Simple Settings

Opera is a highly user-friendly browser, allowing for customization of almost microscopic detail. This page will take you through some of the basic Opera settings.

This tutorial was last updated for Opera 9.01.

Table of Contents

Opera as Default Web Browser

What does it mean?

Making Opera your default browser simply means that Opera will be launched automatically when you request information from the Internet. The procedure for making Opera your default browser depends on your platform.

Windows

The second time you run Opera, it will start displaying a dialog asking if you want Opera to be your default browser. Even if you have previously cancelled this dialog, you can change the setting by doing the following:

  1. Go to Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Programs
  2. Tick the checkbox for "Check if Opera is default browser on startup"
  3. Next time you start Opera, answer "Yes" when the dialog asks you if you want Opera to be the default browser on your computer.

Mac OS X

You can set Opera as your default browser on your Macintosh by doing the following:

  1. Open Safari.
  2. In the Safari menu, select Preferences > General
  3. Under "Default Web Browser" select Opera.

Note: On Mac OS X 10.2, you can also select a default browser using System Preferences > Internet > Web > Default Web Browser

Linux

For the two major desktop environments, the easiest ways of changing the default system Web browser to Opera are:

Gnome

  1. In Gnome's System menu, select Preferences > Preferred Applications
  2. On the "Web browser" tab, replace the name of the current default browser with "opera"
  3. Be sure to leave the " %s" in the browser name field for Opera to be able to launch files passed by other applications directly.

KDE

  1. Open KDE's control center.
  2. Go to KDE Components > File Associations.
  3. Add Opera as default application for the file types you want to launch directly in the browser, for example text/html.

Default Language

User interface

Opera is available in many languages. Depending on the version of Opera you are using, you may have multiple languages pre-installed, or you may have only a single language. In either case, additional languages may be installed by downloading the appropriate language files.

Please notice that the download page of Opera for Windows includes an International option with all the current language files.

To activate your language, select it from the menu under Tools > Preferences > General > Language. Once you press OK, the user interface should immediately change to the language of your choice, if the appropriate language file is included on your system.

If the language file of your choice is not pre-installed, you can install it manually. To see if Opera is available in your language, see the language files list, read the instructions, and download the appropriate file. Note that some localized versions have English help files.

Step by step

  1. Download a new language file
  2. Open Tools > Preferences > General > Details
  3. Click the Choose button and select the language file you want Opera to use.

Web pages

A Web page is sometimes offered in more than one language. Opera can ask the server for a version in the language you prefer. Simply open Opera's Tools > Preferences > General and select a language.

For more control over preferred languages, press the Details button. Then press the Add... button and choose your language from the list. Use the Move up and Move down buttons to indicate your order of preference.

Multimedia

Turning images, video, and sound on/off

Select Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Content to customize multimedia in Opera. Images, video, and sound can be enabled or disabled separately. Turning multimedia sound on/off will not affect system or event sounds.

Read more on our tips and tricks page.

Sounds

Enable event sounds

If you would like to associate sounds to different events while using Opera, you can do so using Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Notifications. From the list of events, select the one for which you would like Opera to play a sound. Click the Choose... button and browse until you find the desired sound file. Repeat this for each event, and click OK.

Turning event sounds on/off will not affect system or multimedia sounds.

Personal Information

Filling out forms

It is often necessary to fill out forms on the Web, and most forms ask for the same information. Save this information once in Opera and it can easily be pasted into any Web form. Opera will even offer to automatically complete it.

Step by step

  1. Open Tools > Preferences > Wand
  2. Fill in the information you would like to have easy access to and click OK
  3. When entering information into a form, right-click any text field and select Insert personal
  4. Select from the menu to paste information into a form

Start and Exit

Exit

Certain tasks can be performed automatically when you end your session:

  • Opera can ask for confirmation before exiting: Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Browsing > Confirm exit
  • Opera can save windows to start your next session exactly where you left off: Tools > Preferences > General > Startup > Continue from last time
  • Opera can delete stored cookies: Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Cookies > Delete new cookies when exiting Opera
  • Opera can delete stored stored documents: Tools > Preferences > Advanced > History > Empty on exit

Start

There are numerous start-up options for Opera, including Continue from last time, Continue saved sessions, Start with home page, and Start with blank page.

Select Tools > Preferences > General > Startup to customize Opera's behavior, and read up on Opera's user interface to learn more.

Tabs and Pop-ups

Tabs

Opera can open several Web pages at one time. You can choose to use a separate window for every page, or to hold all pages in single window, and to use the tab bar to manage them. The behavior of the tabs is controlled through the dialog box Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Tabs. Click on Open windows instead of tabs if you want to disable tab functionality. By default the tab bars have close buttons. If you accidentally close a tab, it can be recovered by clicking on the trash icon on the right end of the tab bar.

Pop-ups

Some Web pages automatically open new pop-up windows. This is sometimes useful, but often annoying. By default, Opera will block pages from opening pop-up windows without your approval, and this is usually the preferred setting. Select to allow or deny this function completely from Tools > Preferences > General > Pop-ups.

Toolbars

Detailed customization

Opera's toolbars allow for detailed customization. Use Tools > Appearance > Toolbars to select which toolbars to show. You can drag new buttons to toolbars using Tools > Appearance > Buttons, or remove them by right clicking on them, and selecting "Remove from toolbar". You can also use Tools > Appearance > Panels to select which panels to show.

The Tools > Appearance > Skin dialog allows you to select a skin theme to apply to the Opera interface, what color scheme to use, and what size to make the toolbar buttons.

Don't be afraid to experiment a bit and click Apply to see the effects, but note that changing more than one thing at the time might make it difficult to remember your original settings.

Optimize your workspace

On computers with a low screen resolution, making full use of the workspace is important. You can customize Opera's toolbars to make as much space as possible available for document windows. The toolbars can also be turned on and off from View > Toolbars on the menu bar.

Checklist

  1. Hide the panels using the panel toggle, or View > Toolbars > Panels
  2. Select View > Toolbars > Customize or Tools > Appearance > Toolbars
  3. Select Images only for the Main bar
  4. Select Text only for the Tab bar
  5. Unselect toolbars you are not using
  6. Set Progress bar to Simple
  7. Press OK

Some of the useful features for low screen resolution, such as the Zoom field, Fit to width option, and the Author mode to User mode toggle, are located on the view bar. The button located on the right end of the address bar toggles the visibility of the view bar, allowing you to keep it off by default, and easily enable it when needed.

Zoom and Other Display Modes

There are several options to increase readability of Web pages.

Zoom

If a Web site has really small fonts, and you want to make them bigger, zoom in or out by pressing the + and -, or 0 and 9 buttons. Open Tools > Preferences > Web pages to set the default page zoom for new pages.

Full-screen mode

If your screen is small, or you want to display a website with the minimum of clutter, type F11 to maximize the browser window. Now the toolbars are hidden, and the document window occupies all the available space. Press F11 again to return to normal viewing mode.

Fit-to-width mode

If a Web page forces you to scroll left-right to read all of its content, you can eliminate the need for scrolling by pressing Ctrl-F11. Pressing Ctrl-F11 one more time returns you to normal mode.