Opera on a SUrface? Also reccomended extensions?
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birdofprey last edited by
I actually switched to Chrome a while back because I didn't much care for how basic the new Opera was, but I recently got Surface 2 Pro and have had nothing but problems with Chrome and hear FF (which I never liked) doesn't support touch while Opera does, so I figured I'd give Opera another try.
It does seem much less basic, which is nice (though I still miss a couple old things I used heavily, one thing I missed NOT using opera was that awesome address bar where I could choose a search engine by prefacing a search with 1 letter. Still find myself typing w something for a wiki search in other browsers). Still, despite supporting pinch to zoom and scrolling by dragging, there are a couple interface nitpicks I'd like t sort out to make it more touch friendly.
Specifically, I'd like some of the interface to be a bit bigger (namely the tabs) and I seem to be missing a new tab button. Can anyone help me get things a bit better optimized for touch usage and mabe provide some additional tips on how to make Opera better or recommend useful extensions. (if anyone makes a tab grouper that functions like the one in IE that'd be great. That's the one thing I like about that browser)
On a side note, one of the biggest things I am missing from the old opera is a good session manager (not just restoring the old session, but being able to save and reload sessions at will and having sessions that are a subset of windows). On Chrome I used Session Buddy which seems pretty good (and the fact it kept multiple autosaves prevented a crash from nuking my last session like happens sometimes in opera). Any equivalent here? Also can tabs be parked (unloaded from memory in some way possibly cached for quick restart to save on memory and CPU)? I saw a setting in opera://flags (#tabs_Hibernaton) that sounds like that but am not totally sure what it does.
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sgunhouse Moderator Volunteer last edited by
There is a "+" icon just to the right of the last tab - that's the new tab button. You might also try enabling HiDPI mode - at least, I think the Surface 2 is supposed be "HD' ... in the address bar type opera:flags and use the search. But no guarantees - as its presence in opera:flags suggests, it is still experimental. (Yes, you'll have to exit and restart Opera for the changes to take effect.)
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Deleted User last edited by
#tabs_Hibernaton can help you save a lot memory, since surface use ssd, load and unload tabs dont take much time. Unloaded tabs will be marked as suspended. enable #lazy load if you have multi tabs habit
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birdofprey last edited by
There is a "+" icon just to the right of the last tab - that's the new tab button. You might also try enabling HiDPI mode - at least, I think the Surface 2 is supposed be "HD' ... in the address bar type opera:flags and use the search. But no guarantees - as its presence in opera:flags suggests, it is still experimental. (Yes, you'll have to exit and restart Opera for the changes to take effect.)
Must be an invisible button. If I click to the right of the last tab, a new one opens, but I don't see a + there.
Ah I found HIDPI, but it's making things a bit too big actually (I have scaling settings on large right now, With HIDPI enabled, opera looks good on small)tabs_Hibernaton can help you save a lot memory, since surface use ssd, load and unload tabs dont take much time. Unloaded tabs will be marked as suspended. enable #lazy load if you have multi tabs habit
Good, I use tons and tons of tabs. That's half the reason I used sessions so heavily, to manually unload entire windows, and Chrome on my desktop has a tab suspender. Need that lazy mode on other browsers. A restart KILLS my system because browsers like to load everything back up at once. I also enabled the advanced lazy mode so stuff can slowly load in the background. Not sure how that will interact with the hibernate thing.
Oh, also is there a way to have Opera ope without saving like oter browser do? Forcing me to save EVERYTHING to my downloads folder is a bad habit picked up from Chrome and really needs to go away (I kow it DOES geet saved to the machine when you "open without saving" but it it does so to the temp folder which gets cleaned automatically. I have to manually scour my downloads folder for stuff I need and weed out the one time deals.
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sgunhouse Moderator Volunteer last edited by
Must be an invisible button. If I click to the right of the last tab, a new one opens, but I don't see a + there.
Visibility seems to vary by platform. On Windows 7 it is a large white "+" on the transparent background common there, on Windows 8 it is a smaller dark gray icon.
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lem729 last edited by admin
You can download pretty much ANY Chrome extension, as long as you have the Opera extension, called Download Chrome Extension.
https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/details/download-chrome-extension-9/?display=en
So since you're used to Chrome the transition to Opera should be easy. Of course you can also use extensions from the Opera store. https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/?ref=menu
So, go get Session Buddy for your Opera 21 from the Chrome store, since you like it.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/session-buddy/edacconmaakjimmfgnblocblbcdcpbkoWhen you download it, you need to go to your list of extensions, control shift E, and then find Session Buddy and install it. And then you're good to go with it.
On getting the interface bigger, on Windows 7 you can make adjustments to help there. (You can easily undo changes you make, so it's no problem experimenting, as long as you remember the setting you had before you made a change. If you have Windows 7, take a look at all of this thread -- particularly adjusting Message Box and Menus, in Windows 7's Personalization feature. If you have Windows 8, you need to find out if they have an analogous Personalization feature, that you can use.
https://forums.opera.com/topic/2661/version-20-21-increase-tab-text-font-size/1
If you use tons of tabs, you might also be interested in the Chrome Extension, TooManyTabs for Chrome. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/toomanytabs-for-chrome/amigcgbheognjmfkaieeeadojiibgbdp
If you don't do hibernation with that HiDPl mode in Opera, you can hibernate tabs in this extension, by just opening the extension, and moving the tabs to the right side (where there is a hibernate feature). -
birdofprey last edited by
Thanks for the tips. I'll look into those Chrome extensions.
On a side note, Opera just updated itself and now I don't see the HiDPI option in flags anymore, and I swear the tabs and buttons are even smaller now. I can't even read this text as I type it so I hope It's not mispelled.
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lem729 last edited by
Supposedly Opera 22 has HiDPl improvements.
http://www.opera.com/docs/changelogs/unified/2200/
I looked in Opera:flags and didn't see it either.
If you're using Windows 8 or 8.1, here's a link on making Windows-wide adjustments (assuming you use Windows 8 or 8.1).
I already provided a link for adjustments in Windows 7 (the menus, message box, and possibly other features)
On the HiDPl, someone else will have to explain how they made improvements, but the feature is no longer in Opera:Flags. Maybe it's somewhere else, and I just don't know where.
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birdofprey last edited by
That doesn't seem to do nything to change the size of the tabs and buttons on Opera.
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lem729 last edited by
If you can adjust Message Box correctly in Windows 8 (assuming the link I gave you gives you the ability to do that), it should adjust the size of the tabs, and the font size in them. It does the same for the personal bookmarks bar.
I made the adjustments in Windows 7 to Message Box, and increased the size from 9 to 19, bolded it, and italicized it, and the tabs are huge, the print is large and bold. Now a few things. Make sure you save (in all the places necessary) the changes you want, and also, after you save, where you have to save, close the browser and then open it again. I just did that and there's a huge change to in the size of the tabs, and the print in them. Also, a huge change in the size of the titles of the folders on the Personal Bookmarks Bar. And a big change in what's in the address bar. For people who can't read what's in the address bar, this definitely increases the font there. Now I have to restore the setting to something more reasonable.
Also, I increased the size of my Menus, and they help when I click on the Opera logo, to view my menus. Now they're a good size. None of this affected the size of the icons. I'm not sure what affects that.
Now be advised, these changes will affect all your browsers. But it's should be easy to reset this if you're unhappy.
