I’m trying out the Opera browser, but bookmarks are a pain in the ass. As in, there’s no easy way to access regular bookmarks. I have to select Opera -> Bookmarks -> Opera -> Finally-my-bookmark-folders-are-here.
I can’t figure out how to set up the Bookmarks toolbar either. In Opera -> Bookmarks -> manage Bookmarks there’s a folder called Bookmarks Bar, but none of them are on the bookmarks toolbar. I also can’t find any kind of folder that does show the bookmarks Opera pre-populated the bookmarks bar with. And when I go into Manage Bookmarks, the Bookmarks Toolbar helpfully disappears, so I can’t, you know, drag bookmarks to it. WTF?
Frankly, I’m kind of surprised Opera didn’t know how to look for existing browsers that are installed, and offer to add those to opera the first time I started it.
ETA: I guess my General Question is, is Opera really this much of a pain in the ass to set up and use, or is there a simple way to do these things?
Oh yay. If I edit the properties of a bookmark in the bookmark toolbar, it moves that bookmark to the beginning of all the bookmarks, instead of leaving it where it was.
Opera developers don’t seem very interested in bookmarks. I can’t imagine what planet they live on. They actually think 90% of users don’t use bookmarks? I’ve never worked on a computer yet that didn’t have dozens or even hundreds of saved bookmarks.
The developer’s attitude is reflected in Opera’s clunky bookmark interface.
Ok, I know SDMB is the place for people who do that thing that nobody does but it is usually someone else’s weirdness. Finally, here’s one for me!
I’ve been an Opera browser user 1998 and I have never ‘got into’ bookmarks. I have (checks) nine Speed Dial tiles(?) but no bookmarks.
90% does seem high, though as I realize most people use bookmarks.
I’m a very long term user of Opera and issues such as the OP’s are very indicative of a major internal problem going on with the company. (E.g., I used to be able to italicize words in these posts by hitting Control-I. Now you have to use the buttons as the browser thinks all control keys are commands, even in text input. There is no plan to fix this error.)
If you browse Opera forums (which Opera itself rarely responds to), you can learn bits and pieces of the problems tearing the company apart internally.
In the short term, forget Opera 15. It’s a beta of a horrible browser with an incredible number of bad decisions thrown in.
Download and install Opera 12. (Just finding this page was incredibly complex. It used to be a single click away from the download page. One of hundreds of Bad Things going on with Opera.)
It’s a real shame that the company is falling apart. I continue to use Opera despite its increasing problems since it is the only browser that does tabs right. (I can’t believe that the standard response to “Can browser X minimize tabs?” is “Why would you want to do that?”)
I actually have Opera 12, it seems, which looks to be the most recent version before 15. From Help -> About:
Since I pulled up Opera to get the information above, I checked and … I don’t know. Right-clicking on a tab doesn’t give a “minimize tab” option. There’s a “pin tab” option that makes the tab really narrow, with just the favicon, and moves it to the far left of the other tabs. I could see that being useful. I could keep certain tabs I always have open pinned, and know them by their order and icon. Maybe that’s what he means.
I checked this, and Control-I doesn’t work in my version of Opera either. I used to use that in Firefox, but I use Chromium mostly now, and it doesn’t support it either.
Opera -> Appearences -> Panels -> then check ‘Show Panel toggle at edge of window’
Then check bookmarks, history, and anything else you want in the space above. Click ok. Now click anywhere on the left edge of your screen to open the panel. You can also drag bookmarks from here to the toolbar.
I am using version 12.16. I uninstalled version 15 from my smartphone because they decided to get rid of bookmarks for some unfathomable reason. The more ridiculous changes they make to the UI the closer I get to switching to another browser. And this is coming from someone who has used Opera for almost 8 years.
OK I did that, and I now have Bookmarks on the Address bar. I’d rather it were a drop-down menu, but I guess I’d be able to live with that.
Frankly, it sounds like Opera is a dead-end for me at this point. I was thinking about uninstalling it, but I’m having issues with the other two as well, and it helps to have other ones to test with. I guess I’m fed up with all the browsers at this point. That’s really the only reason I tried Opera.
Really? I too have Opera 12, and my bookmarks are right there under Opera -> Bookmarks
I have some of them in folders, and some folders have nicknames, like the folder for online comics I read every day. I type “comics” in the address-bar and woosh, up they all come.
Actually often I type comcis and up comes google, but that’s not really an Opera issue.
When I go to Opera -> Bookmarks I see the bookmarks that are on the bookmarks toolbar (which I don’t really need to see, because they are always visible on my bookmarks toolbar), and a couple folders called Opera Bookmarks and Firefox Bookmarks. Those folders do not show up on the toolbar. My regular, non-toolbar bookmarks are then down in the Opera Bookmarks folder.
OK, I did manage to get a Bookmarks folder to appear on the Bookmarks toolbar. Clicking on it gives a drop-down menu of the folders in it. Now if there were some way to stop the items in the bookmarks toolbar to change order every time I edit one of them, it might be usable.
Still, this is a much more confusing pain in the ass than it should be if Opera would like to have more new users rather than fewer new users.
Minimizing a tab is just like minimizing a window (the effect of hitting the underscore character). It puts the tab in the background, so as you are cycling thru tabs, minimized tabs don’t appear.
Really handy when Googling or reading message boards. Go down a list of links, hit the middle mouse button to background open the links you want. Minimize the main tab. Read the other tabs, close them, whatever, maximize the main tab and continue. I have tabs stay minimized for days until I get around to dealing with the thing on that page. But I never see it until I explicitly maximize again.
Don’t think of it as being at all like pinning.
I have a minimize button (the underscore) on my address bar. If you don’t have it, you can set it up by right clicking the bar and customizing it. (Hmm, just checked my setup and the minimize button appears under “my buttons”. Here’s a page with several buttons, including minimize, that you can add. I also have a “minimize all” button. That item should also appear in the top “Window” menu.)
You can also set “Click To Minimize” in opera:config so that just clicking on the tab in the tab bar minimizes/maximizes.
It is incredibly useful and no browser is remotely workable for me without it.
Again, I am perpetually astonished by how many people don’t appreciate this concept. Minimizing a window/subwindow is very common. Desktop OSes, word processors, etc. (But, sadly, tablet interfaces are going the other way for reasons unknown.)
Which button am I supposed to drag where now? I tried dragging “Minimize the current Page” to the tab bar, and it gave an error. I dragged it to the address bar, and it stuck, but it doesn’t seem to do anything useful. I click it, and I’m taken to a different tab, but nothing’s minimized.
FYI I switched to a browser called Sleipnir on my smartphone. They also have a version for computers if you want to take a look. It sounds like Opera is way to troublesome and probably not worth the effort (for you). I set up Opera when I bought this laptop a few years ago so I don’t remember all the little tweaks and customizations I did. Once I figure out a way to transfer my hundreds of bookmarks to another browser I’ll probably drop Opera too.
Does the minimize tab button appear in the Right-click on bar->Customize->Appearance->Buttons->My Buttons listing? Then you should be able to put it on that bar. I have on my “address” bar, on the left just next to the “X” close tab button. (My address bar is actually the start bar with the address widget added. I have customize the appearance a … tad.)
Clicking it should move you to the “next” open tab. (“Next” being defined by your tab cycling setting. Preferences->Advanced->Tabs.) If you keep clicking it, you should minimize all tabs and get that joyous completely empty window that other browsers avoid for no justifiable reason.