30 Days to becoming an Opera8 Lover

Enable frames (default: on, TjL prefers: on)

You might have heard that some people don’t like frames. I’m one of them, most of the time. There are some good uses of them, such as yagoohoogle.com which will let you search both Yahoo and Google at the same time, and show the results in a frameset. (Note: that site will probably only last until the lawyers for Yahoo and Google get to the site and shut them down.) There are other good uses of frames out there; many webmail packages use them. Frankly, I’m not sure why you’d disable frames unless you were developing a web site using frames and wanted to make sure you had setup your NOFRAMES options correctly. Still, I like that Opera gives you the option.

Enable inline frames (default: on, TjL prefers: off)

Now inline frames (aka “iFrames”) are an entirely different. Most sites (not all, but most) use iFrames to load graphical or (*shudder*) Flash-based ads. Flash-ads are the screaming used-car salesmen of the Internet. IFrame controls really ought to be part of the F12 menu (see Day 28: Keyboard Shortcuts). I recommend turning this option OFF but just make sure that you remember it is off, in case you find a site that doesn’t seem to work, or seems to be missing something, it might be a missing iFrame.

Show active frame border (default: off, TjL prefers: off)

This is relatively self-evident too: for pages which use frames (not iFrames), Opera gives you a visual cue which frame is active. The option is off by default. If you use frames a lot, I recommend turning it on, it does make it a little easier to tell which part of the page is active.

Enable styling of forms/Enable styling of scrollbars (default: on, TjL prefers: off)

Some pages do some funky things to scrollbars and forms. Sometimes it can be hard to use them because some over-eager web designer has made them too obscure.

GIF animation (default: on, TjL prefers: that whoever came up with animated GIFs be slow roasted over an open pit next to whoever invented Flash-ads.... so “off”)

Ah, animated GIFs, the original web annoyance? Quite possibly. There are a few rare sites that have useful animated GIFs, but I suggest that you turn this off for most casual browsing. This can also be controlled by the f12 menu

Enable sound in Web pages (default: on, TjL prefers: off)

If animated GIFs were first, web pages with sound were the second major annoyance. Some sites use plugins (see below) for sounds, but turn this option off anyway. After all, you’ve got iTunes playing already, don’t you? Also in the f12 menu

Enable JavaScript (default: on, TjL prefers: on, but see JavaScript Options below)

JavaScript is the web equivalent of The Force: it can be used for good or evil. Pop-up/Pop-under windows? Evil JavaScript. Warning you that you left out information in a form before it gets submitted? Good JavaScript. I used to recommend that people turn JavaScript off (and I still want per-site preferences so I can enable JavaScript only for those sites that I decide are not Evil). However, Opera gives some great JavaScript controls by clicking the box marked JavaScript options.... We’ll discuss those options in just a moment. (This can also be controlled by the f12 menu)

Enable Java (default: on, TjL prefers: on)

Java also has very positive and negative uses. The one that most people seem to be familiar with today are some online games (such as Yahoo! Games, I believe). Fortunately I’ve noticed a dramatic decrease in the abuse of Java over the past few years. (This can also be controlled by the f12 menu)

Enable plugins (default: on, TjL prefers: off)

There are several different plugins out there, but by far the most common one is Flash. Flash remains at the top of my annoyance list, due to the overwhelming number of sites which use Flash to display ads. My recommendation? Unplug the plugins until you find a site that requires them, then just press f12 and enable it when you absolutely need it. (Hey! How are those per-site preferences coming along?!?!)

JavaScript Options

WARNING: My advice about the JavaScript controls here is very aggressive. Some legitimate sites will not work with these settings! If you come across a site that doesn’t seem to work right, the first thing to check is these settings, to see if they are preventing the site from doing something it ought to be able to do. (This is yet another instance of why we need Per-Site Settings! 8 (releases) is enough! I hope these will be available soon!)

Again, if you do not know what these settings do, I recommend that you do not change them. If you do want to muck around with them, here is what the default looks like:

For the user who is comfortable tweaking their browser to this level, I highly recommend un-checking all of the options, with the possible exception of the first one (Allow resizing of windows).

I have not yet seen a legitimate site which needs to raise or lower windows. That’s not to say that they don’t exist, I just haven’t come across them. What I have seen is this technique used as a way to attempt to subvert popup-blockers.

I also do not know of any reason why you should let the status field to be obscured. It is unfortunately common for disreputable people to try and block the true destination of a link by changing the Status Field (although Opera will show you the URL in a tooltip when you hover it with the mouse). Opera also shows the domain name in a thin bar at the top of the window even when the addressbar is not shown.

Similarly, I don’t know why you would ever want to let a script hide the addressbar, which is the web equivalent of being blindfolded and thrown in the back of a van. Opera generally does not permit this anyway, but again, I have yet to see a legit site that needs to be able to do that. (Ian writes: “Opera 8 never allows the URL to be hidden even when the address bar is, so the bundling into the van is done with and the blindfold off.” Thanks for the tip, Ian!)

You also do not want to “open the JavaScript console on error” because there are a lot of sites out there with JavaScript errors, and you will soon get annoyed with the console appearing. This option is only useful for people who are actively debugging JavaScript.

Traditionally, Opera never allowed scripts to receive right clicks. Why? Because most of the time that technique was used to attempt to prevent people from doing something like right clicking on an image and then saving it. A site would try to “protect” its images by putting up a script that blocked right click. Of course this did not discourage anyone who was really out to steal an image, but some web designers impressed their pointy-headed bosses by doing it. (Note that there are still plenty of stupid people out there who will do things like this, and those who will buy programs like WebLockPro (Google it, I won’t link to it) even though they offer no real security whatsoever! There is a one-line piece of JavaScript that will decrypt WebLockPro. Yet he is still selling it for $50 a pop (and speaking of pop, his site continually tries to pop-up windows while you are viewing it, which is yet another reason I won’t link to him).

Ok, rant over, deep breath in.... hold... and exhale... Now, there are some sites which (foolishly, in my opinion) do offer some useful features only via the right click menu. At least that’s what I’ve been told, I haven’t seen any myself. Anyway, if you run into one of those sites, you can set this option to “Allow script to receive right clicks” but in general I would leave it off, because I think the majority of places are going to be those lame-brained “protection” scripts.

Let me take this opportunity to point out that Opera has been designed to put the user in control. Internet Explorer was built, at least initially, to be more concerned with what the web site could do, and giving the web site control, which is why its security features were so poor. It was designed to let websites install software on your computer with ease!

So there are my reasons. I know some people will disagree with these suggestions. If you do, please add a comment below, especially if you know of legit sites that would break with any of these settings disabled. I might be open to revising my position if I can see some of the real life implications. For me, they have been a good ally in my war on browser hijacking. But once again, let me stress don’t mess with these settings if you don’t understand what they do.

Oh... and by now you have certainly noticed the bottom of the Javascript opions window, where it reads: “My JavaScript files” haven’t you? This is a new feature User JavaScript which is quite powerful in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing. But you’re going to have to wait for that.

My Style Sheet

Opera has a unique and powerful feature called Author and User Modes. These are different ways of presenting websites (sometimes called “Presentation Modes”). If you select the Style Options button, it will bring up another window. This can be a little confusing at first, but never fear, I’ll lead you through it. Generally I think of these two options this way:

1. Author Mode = “The way they want me to view the page”
2. User Mode = “The way I want to view the page”

I generally set these preferences up like this:

Note: This screenshot shows my recommended settings, not the default ones.

In “Author Mode” I let the page author choose the Page Style Sheet and Page Fonts and Colors. I select “My style sheet” for reasons I will explain in a moment. I also use “My link style” because otherwise most pages will not have underlined links.

It is important to realize that with these settings the author maintains most of the control, but I have the ability to override his/her choices by selecting a different style sheet to add to their design.

In “User Mode” I do as much as I can to ignore what the author said about how the page should be viewed, and select only my own options.

Once you have configured the modes, select OK on the “Presentation Modes” window and then select OK again in the main preferences window.

Then go up to the top right and click on the Eyeglasses Icon which will reveal the View Bar, as shown here:

There are several things here which we will cover later, but the important part is the button which says Author Mode. Click the button once and it will toggle to User Mode. Click it again and it will return to Author Mode. (Tip: You can also toggle the modes by pressing shift + G)

That shows you the differences between your settings and the page author’s settings. But wait! There’s more! Click the little down arrow (it’s a little small, so be careful) and a menu will appear (as shown in the image here.

Now, if you have checked “My Style Sheet” in the preferences for whatever mode you have chosen (Author or User), then you can also choose one of the specialized style sheets shown in that menu. Note that you may select more than one at a time and their effects are cumulative. Here is a brief description of each (note: the text in { } below are the filenames which control the various Styles. You can edit them if you want to tweak them [advanced users only!]):

Emulate Text Browser {textonly.css}

Causes Opera to display white text on a blue background, no images, alt texts shown.

Nostalgia {nostalgia.css}

Causes Opera to emulate 8-bit mode, similar to but even more primitive than Emulate Text Browser

Accessibility Layout {accessibility.css}

Adds several accessibility features, such as accesskey highlighting, larger font size, underlined links, etc

Show Images and Links Only {imageandlinkonly.css}

Anything which is not an image or a link is hidden

High Contrast (W/B) {contrastwb.css}

White text on black background (text is the same size as original). I tend to think of this as much harder to read. See next option:

High Contrast (B/W) {contrastbw.css}

Black text on white background (text is the same size as original). This is much more readable, as nearly every newspaper in the world will attest. This option is really useful on those pages where the author has gone color/design crazy and made it impossible to read (or if they assume you have loaded images which they have used for contrast, i.e. they have white text on a white background with a dark background image... but if you turn off images, it becomes invisible).

Hide non-linking images {hidenonlinkimages.css}

If there are any images there which are not also links, Opera will hide them.

Hide certain sized elements (aggressive) {hidecertainsizes.css}

With this option, Opera tries to eliminate elements (generally images or objects such as embedded Flash, I believe) which have certain declared sizes. This is something of a shotgun attempt at blocking ads on web pages, which may be effective, but may also hit innocent bystander elements which just happen to be of the same dimensions

Disable tables {disabletables.css}

This used to be a regular Opera feature, like enable/disable Frames. I wish it still was, but it has been relegated to this life. Obviously this option will disable tables on a page. This is often useful when printer friendly pages are not supplied and a page is setup in 3 narrow columns, with the center column being the text you want to read, and the other two being clutter. Highly recommended

Show structural elements {showstructure.css}

Web designers will find this useful: Opera will show block elements, as well as some meta information. At the end of the page will be a total count of font tags and nested tables.

Debug with outline {debugwithoutline.css}

Web designers will also find this useful: Opera will outline various elements which make up the page design.

Again, those options are cumulative, so you could choose both “Show structural elements” and “Debug with outline” to see both at once. Other useful combinations are “Disable tables” and “Emulate Text Browser”. (I wonder how many of you are already wondering what happens if you choose both of the “High Contrast” options. No, you don’t get an entirely white or entirely black page. One of them takes priority.)