it can apply automatically. If needed, this automatic checking can be disabled using opera:config, but note that the site specific fixes are applied separately for each user, and you do not need to be an administrator of your computer to make use of the feature. If automatic checking is disabled, you can still manually check for updates using Help > Check for updates.

The settings that control checking and applying of updates are:

See the opera:config settings document for more details.

Why Use Opera?

Opera is a program with a large number of useful features and functions. If you have used Web browsers before, you should be able to use Opera the way you are used to if you so wish. But Opera also has many useful features that the commonly used browsers do not have. This and other tutorials are here to help you discover and learn to make use of those features and functions.

Cool Opera features >>

The Panels

The panels are located in Opera's sidebar, where you can organize your bookmarks, your e-mail and your contacts, keep track of your history, and much more.

The Panels >>

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Cool Opera Features

Below is a selection of the features we think make Opera stand out from other browsers. For a more complete list of the current features, take a look at our feature page.

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The coolest features

Mouse gestures

Opera's unique mouse gestures can speed up your browsing. Go back and forth, open and close new windows, or perform other routine operations efficiently using a gesture of the mouse. Find out how on Opera's mouse gestures page.

Keyboard shortcuts

Nearly every operation in Opera can be done using a keyboard shortcut. This includes navigating back and forward in your browsing history, opening and closing pages, and much more. Here are some of the most useful keyboard shortcuts. For a complete list of keyboard shortcuts, press Help > Opera Help > Keyboard.

Fast searches

Searching with Opera is easy and fast. Next to the address bar there is a search field. Click in that field, type the word(s) you want to search for and press Enter. Your search results will be displayed in the active page window. Use the dropdown to change search engines.

Tip: If you want to look at several of the search results, press Ctrl+Shift when clicking on the link you want to see, and it will open in the background while you are looking through the rest of the results. You can also use the Fast Forward button to make Opera automatically go to the next page in the search result listings.

You can also search in the address bar using search keywords. Opera has several keywords available that provide quick access to several popular and useful search engines. For example, to search for "cakes" using the Google search engine, type this in the address bar (without the quotes), and press Enter;

"g cakes"

You can see a list of available search shortcuts using Tools > Preferences > Search. To add a new search shortcut, click the "Add" button, and fill in the details of the search engine. To simplify this process, Opera allows you to convert almost any search engine field into a search shortcut. Simply open the Web page for the search engine, right click in the search field, and select Create search.

Block pop-ups

By default, Opera will block pages from opening pop-up windows without your interaction, and this is usually the preferred setting. Select to allow or deny this function completely from Tools > Preferences > General > Pop-ups. You can also choose to have them opened in the background, or of course to refuse or allow them all. This can also be set in the Quick Preferences, displayed by pressing F12.

When Opera blocks a pop-up, a notification will be displayed. Clicking on the notification, or the trash icon on the page toolbar, allows you to open the popup that was blocked.

Undo Close Page

If you close a page by mistake, or if you want to bring back a page you visited earlier that session, you can use the usual "undo" keyboard shortcut; press Ctrl+Z to get the page back. You can also reopen closed pages using the trash icon on the tab toolbar.

Notes

Speed up researching with the notes feature.

Content Blocking

As well as being able to alter several aspects of page display using the View menu, Opera also offers a content blocking feature. This allows you to selectively block undesirable image or plug-in content on Web pages.

While viewing a page, right click on the page, and select Block content. Opera will enter content blocking mode, and will highlight all content that is eligible for blocking. Click on the content that you want to block, then click "Done" button when you have selected everything you want to block. By default, Opera will block everything in the same folder as the images and plug-ins that you click on. You can choose to block only the exact file by holding Shift while you click.

Site Preferences

Opera allows you to set several preferences for individual sites using site preferences.

Widgets

Widgets are small Web applications that live outside the main Opera window. To learn more about widgets in Opera, please see widgets.opera.com.

BitTorrent

As well as being able to make use of normal file downloads from the Web, Opera also supports download of files using BitTorrent. For more information, see Help > Opera Help > BitTorrent.

The start-up dialog

When starting Opera, you can decide whether to:

  • Continue from last time
  • Continue from a saved session
  • Start with your home page
  • Start with a blank page

You can also disable the start-up dialog if you always start Opera in the same way. You can set all this by going to Tools > Preferences > General.

When you have a set of pages open, such as your Web mail, your regular chat room and your favorite news site, you can save them as a "session". If you then close all open pages, and load the session later on, you get the same set of pages back. To save one or several sessions, open the pages you want the session to contain, go to File > Sessions > Save this session and choose a name for that session, which will then be available for you to open whenever you wish.

Customize it

Opera can be customized in many ways, and you can make it look just as you want to. You can add or remove buttons and search fields, change the colors or skin, move or remove bars, and so forth. Most of this is can be done via the Tools > Appearance menu, or by right-clicking on the items you want to change. Read more about this in the section on Opera's user interface.

View Options

The icon on the right side of the address bar toggles display of the view bar. The view bar contains several options to help alter the appearence of a Web page to suit your needs. For pages that use a font that is too small, there is the zoom field, that allows you to zoom in on the page to make it easier to read. For pages that try to use too much space, and produce a horizontal scrollbar, there is the "Fit to width" option. This readjusts the page to remove the horizontal scrollbar, while still making it readable at almost any window width.

The "Show images" option allows you to choose if the page should be able to load all images, cached images, or no images. The "Author mode - User mode" option allows you to enable and disable style sheets on the page, including user style sheets or the in-built style sheets. For further details, see the Opera style sheets tutorial.

Voice

Opera for Windows 2000 and XP is able to read the contents of pages, obay spoken commands, and even interact with voice-enabled pages. For further details, see the Opera voice tutorial

Hotclick

If you double-click a word on a Web page, or select some text and right-click it, the Hotclick menu will pop up. You can now choose different actions for the word or text you selected, like searching the Web, translating it to a different language, or looking it up in a dictionary or encyclopedia.

Wand

The Wand is Opera's password manager. When you log in to a site, the Wand offers to remember the username and password for you. When you return to the site later, you can click the Wand button on the main bar to log in automatically. The log-in fields will appear with a yellow border when a saved Wand log-in exists.

If you prefer to always log in to Web sites manually, you can turn the Wand off completely. Note: Your username and password are scrambled before saving to disk. However, to get full protection, create a master password in the Security preferences, go to Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Security.

You can remove stored passwords using Tools > Preferences > Wand > Passwords. You can also choose to enter information about yourself into the Wand configuration. This can be entered into form fields by right-clicking in them, and selecting Insert personal.

Spell Checker

Opera can integrate with the Aspell spell checker, and the Mac OS X spell checker, to allow you to check spelling in text inputs, form fields, and e-mail, including Web mail systems. Find out how to check spelling with Opera.

JavaScript Options

The "JavaScript options..." button in Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Content allows you to enable or disable certain JavaScript functions, depending on your needs. Although these functions do have valid uses, they can sometimes be an annoyance when browsing the Web. You can prevent pages from using JavaScript to:

  • Resize your windows
  • Move your windows around
  • Raise, or move a window to the foreground
  • Lower, or move a window to the background
  • Change the text on the status field
  • Intercept the right mouse button
  • Hide your address bar

There is also an option to open Opera's JavaScript console when a JavaScript error is found in a page. This is not very useful in your daily browsing, but it can come in handy when debugging scripts or trying to figure out why a page using JavaScript does not work correctly in Opera.

Opera also allows you to run a User JavaScript on pages that you visit, allowing you to control what scripts on the page are allowed to do. For further details, see the User JavaScript tutorial.

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Opera's Panels

The panels, toggled by pressing F4, are available as buttons on the panel selector, by default placed on the left of Opera's screen space. You can add and remove panels of your own (see below), and choose which ones to present in the panel selector. Panel and panel selector placement can also be changed by right-clicking them.

Some of the panels are hidden by default, and will appear when you enable certain features. For example, the chat panel will only appear after you have created at least one chat account. Other panels may not be visible by default, but you can enable them using Tools > Appearance > Panels.

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Bookmarks

"Bookmarks" is a list of shortcuts to Web pages you wish to return to, and the bookmark panel is where you access, add, remove, edit, and sort your bookmarks in Opera. (Note: You can also go to the Bookmark menu and choose "Manage bookmarks" there, to get a larger view for editing.) Here are some of the things you can do:

Import

You can also import your bookmarks or favorites from other browsers. To do this, go to the File menu and select Import and export, and then which program you want to import from. Note that it might be a good idea to create a folder in the Opera Bookmarks first, and put all your imported bookmarks into one folder.

Mail

This panel is hidden by default and will appear only after you have created at least one e-mail or news account. The e-mail and news client and panel are covered in the Opera Mail Tutorial

Contacts

This panel lists your contacts. This panel is hidden by default and will appear only after you have created at least one e-mail, news, or chat account. Type in the name of the contact in the "Quick find" field, and Opera will start matching your search entry as you type. Click on the name of a contact to to view all your e-mail correspondence with that contact. Right-click on the contact and select "Properties" to view or change details, such as name, e-mail address, chat nickname, home page, notes or even an image of that contact.

History

The History panel lists the Web pages you have visited lately. Forgot the URL to that page you saw yesterday? Just go here and look or search for it; the "Quick find" feature makes searches highly efficient. Click on any of the pages in the history to go to them. You can change how many pages (if any) you want Opera to remember, by going to Tools > Preferences > Advanced > History. If you want to delete addresses from the History list, just select them and press Delete.

Note that you can access the full History window, which has times and dates for the pages as well, by pressing Ctrl+Alt+H or by going to Tools > History.

Transfers

When you download a file, it will appear in the Transfers panel. You can select the file you are downloading there, and choose to stop, resume or retransfer the download. At the bottom part of the panel, you can see information about the download speed, size of the file, and where you are downloading from.

To access the full Transfers page, press Ctrl+Alt+T or go to Tools > Transfers.

The Links panel displays all the links in your current page. To go to any of the links in that page, click on the links in the panel (or of course click on the link in the page itself). Use the "Quick find" feature to quickly locate particular links or linked file types from the document. If you click on the "Lock" button, the Links panel will keep the links currently in the panel even if you go to another page. Click "Lock" again to change this.

To access the links listing as a page, press Ctrl+Alt+L or go to Tools > Links.

Widgets

The widgets panel allows you to group widgets into folders, as well as opening and deleting them. To access the full Widgets window, go to Widgets > Manage widgets.

Windows

The Windows panel lists the currently open pages. You can rearrange them, move the pages outside Opera, close them and much more. This panel is hidden by default and will appear only after you enable it using Tools > Appearance > Panels.

Notes

Speed up researching with the notes feature. Jot down a note in conjunction with a Web page, drag the note (or right-click and paste) to an e-mail message, Web form field, or chat conversation to share it with others, or simply store your notes for future reference. When notes get plentiful, you can arrange them in folders.

More information on how to use notes.

Opera comes with a selection of built-in searches. Access them in a single search field in the "Search" panel.

Adding Web pages as panels

To show a Web page in the panels, press Ctrl+D to bookmark it, and then select to show it as a panel. Some Web pages provide special links (rel="sidebar") to add Web pages as panels. Note that pressing the "View" button in the panel and selecting "Small-Screen Rendering" will force most Web pages into more panel-friendly formats.

Tip: Right-click the Web page area in the panel for multiple choices.

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Chatting in Opera

Opera has a built-in chat client that lets you connect to IRC (Internet Relay Chat) servers.

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Setting Up a Chat Account

Go to Tools > Mail and chat accounts > Add > Chat to set up your first chat account.

  1. Type in your real name and e-mail address if you want your name to be visible to other users.
  2. Select a suitable nickname to use when chatting. If you log on to a network where your selected nickname is in use, you will be asked for an alternative nickname.
  3. Select an IRC network from the drop-down list, or type in the name of an IRC server.
  4. You should now be presented with a dialog containing a list of available rooms for you to join. Select from the list, or click "New" to type in the name of the room yourself. Entering a non-existant chat room creates a brand new room.

Tip: There are multiple chat rooms for you to join on the OperaNet network.

The Chat Panel

The "Chat" panel will display all rooms you have previously visited for quick and easy access. Rooms are grouped by server. Passwords for password-protected chat rooms are remembered after the first visit.

The chat client is integrated with the contacts manager. This panel will therefore also keep track of any on-line contacts that have a chat nickname added to their contact properties. The easiest way to add a nickname to an existing contact, is by using the right-click menu in a chat room user list.

In addition to displaying the nickname of on-line contacts, their status will also be displayed as a small icon if they have set it to anything other than "On line" (for example "Out to lunch" or "On the phone"). You change your own on-line status by using the Chat menu.

Chatting

Once you have joined a chat room, you will normally see a page containing the room's conversation, and a list to the right containing the nicknames of users present in the channel.

Chatting in rooms

If someone has set a topic for the room, this will be displayed at the very top of the chat page.

Talking to others in the room is simple. Just type what you would like to say in the edit field at the bottom of the page, and hit Enter. To grab the attention of a particular user, enter that person's nickname at the beginning of your line. Typing the first few letters and pressing Tab will auto-complete the nickname. Starting with the nickname will make the line highlighted on the other user's screen in most IRC clients, including Opera's.

You may notice that some of the names in the list of users are bolded. These users are operators; users with special permissions regarding administration of the chat room and granting permissions to other users. If you have started your own chat room, you are automatically made the operator of that room.

Note: Creating a chat room on the fly is simple and also temporary. Unless there is a so-called bot present in a room (often visible in the user list simply as X), it does not exist when no users are present, no one will be able to guard the room as 'theirs'.

In addition to "just" talking, you may perform IRC actions. By typing "/me" followed by an action description, normally in the third person, your action will be displayed in purple in the chat room.

Tip: You can type a lot of IRC commands directly into the text input field. Find more commands using this command guide for new IRC users or take a look at an advanced guide to IRC commands.

Chatting in private

If you would like to say something for only one user to hear, start a private conversation. This is most easily done by clicking on the user's nickname in the list - or in the "Chat" panel.

You can also type "/msg nickname" in the chat page input field. If you know the nickname of a person that is neither in your contacts, nor in the same chat room as you, this is particularly useful.

The private conversation will be displayed in a separate page. Go to your account's properties and the "Outgoing" tab if you would like private conversation pages to pop up in front of the other pages to grab your attention, rather than open in the background.

Sending files to other users

Opera allows you to send files to other users on a chat network. The easiest way to send files is to right click on the user's nickname in the list, and selecting "Send file", or by clicking the "Send file" button in a private chat window.

For more information about avoiding problems with sending files via chat, please see our knowledge base article.

Operators

A chat room's operators, commonly known simply as "ops", have extended permissions. "Control" in the right-clickmenu for nicknames in the user list is a sub-menu available only to operators.

Ops may kick other users from the chat room, select who gets to speak if the chat room is moderated that way (quite uncommon), and grant operator privileges to other users.

Which operations require operator privileges may vary from chat room to chat room. For instance, some rooms may let all users change the topic, whereas others require you to be a room operator. Click the "Properties" button on the chat page toolbar to see these settings for the room you are in.

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The User Interface

Opera's user interface (UI) is what you are looking at and interacting with. This part of the tutorial will explain the different parts of the user interface. Note that it can be customized in great detail if you wish. For more information on how to change or customize the user interface, see the tutorial's Configure and Customize section.

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Tabbed browsing and Multiple Document Interface (MDI)

Opera offers several ways to manage your browser window. As well as offering the traditional single page, single window interface, Opera also offers many useful alternatives, allowing you to manage your browser window the way that suits you.

You can have several Web pages open at the same time within a single Opera window. This is called tabbed browsing, and is the default setup that Opera offers. When several Web pages are open at the same time in Opera, these will be organized using tabs on the tab bar. There are several benefits to this, such as speed, easy access, low memory usage, and a less cluttered task bar. Click a tab to bring the page into view, or use the standard Windows function by pressing Ctrl+Tab. You can also drag tabs on the tab bar to reorganise them, and middle-click to close them. Right click on a tab to see more options.

You can configure how you want Opera's tabs to behave, using Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Tabs. The tab options allow you to tell Opera if you want it to use tabs, or you could even make it behave as a Multiple Document Interface (MDI).

True MDI is more than browsing with tabs. In Opera, you can resize pages and tile them next to each other on the same workspace to compare or work with several pages. For instance, you can have a chat page open and running next to a page for browsing or composing an e-mail message. To make the most of this feature, use Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Browsing > Show window menu to show the window menu. This allows you to manage the pages in the MDI.

If you want to have new pages open in an entirely new application window instead, like some other browsers do, go to Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Tabs and enable "Open windows instead of tabs".

Main menu

The main menu in Opera is made to be quite typical for the various operating systems; you will find that many of the options available in the menu are familiar. Be sure to keep in mind that the Tools menu is the main place to go to manage saved items and change Opera settings. Several extra menus appear when features are enabled, such as the Feeds menu, that only appears after at least one newsfeed has been added.

Main bar

The main bar is now disabled by default. This bar contains the basic buttons used to open files, save or print Web pages, and manage windows within the MDI.

Address bar

The address bar contains the basic buttons used to navigate within a document. Additionally, it contains the address field that allows you to enter a page address to navigate to, the search field for quick searching on the Web, and a button to toggle the view bar.

The address field also has some extra features. Clicking on the address field causes the start bar to appear, which offers home, top 10 visited sites, bookmarks, and search features. If the page contains any linked newsfeeds, a button will appear in the address field that allows you to quickly add the feed. If the page uses a secure connection, the security information field will appear that gives information about the security level the page is using. See the Opera security tutorial for more information.

View bar

The view bar can be shown by clicking the toggle button on the address bar. As well as inline search, it offers quick access to features that affect the display of the page, such as images, stylesheets, zoom, and fit to window width. If voice is available, the voice button on the view bar can be used to tell Opera to listen to a spoken command.

Personal bar

The Personal bar is a toolbar that can consist of bookmarks, folders with bookmarks, or your favourite search engines, for instant access. You can configure all this yourself simply by dragging and dropping from the panels. Links can also be dragged from the address field and from within documents. Choose a bookmark folder for display in the personal bar by right-clicking it in the panel. Choose which searches to include on the personal bar by right-clicking it and viewing the options available.

This toolbar is disabled by default. Should you choose to customize and use it, you can enable it using View > Toolbars > Personal bar.

Tab bar

The tab bar acts like a taskbar; if you have several documents open at once, you can select the document you wish to view by clicking a tab on the tab bar.

The tab bar also contains the trash icon that allows you to reopen blocked pop-ups and closed tabs.

Tip: You can close tabs by holding down Shift while clicking on the page bar tabs. Right-click the tab to see a context menu with more options.

Panels

Bookmarks and history, windows sessions, chat sessions and e-mail messages are some of the items that can be managed using the panels.

Navigation Bar

Some sites provide links for a navigation bar to make site navigation easier. If you have set the Navigation bar to "Show only when needed" in View > Toolbars > Customize, it will appear directly below the Address bar whenever you go to a Web page that has support for it. This toolbar is disabled by default.

The Opera help files are made for use with the navigation bar. Press F1 to get a demonstration and find further information about Opera's user interface.

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Configure and Customize Opera

Opera has always been known for its configurability. You can change both how it behaves and how it looks.

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Preferences

This is where you can select how Opera should work for you. You can access the preferences by pressing Alt+P or by going to Tools > Preferences.

Preferences >>

Tweaking the user interface

All users have individual needs and likes, and thus it is impossible to create a user interface that suits everyone. To reflect this, Opera makes it simple for users to change its appearance.

User interface >>

Skins

You can apply a skin to Opera to entirely change the way Opera looks. Skins change such elements of the interface as colors, buttons, icons, and back- and foreground images.

Skins >>

Style sheets

You can change how Opera displays Web pages. With Opera's default setup, this is done by clicking the button on the view bar and selecting "User mode" rather than "Author mode" in the drop-down.

Style sheets >>

Plug-ins

Plug-ins are third party software enabling multimedia in Web pages. A plug-in could for example give you the ability to play audio samples or view video movies.

Plug-ins >>

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Preferences

This is where you can set how Opera works. You can access the preferences in Opera by pressing Alt+P or by going to Tools > Preferences.

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A selection of the most used preference settings is gathered in the Quick Preferences for instant access. Press F12 or go to Tools > Quick preferences and have a look.

Not all pages are the same. Sometimes, you may want to apply one preference to most sites, but selectively apply a different preference to a few specific sites. For example, you may want to disable unrequested pop-ups by default, but you may use some sites that rely on being able to use unrequested pop-ups.

Opera allows you to set several preferences for individual sites using site preferences. While visiting the site, right click on the page (or press F12) and select Edit site preferences.

Once a preference has been set in site preferences, all preferences in that section will be used instead of the global preferences. To manage or remove site preferences, use Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Content > Manage site preferences.

For further information about Opera's preferences, press F1 and access the built-in help files.

More advanced preference management

The preferences dialogs provide access to most commonly used preferences. If you need more control over preferences, you can use the inbuilt preference editor. This is available using by typing the following address into the address bar, and pressing Enter; opera:config

For further information about what the opera:config settings mean and do, please visit the opera:config settings page.

To find out which files Opera uses for bookmarks, cache, mail, settings etc, simply go to Help > About Opera. The locations (paths) of these files are shown there.

All the preference settings are saved in a file called "Opera6.ini", which is located either in your main Opera folder (where you installed Opera) or in C:\Documents and Settings\your_user_name\Application Data\Opera folder if you installed Opera with the "Use separate settings for each user" option checked. Although you can open "Opera6.ini" with any text editor, and make your desired modifications (while Opera is not running), it is easier to use the inbuilt editor.

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Tweaking the User Interface

All users have individual needs and likes, and thus it is impossible to create a user interface that suits everyone. To reflect this, it has been made very easy to customize Opera's interface to your very own liking.

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Customize toolbars
Available in the menu under View > Toolbars, this dialog is the main control center for changing the Opera interface. Add, move or remove buttons, toolbars and search fields.
Download setups
If you prefer others to do the customization work for you, users share their custom setups for toolbars (among other things) on the My Opera Community Web site.

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Skins

You can apply a skin to Opera to entirely change the way Opera look. Skins change the colors, buttons, icons, back- and foreground images etc.

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It is extremely easy to get and install skins for Opera. Use Tools > Appearence > Skin, and then "Find more skins", and you will be taken to the My Opera Community skin section. There you will find many different skins, all made by people from our user community.

When you have found a skin you like, click on "Download this skin"; Opera will then download it directly for you, and apply it once it is downloaded. You can then decide whether you want to keep it or not. If you want to change between skins you have downloaded, or change back to the default Opera skin, switch back to "Show installed skins" and make your choice.

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Style Sheets

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You can change how Opera displays Web pages by changing "Author mode" to "User mode" in the View > Style menu, or using the button on the view toolbar.

Author mode, which is default, lets you see Web pages as the author intended, while user mode lets you view pages in your own style. Each mode contains a set of preferences. Switch between the two sets by clicking the image button on the view toolbar and selecting from the drop-down list. Usually you will change settings for your own mode (user mode), but you can also change the settings in author mode. You can choose what is applied for these modes using View > Style > Manage modes.

Tip: Press Shift+G to toggle between "Author mode" and "User mode".

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Plug-ins

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Plug-ins are third party software enabling multimedia in Web pages. A plug-in could give you the ability to play audio samples or view video movies, so plug-ins are often the link between the browser and a separate application. You must download and install plug-in software for each type of plug-in content. If you wish not to display plug-in content in Web pages, this can be disabled.

General plug-in installation instructions

These instructions mainly apply to Opera for Windows.

  1. Download the plug-in and start the installation program. If given a choice, install the plug-in for use with Netscape (or of course Opera, if provided), not Internet Explorer
  2. Follow the on-screen instructions and complete the installation of the plug-in
  3. Copy the plug-in's ".dll" file(s) to Opera's "plugins" directory if necessary
  4. Restart Opera to be sure that Opera finds the plug-in

How to view .dll files

  • Double-click on the "My Computer" icon on your desktop
  • From the menu, select Tools > Folder Options
  • Click on the "View" tab and select "Show hidden files and folders" under "Hidden Files and folders"
  • Make sure "Hide file extensions for known file types" is not selected
  • Click "OK"

Dynamic link library files (.dll) should now be visible on your system.

For more information, please read the plug-in documentation.

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How to Get Help

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1. Press F1

Consult Opera's built-in help files using the Help menu or quite simply pressing F1.

2. Search for information on line

If you have a question about Opera, chances are that other users have asked the same question. Answers to many frequent questions can be found on our Web page, so the fastest and easiest way to get help or information is to search for it on line:

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
The most frequently asked questions with answers from our knowledge base. The knowledge base contains answers to most of the questions our customers have. You can find a lot of useful information in the different categories.
Opera documentation
Go here for technical information about Opera, such as standards support (HTML, CSS, JavaScript)

The help file search field searches Opera's knowledge base directly provided you are on line.

3. Communicate with other Opera users

Opera has an active user community, and there are a lot of friendly people who exchange ideas and help each other. As part of Opera's user community, your voice is heard, and you can get help with your problems from knowledgeable people who have been using Opera for a long time:

My Opera Community
Our Web-based forums let you communicate with others through your Web browser.
Newsgroups
This is currently one of the most active user communities. Our newsgroups have a lot of traffic, and people are friendly and helpful. The server name is "news.opera.com". This server is free and open to the public.
Opera mailing lists
Here, you can subscribe to our mailing lists. The "Opera Users' list" allows you to communicate with other Opera users by e-mail.
Chat rooms on OperaNet
Join the Opera chat room or a chat room devoted to Opera discussion in your native language. Read more about chat in Opera to find out how to log on.

Many Opera employees participate in these discussions by reading and posting comments.

4. Report bugs

If you think you have found a bug, please check if the problem has already been discussed in the newsgroups or forums.

If you cannot find your issue reported there, it is important that you let us know about it by submitting a bug report through our Bug Tracking System (BTS). If you want to report a bug, please read more about how to do it.

Note that we will not be able to give you a personal reply to bug reports. If you have a problem you cannot find an answer to on line, you should contact our Customer Service Department.

5. Contacting us directly for help

You may purchase the Premium Support Plan, which entitles you to contact us directly through our Support Desk. You should bear in mind that we may not be able to respond immediately. While we usually reply within a day or two, increased traffic might lead to slower response times. We therefore strongly encourage people to look for information on line or to communicate with other users, to find a solution to their problem as quickly as possible.

When submitting a support request to our Support Desk, you should receive an automatically generated reply by e-mail, to confirm that your report has been received by us.

To contact our Customer Service Department, please go our on line Support Desk.

You need to register as a support desk user. This is done to allow both you and us to track the request and see to it that you actually received a reply. Please note that you must enter your Opera Premium Support Plan registration code in your profile when you register for the Support Desk.

If you submit a support request through our general contact form, your request will not be tracked, and you will also be informed of where to go for support.

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