Opera 7. Worth it?

FrustratedPoet · January 30, 2003, 12:11

http://www.opera.com/products/desktop/

The final version is available it seems, but is it worth upgrading from the most recent version of Opera 6?

Are any of the new features really useful, or are they just fluff?

Also, I've never used the Opera mail client. Should I?

Zopperoni · January 30, 2003, 12:15

I haven't taken a look at the new Opera yet, I think I'll do that tonight.

I like the mail client though.

DaShi · January 30, 2003, 12:16

Do you need a fluff?

zulu9812 · January 30, 2003, 13:34

Opera 7 rules, and the mail client now gives you a web-based username@opera.com email account, rather than just importing Outlook settings. It's got a great feel to it as well. The only downside, and it's just a personal preference, is that the tabs are placed at the top rather than the bottom of the page.

Zopperoni · January 30, 2003, 18:15

I just installed it, and I like it. The only thing that's a bit of a shame is that I cannot use my old skin/button combination.

FrustratedPoet · January 31, 2003, 14:42

Just installed it. I like it alot, but the tabs being at the top will take some getting used. I think it's a more sensible place for them, but it'll be a few days before I stop moving the mouse to the bottom of the browser to change window.

FrustratedPoet · February 1, 2003, 10:20

Spoiler:

Pekka · February 1, 2003, 11:05

Yeah.. beta had many problems, but most of them seems to be fixed with this final version. I like it a lot. I'd never go back to any other browser

.

MattHiggs · February 1, 2003, 14:29

The new Opera is amazing. It's easily better than IE now - it just has a more complete feel to it.

Opera 6 was just average, it didn't handle tables and style sheets too well and liked to crash randomly.

I suppose it's just a preference thing really, but unbiasdely(is that a word), from someone that isn't a Linux/Microsoft zealot it's definitely the best web broswer around.

I've heard that Netscape/Mozilla browser, that is to be released, is looking quite promising.

Zopperoni · February 1, 2003, 19:02

Quote:

Originally posted by FrustratedPoet
Just installed it. I like it alot, but the tabs being at the top will take some getting used. I think it's a more sensible place for them, but it'll be a few days before I stop moving the mouse to the bottom of the browser to change window.

I have the tabs at the bottom.

Nikolai · February 1, 2003, 19:37

Opera is great!

I have had some problems with it earlier, but now I have used the browser for several days, and the only problem I've had, came an hour ago when I suddenly got lots of crahes, so I had to go back to IE...

Anyway, the browser is much better than it's competitors on several areas, and I recommend you to use it.

The only donwpeak is that the mail client doesn't work. It can't get contact with the mail server... But I feel that Outlook(2002 that is, not ugly Express) is the best anyway, so that's not a huge problem for me.

Zopperoni · February 1, 2003, 19:50

Quote:

Originally posted by Nikolai
The only donwpeak is that the mail client doesn't work. It can't get contact with the mail server...

It works perfectly fine on my system, and has done so for quite some time. Are you sure you filled in all the data correctly?

Sirotnikov · February 1, 2003, 20:03

Opera is great.

I'm only too used to IE to switch, by now.

And Opera doesn't do hebrew well. At all actually (correct for beta version 2, which doesn't render hebrew at all [beta 1 just rendered it wrongly])

Nikolai · February 1, 2003, 20:05

It worked perfectly on my system too, untill earlier today, as I mentioned. I rebooted the machine after installing DirectX 9.0, then I got the problem. I then used system restore in WinXP, but the problem was still there. I therefore don't think that was the problem, but nevertheless didn't install it again. I uninstalled the program, installed it again, had no problems, but then they came again. Then I gave up...

St Leo · February 1, 2003, 20:35

The only downside, and it's just a personal preference, is that the tabs are placed at the top rather than the bottom of the page.

Have you ever tried right-clicking or - I'm going out on a limb here - opening the View menu? Unlike Phoenix, Opera lets you place interface elements wherever you want them to be.

Are any of the new features really useful, or are they just fluff?

Opera now has better DOM than MSIE. To give one example, try this site's Pure CSS Menus. The classic ComplexSpiral also works perfectly now.

The Wand (CTRL+ENTER to enter saved passwords) rocks. Toolbar customisability is almost perfect.

The only downside is that they got rid of the Active Bookmark Folder. I used to use that feature a lot.

BTW, you should add the following to menu.ini to fully enjoy the optional Windows sidebar:

Code:

[Windows Item popup Menu]
Item, "Close"  = Delete

Here's a screenshot of my highly-customised version with the Minimalist skin and the Sea colour scheme:

Inverse Icarus · February 1, 2003, 20:42

how come yours has an ad, and zops doesn't?

did zop pay for his version?

St Leo · February 1, 2003, 20:56

There is a 15-day adless period for neophytes.

zulu9812 · February 1, 2003, 21:01

Quote:

Originally posted by St Leo
The only downside, and it's just a personal preference, is that the tabs are placed at the top rather than the bottom of the page.

Have you ever tried right-clicking or - I'm going out on a limb here - opening the View menu? Unlike Phoenix, Opera lets you place interface elements wherever you want them to be.

Yeah, okay...smartass

I've actually gotten used to having the tabs at the top, and I reckon I actually prefer it that way

Another great feature of Opera is the seamless skin-swapper. Fan-dabby-dozy

zulu9812 · February 1, 2003, 21:05

Speaking of skins, I've taken a bit of a liking to this one

Zopperoni · February 1, 2003, 22:40

Quote:

Originally posted by St Leo
There is a 15-day adless period for neophytes.

There is a key generator for almost anything

Zopperoni · February 1, 2003, 22:50

Quote:

Originally posted by St Leo
BTW, you should add the following to menu.ini to fully enjoy the optional Windows sidebar:

Code:

[Windows Item popup Menu]
Item, "Close"  = Delete

What does it do?

St Leo · February 1, 2003, 22:57

What does it do?

Rightclick on your sidebar tabs and add the Windows sidebar. If you don't have those two lines in menu.ini, you can't rightclick on the window titles in that list. Once you do add them, you get a context menu with a Close option.

If you are keyboard-only freak, this is a non-issue because you can always press Del to close any and all windows you have selected in there.

Zopperoni · February 1, 2003, 23:11

Ah, I see, thanks, but I don't use my Hotlist anyway, except for email purposes

FrustratedPoet · February 2, 2003, 05:39

Quote:

Originally posted by zulu9812

Yeah, okay...smartass

I've actually gotten used to having the tabs at the top, and I reckon I actually prefer it that way

Another great feature of Opera is the seamless skin-swapper. Fan-dabby-dozy

Exactly my thoughts. I'd rather have the the tabs at the top, but after having them at the bottom on Opera 6 it takes a little getting used to having them in a different place.
Also, all the skins I've ever seen are just ugly. The default skin is rather nice, I think.

Zopperoni · February 2, 2003, 08:57

Yes, it'll take some time before some nice skins roll in, until then I'm content with my Phoenix-ish skin.

Zoid · February 2, 2003, 09:14

Opera is quite nice, but my favourite browser for the moment is Phoenix
Still a bit crude and rough around the edges, but it´s coming along nicely

uh Clem · February 2, 2003, 09:19

I prefer using the menu to access Bookmarks, instead of using the Hotlist for this purpose. But the menu does not sort by my order (strictly alphabetical), even when Hotlist is sorted correctly. A minor pain. Other than that, it's nice.

St Leo · February 2, 2003, 12:55

Bah, Phoenix defaults (and doesn't let you change) to an SDI-oriented mode; also, there is no way to move the location bar to the bottom where it belongs.

SDI's done well in Opera. CTRL+ALT+N opens a new SDI container for MDI and, although you can't switch between them in the Page bar, you can switch between them in the Windows bar that shows a tree-like view of all the parent and child windows.

zulu9812 · February 2, 2003, 17:22

One thing I would like to do is have a seperate Bookmarks panel, where I can put all my most used bookmarks. I know I can just put them in a folder together in the normal Bookmarks panel, but I'd prefer it to be seperate. Does anybody know if that can be done?

St Leo · February 2, 2003, 23:15

It can be done in Opera 6 in the form of the Active Bookmark Folder Toolbar Button menu.

Edit: You could also put the links in a custom HTML document and Add Panel it to the Sidebar.

Second Edit: Oh, you can also drag a tab from the Pagebar onto any of the toolbars to create a link there. Full dragndrop rocks.