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| Opera Tutorial Part 1 |
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| Contributed by Crockett | |||
Setting up Opera Over the last few months, I've noticed and been shocked at the number of people who have had their homepage and browser hijacked. More and more people are leaving Internet Explorer for the safer, non-activex browsers of Opera, Mozilla and Firefox. These people will never get their homepage hijacked ever again. These browsers are not only safer, but faster and have more options than Internet Explorer to play around with. I've decided to write this tutorial on setting up Opera for those who would like to try it. I'm using Opera 7.53 and recommend others using Opera, update to this version for security purposes. If you have an older version below 7.50, I recommend a clean install because of the big change in GUI (Graphic User Interface). You will need to also manually delete your Profile folder after uninstalling through Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel. You can find the directions for this folder by going to the toolbar and clicking on Help | About. Look under Paths | Preferences for the pathway. Users with 7.50 - 7.52 can remove theirs through Add/Remove Programs and leave behind their profile folder, including your user preferences. Install the new version and direct it to the same place as the last version. New users, if they've never used Mozilla, Firefox or Opera before, probably haven't installed Sun Java either and will need to get the version with java. People who already have Sun Java installed, can then just get the non-java versions. http://www.opera.com/download/ Once it is installed and you open Opera for the first time, you'll want to make your personal tweaks. You'll notice that your Internet Explorer Favorites were automatically installed for you. You can also go to File | Import to import your choice of bookmarks. You'll also notice a ‘Panel' on the left side of the screen. If you don't like this, it can be hidden. Go to View | Panels | Panel Placement and select "off". I like to set up a certain number of tabs (pages) that will open automatically for me every time I start the browser. To do so, go to File | New Page, then using your bookmarks, make that page part of a group. When finished, go to File | Sessions | Saved Sessions. You will be presented with a pathway like this: C:\Program Files\Opera75\profile\sessions\opera.win. Check off "Show these windows every time I start Opera". Press 'OK'. Now you'll want to work on your Preferences. Go to Tools | Preferences to find these. Start and Exit.... I check off "Start with a saved session" and have a certain number of tabs always open. Also copy and paste your homepage into the blank window.  Languages....I made no changes here as English is my language of choice. If you want to change the user interface to another language , do so by clicking on "Add" and choosing. Instructions can be found here: http://www.opera.com/download/languagefiles/  Personal Information....I left mine blank. This screen will save your personal information if you fill out forms requesting this. Forms can then be filled out using the right-click context menu.  Search....I highlight Google as my default search engine for new windows. Choose your weapon. Skins....All the skins you download will be found in here. To get skins go here: http://my.opera.com/community/customize/skins/index.pl?show=rec My three favorites are Tobs Theatre Paper, FauxS Emerald with reflections and Occhi Blu. Which ever one you choose, just click on "Download This Skin" and it will automatically install for you. I also checked off "enable special effects". You can also vary the size of the browser toolbar in the bottom right-hand corner by percentage.  Toolbars and menus....It's also a good idea to install the matching Setups of your skin if they have one. A list of these can be found here: http://my.opera.com/community/customize/setups/index.pl?show=toolbars For example, Tobs Theatre has a matching Setup Toolbar that goes great with its skin. Setups are shared menus, toolbars, keyboard shortcuts and mouse gestures that you can customize or add to your browser. By clicking the link that says 'download this setup,' the file will automatically install to where it should be. After the download, you will find the additional buttons in View | Toolbars |`Customize toolbars`.  Mouse and Keyboard....Here you can choose any mouse or keyboard setups you may have downloaded. You can also enable "mouse Gestures" as I have, middle click preferences and auto-completion. More information on Mouse Gestures can be found here: http://www.opera.com/features/mouse/  Windows....In this screen you can setup the internal popup blocker by setting it to "Block unwanted pop-ups". This will still give one the option of receiving a popup PM in a computer forum like this. Also setup Window Handling. When I click on a link I want Opera to open up a whole new Window and not a new tab or over top the present tab, so mine is set to "Prefer separate windows". You can also check off "smooth scrolling" here and showing scroll bars.  Sounds....If you want these programs to make sounds for certain actions, one can add this here. Click on the Event then click on "choose" and direct the select sound file window to your Windows media folder to choose a sound you like. This is found in C:\Windows\Media folder.  Fonts....If you like to change the font, color and/or size of certain interfaces like mail, menus, toolbars, panels, etc..., this is the place to choose them. Just highlight the type then click on "Choose" to get your options.  Page Style....Here, you can change the look of a webpage. You can set up the preferred zoom for your pages. This will not only include the size of the font, but any pictures as well. If you're like me, I like some pages one size and others another size. With Opera, no problem. Each tab or page can be set at a different size and these changes will stick if you use saved sessions. To accomplish this, look on the right side of the address bar for each page and use the dropdown menu of the ‘Zoom' button to set it. Changes in background color, links and default modes can also be made.  Multimedia....This section allows users to control whether or not they want to see images or hear sounds on web pages. It allows you to enable plug-ins, java and javascript. You can also control certain javascript options too.  Programs and paths....Opera has a feature that allows one to chat by hooking up to IRC servers. You can use the Opera servers or search for other IRC servers to chat with others. Learn more here: http://www.opera.com/features/chat/  Continued in: Opera Tutorial Part 2 |
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