----- 
summary: "An in-depth review of the Opera browser, with the eyes of a Firefox enthusiast. A useful comparison of the two browsers, whether you're planning to _switch_ or not."
popular: true
permalink: firefox-lovers-guide-to-opera
filters_pre: 
- redcloth
title: A Firefox Lover's Guide to Opera
comments: 
- :date: 2007-12-28 15:35:26 +01:00
  :author: cvm
  :url: ""
  :id: 173
  :body: "bq. \"No find as you type \xE2\x80\x93 Another big disappointment for who comes from Firefox or Safari: Opera still uses a dialog box to perform page searches.\"\r\n\
    \r\n\
    Try pressing \".\" - DOT and write word or try stable Opera (search ASyouTYPE field in View bar).\r\n\
    \r\n\
    UserJS: http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=149014\r\n\
    \r\n\
    bq. \"No spell clecking \xE2\x80\x93 Again, both Firefox and Safari now offer text fields spell checking. Opera doesn\xE2\x80\x99t yet.\"\r\n\
    \r\n\
    Standard: http://www.opera.com/support/tutorials/opera/spellcheck/\r\n\
    \r\n\
    UserJS: http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=182282\r\n"
- :date: 2007-12-28 15:46:11 +01:00
  :author: Fabio Cevasco
  :url: ""
  :id: 174
  :body: |-
    Thanks cvm for pointing out two fixes to two of my "annoyances"! I updated the article accordingly.
    
    P.S.: The find as you type looks fantastic! I didn't know that, thanks!
- :date: 2007-12-28 16:36:12 +01:00
  :author: Ameer
  :url: http://ameer1234567890.blogspot.com
  :id: 175
  :body: "<blockquote>Auto-start widget? \xE2\x80\x93 This is a feature enhancement Opera Dev Team should consider: allow users to configure certain widgets to start automatically when Opera starts.</blockquote>\r\n\
    You can do that by keeping the required widgets open, when you close Opera and then using the \"Continue from last time\" start up option."
- :date: 2007-12-28 16:44:52 +01:00
  :author: Ameer
  :url: http://ameer1234567890.blogspot.com
  :id: 176
  :body: |-
    Opera has a couple of ruler widgets which are equal to and sometimes even better than the firefox "Measure It" extension.
    Have a look at <a href="http://widgets.opera.com/search/?order=name&q=ruler" target="_blank">here</a>.
    
    <blockquote>SearchStatus gives me Alexa Rank and Google Pagerank:</blockquote>
    Does <a href="http://www.puzzleclub.ru/files/seobar/" target="_blank">this</a> serve the purpose?
- :date: 2007-12-29 02:35:47 +01:00
  :author: cvm
  :url: ""
  :id: 177
  :body: "\"Use keyboard shortcuts \xE2\x80\x93 Believe it or not, you can literally use Opera without a mouse.\"\r\n\
    Try PASTE&GO feature. Select and copy (CTRL+C) part of text or link and use PASTE&GO (CTRL+B). "
- :date: 2007-12-29 06:39:29 +01:00
  :author: cvm
  :url: ""
  :id: 178
  :body: Ops, Opera 9.5 PASTE&GO feature = CTRL+SHIFT+V but in keyboard preferences is possible select NEW (Opera 9.50.) keyboard setup or Opera 9.2 compatible setup.
- :date: 2007-12-29 19:36:16 +01:00
  :author: Ed
  :url: ""
  :id: 181
  :body: |-
    I'm surprised that you knew about Sleipnir.
    How did you know that?
- :date: 2007-12-30 01:05:27 +01:00
  :author: Ayush
  :url: http://my.opera.com/AyushJ/blog/
  :id: 183
  :body: "bq. OK, I won\xE2\x80\x99t be able to access my favorite tags as quickly [...]\r\n\
    \r\n\
    You can add http://files.myopera.com/gcampos/files/delicious_panel/index.html to panel or your main del.icio.us page and turn on view>small screen\r\n\
    \r\n\
    bq. Additionally, Opera tabs [\xE2\x80\xA6]\r\n\
    \r\n\
    You can also arrange tabs (minimize/restore/cascade/tile etc.)\r\n\
    \r\n\
    bq. Default Browser Problems \xE2\x80\x93 Setting Opera as default browser on Windows doesn\xE2\x80\x99t seem to set the file icons accordingly (or worse, it resets them to the default file icon).\r\n\
    \r\n\
    That was a known bug in 9.5b (and is fixed in latest snapshots - http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/ )\r\n"
- :date: 2007-12-30 02:59:20 +01:00
  :author: Fabio Cevasco
  :url: http://www.h3rald.com/
  :id: 184
  :body: |-
    @Ed: I've spent _a lot_ of time looking around for alternative Windows browsers. Sleipnir is very popular in Japan and actively developed, but not too stable. I also tried all the variants of K-Meleon and then I finally decided to give Opera another shot!
    
    @Ayush: Thanks but... I can't access the link for the del.icio.us panel (403 forbidden). Thanks for the other tips too!
- :date: 2007-12-30 03:51:12 +01:00
  :author: Ed
  :url: ""
  :id: 185
  :body: |
    @Fabio
    right, that's why I knew of Sleipnir.  Though I didn't like it much for the idea of using Trident as it's HTML rendering engine.
    I also have tried Opera a while back but it was kind of hard to get yourself used to the new way.  I'm using Firefox now and I'm a heavy user of keyboard shortcut :P

- :date: 2007-12-30 11:29:44 +01:00
  :author: Ayush
  :url: http://my.opera.com/AyushJ/blog/
  :id: 186
  :body: "@Fabio: Copy the url and paste it in a new tab"
- :date: 2007-12-30 11:32:51 +01:00
  :author: Ayush
  :url: http://my.opera.com/AyushJ/blog/
  :id: 187
  :body: Oh and my name is Ayush not Ajush
- :date: 2007-12-31 15:29:59 +01:00
  :author: alex
  :url: ""
  :id: 188
  :body: |
    if you want to get some of the functionality of your firefox extensions in opera you should check this
    
    http://files.myopera.com/Rijk/blog/extensions.html
    
    
    

- :date: 2007-12-31 16:28:50 +01:00
  :author: bpm
  :url: ""
  :id: 189
  :body: "can also do inline search only on link anchors: comma instead of period."
- :date: 2008-01-01 08:45:22 +01:00
  :author: Nilotpal
  :url: http://freewebsoftwarereviews.blogspot.com
  :id: 190
  :body: "For me, Opera is better because it is more stable, faster, more standards compliant and more secure than any of the other browsers. Somehow, I think these basic features are neglected by other browsers for additional features. I do hope you will have a good time with Opera. You will feel irritated sometimes with web pages not displaying properly (though most times that is a problem with the web page and not the browser), and I think you will find the \"Open with\" option on right click useful. \r\n\
    And I think you missed one of the main uses of syncing, it synces with your Opera Mini on your mobile. This is a very useful feature for people like me who spend their commuting time reading feeds from their favorite sites and newspapers.  "
- :date: 2008-01-01 14:07:25 +01:00
  :author: mabdul
  :url: ""
  :id: 191
  :body: "Hi,\r\n\
    was reading this block because your entry on operawatch!\r\n\
    \r\n\
    at first: Opera can't handle gopher / wais. that is imo a big problem (see http://my.opera.com/mabdul/blog/show.dml/1180506 )\r\n\
    \r\n\
    2.) Opera has an built in html-\"notepad\" --> klick on source-code and edit it your way ;) --> click on \"apply changes\" and then voil\xC3\xA0 ;)\r\n\
    \r\n\
    ok, thats all for the first ;)\r\n\
    \r\n\
    after any changes send me an mail opera [ at ] mabdul [ dot ] de"
- :date: 2008-01-07 13:48:25 +01:00
  :author: DrLaunch
  :url: http://my.opera.com/drlaunch/blog/
  :id: 196
  :body: |-
    I couldn't find any eyedropper tools for Opera but I found one for Windows. I haven't tried it my self yet. Get it from http://www.tucows.com/preview/194554
    
    There is a Web Developer Toolbar for Opera but I don't know how it compares to the Firefox one. Get it from http://operawiki.info/WebDevToolbar
    
    As for Gmail manager, you could use the built in Opera mail client or you could set up forwarding from one Gmail account to another. You can also send from several mail addresses in one Gmail account.
    
    You can use del.icio.us as fast as and as easily as in Firefox with Pocket. Pocket can import your bookmarks and post them to del.icio.us, all without leaving the page you're browsing. Skip the unsupported browser nonsense on the front page and just install the bookmarklet from http://thinkpocket.com/admin/jump/get_bookmarklet
    
    There have been ways to synchronise opera before Opera Link too. Opera's settings are stored in one folder, and a lot of these settings can be copied to other Opera installations. Osync can sync your Opera profile. Get it from http://sourceforge.net/projects/osync
    
    To fix the Google Reader plugin problems in Opera switch to list view and press Space to scroll and go to the next story.
    
    You can use some incompatible sites in Opera with Meadco's Neptune plugin or open the page in another browser. Check out the following buttons: http://operawiki.info/CustomButtons#webdev
- :date: 2008-01-10 17:08:45 +01:00
  :author: Doug
  :url: ""
  :id: 198
  :body: |-
    Hi from Canada,
    I'm looking for a replacement for dogear which I used in Firfox,it marks the spot you stopped reading so you can pick up the again later.I might have missed it,Opera has a lot of Widgets etc, any ideas? thanks.
    flipper1@eastlink.ca
- :date: 2008-01-15 21:27:43 +01:00
  :author: GT500
  :url: http://www.gt500.org/
  :id: 201
  :body: You need to edit your spell check description. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, and it doesn't link to OSpell ( http://opera.gt500.org/ospell/ )
- :date: 2008-01-18 22:54:28 +01:00
  :author: anon
  :url: ""
  :id: 203
  :body: I'm not sure that Opera not being Open Source is such a bad thing. Sure we all want to see more great software become Open Source, but Opera has done a fantastic job of maintaining the position of being the most secure web browser as they are. You have to respect that. I'm not saying that it's not something I would like to see, but I'm also not wishing for it anytime soon. I'd rather see them continue their work as is and making the best web browser availible.
- :date: 2008-02-10 22:31:02 +01:00
  :author: social media helps improving alexa ranking?
  :url: http://www.alexa.com/data/details/main?url=www.fortunehotels.in
  :id: 209
  :body: Facebook.com is the online social networking site. Here people come into contact with each other and build up relations whether personal or http://www.alexa.com/data/details/main?url=www.fortunehotels.in business.
- :date: 2008-04-10 04:31:41 +02:00
  :author: martinlock
  :url: ""
  :id: 229
  :body: If you depend on link or site selling as a form of monetization you will definitely want to increase your http://www.alexa.com/data/details/main?url=www.fortunehotels.in Alexa rank, because it will increase your bargaining power when it comes to ad pricing.
- :date: 2008-06-27 17:47:46 +02:00
  :author: EroSan
  :url: http://my.opera.com/erosan
  :id: 244
  :body: |-
    I'm using Opera 9.5, and i wanted to add a few things...
    
    There is a widget called multiGmail, that lets you monitor more than one gmail account, and easily access their inboxes (in case your girlfriend decides to switch to opera) ;)
    
    Also, the thing about not wanting to synch in your friends computer is cool. You can still access your bookmarks in html form if you log into my.opera.com
    
    Regards.
- :date: 2008-10-08 01:13:55 +02:00
  :author: murphy83@gmx.net
  :url: ""
  :id: 263
  :body: |
    Hi,
    
    Great article - Indeed I've been using Opera since version 3.x in a time where "Netscape Navigator" was not activly developed anymore, IE coming up with many security problems and slow speed as well as non-standard conformance.
    I got to it by an article in the ct magazine (see www.heise.de/ct/) as they listed the current status of browser development at this time - well I soon got kind of addicted to using it everyday - secure, fast, standard compliant and one big point - very open to feature-requests by the users. Customized search was discussed in forums already back in 2000 if I remember correctly.

- :date: 
  :author: udkl_12_98
  :url: ""
  :id: 1889
  :body: Firefox is a BIG hypeBox .... Opera rocks ... I've been an ardent Opera user and propogator since I took to the Internet....
date: 2007-12-28 14:19:00 +01:00
tags: 
- browsers
- review
- opera
- firefox
type: article
toc: true
-----
bq. *Note:* This article can be considered a sequel for "An IE Lover's Guide to Firefox":http://www.h3rald.com/articles/ie-lovers-guide-to-firefox, which described Firefox through the eyes of an Internet Explorer fan. Similarly, this article describes Opera's features from the point of view of a user &ndash; myself &ndash; who has been using Firefox for years and is now considering another browser switch.

I am a Firefox fan. I've been using Firefox since it was named "Firebird" and calling it "stable" was a big overstatement. Firefox dragged me out of Internet Explorer, and that was definitely one of its biggest achievements.

Because I'm addicted to trying out new tools, however, I always kept testing new browsers I discovered here and there. K-Meleon, Flock, Sleipnir... When Safari came out for Windows I immediately installed it and used it for about 2 hours, only to realize that it wasn't &ndash; and it still isn't &ndash; usable at all, mainly due to sporadic crashes.

!>/files/opera/fast.jpg!

Similarly, I've been trying out "Opera":http://www.opera.com/ periodically, as new releases came out, but again it didn't seem to work for me. The biggest complaint I had was its inability to render heavily-ajaxified web sites properly. However, now it seems that the Opera Development Team made a big effort to improve the browser, and I was pleased to notice that "Opera 9.5b":http://www.opera.com/products/desktop/next/ ("Kestrel") doesn't seem to have this sort of problems at all.h3. Planning the Switch

Firefox has extensions. Plenty of them actually. Some are useful, like the newish Del.icio.us one made by Yahoo, and also crappy ones you'll never use unless you want to have a fancy button on one of your over-cluttered toolbars which enables you to interface more easily with X or Y web services you hardly ever use.

By contrast, Opera never attempted to add full-blown extension support to its venerable and yet very powerful browser. Instead, they kept building more and more features right into its core, being careful not to undermine the browser's two proverbial qualities: _speed_ and _stability_. What seemed a doomed philosophy at first turned out to be a good thingin the long run. More and more people are getting more and more worried about Firefox's memory issues and begin to _wander off_ to explore new things, exactly like I did.

The first step to switch from Firefox to Opera is to reduce the number of Firefox extensions to the bare minimum you need:

* Colorzilla
* Web Developer
* MeasureIt
* Search Status
* Gmail Manager
* Secure Login
* Del.icio.us

 How many extensions do you _actually_ use? Here's a short analysis for the ones above:

* The first three are related to Web Development only, which means that I don't need them unless I'm doing some web-development tests during which I'm always going to have more than one browser open anyway. *UPDATE:* there are a few "Ruler":http://widgets.opera.com/search/?order=name&q=ruler widget which can be used instead of MeasureIt _(thanks *Ameer*)_.
* SearchStatus gives me Alexa Rank and Google Pagerank: I think I can survive without those for a while. *UPDATE:* if not, there's always "SEObar":http://www.puzzleclub.ru/files/seobar/ _(thanks *Ameer*)_.
* I use Gmail Manager because my girlfriend uses Gmail on the same computer. I'm switching to Opera and she'll stick with Firefox, so no problem there...
* Secure Login? It's called _Wand_ and it has been built-in into Opera for the last decade or so.
* Del.icio.us &ndash; OK, I won't be able to access my favorite tags as quickly, but "someone":http://erlang.no/2005/10/06/delicious-opera-buttons-2/ already came out with a few handy buttons for a better integration with the popular social bookmarking service.

bq. *UPDATE:* For a list of the features provided by Firefox extensions which are included in Opera, see Rijk's "Top 150 Popular Firefox Extensions and Opera":http://files.myopera.com/Rijk/blog/extensions.html

!>/files/opera/opera_navigation.png!

Because I'm addicted to betas, I immediately downloaded "Opera Kestrel":http://www.opera.com/products/desktop/next/, i.e. Opera 9.50 beta 1. I never actually liked Opera's default theme, so I started looking around for *"new skins":http://my.opera.com/community/customize/skins/* (yes, eye-candy matters sometimes) and came across the Ximple series by "serafins":http://my.opera.com/community/customize/skins/author/?id=serafins. In particular, "2nd thought - Jimple":http://my.opera.com/community/customize/skins/info/?id=3835 quickly became my favorite.

h3. Tabs

_"Opera is the Web pioneer that delivered tabbed browsing in 2000 [...]"_

Opera tabs _feel_ stable and mature. Why? Probably because tabs are used more consistently to open not only web pages but also:

* Downloads ("Transfers")
* RSS feeds
* Notes
* Emails
* Bookmarks
* Widget Management 
* Contacts
* History
* Page Links

I think this is a great feature and Firefox should definitely consider it: v3.0 comes with new download and bookmark managers, but they're still dialogs. Yes, I know, there's probably some extension which allows you to display them in the sidebar, but that's not the point: Opera brings more consistency to the overall browsing experience by using tabs wherever they should be used.

Additionally, Opera tabs...

* Can be rearranged, exactly like Firefox tabs
* Can be restored, if closed accidently, by re-opening them from the Trash can
* Can be locked, meaning that they can't be closed accidently
* Can be duplicated
* Can be saved in groups (sessions) and re-opened later on
* Can be restored if Opera crashes


h3. Speed Dial

When you open Opera for the first time, and _whenever you open a new empty tab_ the Speed Dial is displayed. What I originally thought it was one of the most annoying things introduced by Opera 9 turned out to be actually useful and very addictive.

The idea behind it is simple: 

* Show a default page with 9 slots
* Allow users to drag links to those slots
* Display preview of each slot (which is cached and can be updated by refreshing the page)
* Allow users to quickly access pages saved in the Speed Dial via CTRL+1 .. CTRL+9 or simply by clicking them.

	Simple and effective. Once you get going with it, you'll overcome the initial feeling of imposition and you'll use it more and more: I literally can't live without it now!

h3. Right-click goodies

While I was testing Opera, my girlfriend came along and asked me to look something up on "IMDB":http://www.imdb.com/. I normally had IMDB as custom search engine in Firefox, but unfortunately Opera didn't seem to allow users to customize their search engines...

Totally wrong. Not only Opera lets you add any search engine to the search bar, it also does it with style and in the easiest way possible:

!>/files/opera/search_engines.png!

# Go to your search engine or any website with a search form
# Right click the search field
# Click *Create Search...*
# Specify a name and a keyword for your search engine

Done. You'll now be able to search that particular site directly from the search bar. As you can see, I added Wikipedia, IMDB and even the "Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages":http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Main_Page in this way.

Besides creating searches, Opera lets you do a lot by right-clicking anywhere on a page:

* *Block Content*: Right-click an empty area of any webpage and select *Block Content* to select which ads, scripts and images will be blocked from now on.
* *Validate*: Validate the HTML source code of the current page.
* *Translate*: Translate the current page into a foreign language with just two clicks.
* *Open With*: Open the current page in another browser installed on your system.
* *Edit Site Preferences...*: Choose to block/allow cookies and popups, identify Opera as another browser, set a different encoding, enable/disable scripts, images, flash, etc. These setting apply to the _current web site only_.
* View source, reload page every X seconds/minutes, send by email, etc.

h3. Widgets

"Opera Widgets":http://widgets.opera.com/ must not be considered as Opera's counterpart to Firefox extensions. Instead, Opera Widgets can be used as _poor man's Vista Gadgets_ on Windows XP, and they do their job most remarkably.

I'm personally very fond of these ones:

* "The Free Dictionary":http://widgets.opera.com/widget/3683/
* "Wikipedia":http://widgets.opera.com/widget/8461/
* "Calendar":http://widgets.opera.com/widget/3687/
* "Whois Widget":http://widgets.opera.com/widget/4513/
* "Currency Converter":http://widgets.opera.com/widget/3689/
* "HTML Entities":http://widgets.opera.com/widget/5118/
* "Twitter":http://widgets.opera.com/widget/7206/

They all have a common trait: they all behave as standalone programs, as they should be. The Wikipedia one, for example, can display Wikipedia entries directly inside the widget, unlike some others which just take you to Wikipedia, which is rather pointless.

Although widgets live within Opera, they can be displayed "always behind", which means they'll be glued to your desktop and therefore will be visible whenever Opera and other applications are minimized. 

Needless to say that anyone brave enough can make widgets for Opera by following a simple "Widget Specification":http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/opera-widgets-specification-1-0/.


h3. Everything you can do on the Internet

The term _browser_ applied to Opera is somehow misleading. Personally I would have called it something like "Internet Suite", because that would be a better choice due to the features it offers and the things it can do.

Traditionally speaking, a web browser can be used to browse web pages, read feeds (sometimes) and navigate through FTP directories. Here's what Opera can handle:

!>/files/opera/files.png!

* Web Pages &ndash; No need of explanations here.
* FTP &ndash; FTP directories are listed very clearly, overriding server's settings with a more user-friendly layout.
* Local Files &ndash; This was a surprise for me. Typing @file://@ will automatically load a list of the drives currently available on your machine. Similarly, auto-completion for directory and file names is supported! I almost started using Opera as my everyday's file manager (almost).
* Feeds &ndash; An embedded feed reader can be used to subscribe to RSS/Atom feeds and view them... in a tab, of course.
* E-mails &ndash; Opera _is_ also a pretty decent email client. As of version 9.5 full IMAP support has been added, which definitely makes the difference.
* IRC &ndash; Opera can be used as an client, which works pretty well. Who needs ChatZilla anymore?
* News &ndash; Opera can be used to signup and retrieve news from newsgroups.
* Gopher/WAIS &ndash; Although not used everyday, Opera can handle these old protocols as well.
* BitTorrent Files &ndash; By default, Opera can act as a BitTorrent client as well, so you can just open .torrent files through the program and then monitor the download progress in the Transfers window, like with any other normal download. While this feature is indeed useful, it is also possible to "disable it":http://www.opera.com/support/search/view/840/ and still use your favorite BitTorrent client.

h3. Portability and Synchronization

Let's spend some words about _portability_. Sure, there are two "Portable Opera" apps out there, and they work well enough, but one thing I'd like about a web browser is the ability to synchronize my preferences, customizations, themes, passwords etc. etc. across multiple computers. 
Firefox is "getting there":http://labs.mozilla.com/2007/12/introducing-weave/, although the technology is still at a very early stage.
Opera is doing something similar through "Opera Link":http://link.opera.com/, which allows you to synchronize automatically your Bookmarks, your Personal Bar and your Speed Dial. All you need is to get a (free) Opera account, login to Opera Link and enable the synchronization feature from the _File_ menu. From now on every time you'll modify your Speed Dial or Bookmarks, the changes will be sent to your Opera Link page. Similarly, whenever you start using opera somewhere else, if you login to your Opera Account you should be able to synchronize your Bookmarks and Speed Dial.

Here are some thoughts on this type of technology:

* It's not totally private yet. While it's great to be able to sync bookmarks and speed dial, the problems arise when you finish using your friend's computer for example... what happens to the bookmarks you just sync'ed? The only way to delete them would be to have your friend to log in to his Opera account and re-sync them. Not enough privacy for my liking.
* Your passwords, notes, widgets, etc. etc. cannot be synchronized yet, but that will hopefully be possible in near future.
* Sync'ing bookmarks is pointless for me. Although Opera still hopes to compete with Del.icio.us & Co., that will be very hard to achieve. I stopped using in-browser bookmarks long ago. 
* Link seems and interesting feature considering that Opera is available on virtually _any operating system_ and a lot of different devices (mobile phones, Nintendo DS & Wii, ...).

At any rate, it is still possible to "carry around" your personal opera settings by following the instructions provided on "this page":http://help.opera.com/Windows/9.50/en/backup.html which explains pretty much everything you need to know aboud Opera files and local storage.

h3. Advanced Features

Opera looks more "polished up" than Firefox in most cases. The superb usage of tabs for nearly everything is one example, and another one is the possibility to apply skins (themes) on-the-fly, without having to restart the browser. 
Firefox _can_ do this via the "Personas":http://labs.mozilla.com/2007/12/personas-for-firefox/ extension, but Opera had this built-in for a long time.

To apply a new skin:

# Go to the "Skins Directory":http://my.opera.com/community/customize/skins/
# Download a skin you like
# Opera will download and apply the skin immediately, *and it will ask you whether you want to keep it or not*. If you choose not to, it won't save it in your profile (very useful for quick previews). Neat.

Another quality opera always excelled to is accessibility. Besides using the interface in the traditional way, it is also possible to:

* *Use "mouse gestures":http://www.opera.com/products/desktop/mouse* &ndash; I wasn't a big fan of this until I bothered reading the excellent documentation Opera provided for them (which is significantly better than "the Firefox's equivalent":http://www.mousegestures.org/). It can be quite useful at times.
* *Use "keyboard shortcuts":http://www.opera.com/products/desktop/keyboard/* &ndash; Believe it or not, you can literally "use Opera without a mouse":http://www.opera.com/support/tutorials/nomouse/.
* *"Speak":http://www.opera.com/products/desktop/voice/ to it* &ndash; Opera's voice integration is getting better and better. Not only you can effectively "tell your browser what to do":http://www.opera.com/support/tutorials/voice/, you can also use the built-in text-to-speech function (Windows only) to have it read entire pages for you. It actually works quite well and it can parse punctuation well enough to apply the right intonation. Just for fun, I had it read it an Italian page... and it actually worked as expected: it was like listening to an American reading an Italian text using US pronuntiation! 

Finally, power users will be delighted of the way opera lets you hack the program settings, as you can:

* Use *Tools > Quick Preferences* to block/unblock popups, cookies, Java applets, images, etc.
* Use *Tools > Advanced* to access detailed information concerning cookies, cache (it lists every image/object cached!), plug-ins, Wand passwords, etc.
* Use *Tools > Appearence...* to access and manage appearance-related settings, like skins, toolbars, buttons and panels
* Use *Tools > Preferences...* to access general preferences (all the rest)
* Type in *opera:config* to view and tweak Opera's internal settings, somehow like Firefox's about:config, but much cleaner and easier to use.
* Download the *"Developer Console":http://dev.opera.com/tools/* to have a simpler alternative to Firefox's Web Developer Toolbar extension, to view DOM elements, CSS and Javascript information.

h3. Annoyances

After using as main browser for a few weeks now, I can say that it's great but not perfect yet. It's very advanced, faster and more mature than any other browser, of course,but there are a few things which should be fixed or improved.

In particular:

* *It's not open source* &ndash; This may not matter to someone, but some people consider this an essential requirement for their browser, and that's why Firefox is their most obvious choice. Although Opera is free, it is proprietary software after all, which means is definitely not as open as you may want it to be. Personally I'm not too bothered, as I'm starting to think that too much openness may lead to too many unuseful and bloated extensions and make the program somehow "unpredictable" and heavy.
* -*No address bar search* &ndash; Amazingly, only Firefox seems to have this feature built-in. I'm referring to the ability to type whatever in the address bar to be redirected to the site returned by a Google's _I'm feeling lucky_ search. It is possible to emulate this feature in Opera by creating a custom search for _I'm Feeling Lucky_ and assign it a short keyword like "l". In this way, for example, typing in @l h3rald@ should lead you to this website. Not quite as immediate as in Firefox though.-
* -*No find as you type* &ndash; Another big disappointment for who comes from Firefox or Safari: Opera still uses a dialog box to perform page searches.-
* -*No spell clecking* &ndash; Again, both Firefox and Safari now offer text fields spell checking. Opera doesn't yet.-
* -*No HTML mail composer* &ndash; Opera's built-in mail client can display HTML emails but doesn't yet allow users to create them.-
* -*Auto-start widgets?* &ndash; This is a feature enhancement Opera Dev Team should consider: allow users to configure certain widgets to start automatically when Opera starts.-
* -*Google Reader + Flash problems* &ndash; Sometimes I experiences some scrolling problems when reading news which contain embedded flash movies on Google Reader.-
* *Corporate Sites* &ndash; Unfortunately some corporate web site do not support Opera or are not displayed correctly in Opera. Unfortunately there's nothing much we can do about it but trying to "mask" Opera as another browser (via *right-click > Edit Site Preferences...*)
* -*Default Browser Problems* &ndash; Setting Opera as default browser on Windows doesn't seem to set the file icons accordingly (or worse, it resets them to the default file icon).-

*ERRATA:*

* It is possible to have Opera to redirect you to the right after typing a few words in thr address bar by setting Google's "I'm feeling lucky" as default search engine _(thanks *EJ902*)_.
* Spell Checking is "supported":http://www.opera.com/support/tutorials/opera/spellcheck/ via GNU Aspell _(thanks *cvm*)_ or by using "Ospell":http://opera.gt500.org/ospell/ for inline spell checking _(thanks *Dava*)_.
* Find as you type can be triggered by pressing @.@ and typing _(thanks *cvm*)_.
* It is possible to auto-start widgets by saving a session with all your widget open and reloading it at every startup [CTRL+F12 > General > Startup > Continue saved sessions] _(thanks *Tamil* & *Ameer*)_.
* As of the "latest snapshot":http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog/, setting Opera as default browser and handler for HTML files doesn't cause any problems _thanks *Ayush*)_.

h3. Conclusion

Despite the few annoyances listed in the previous section, Opera 9.5 beta 1 truly impressed me. I was waiting for Opera to get better before switching and now I've not been using Firefox for a few weeks.
Although Opera offers a lot of features, there's still room for improvements, especially for what concerns integration with third party services: I would really like to see some sort of integration with del.icio.us, and that could be possible via widgets at least. 
Regarding the new Opera Link feature, it looks very promising and a potential competitor for Mozilla Weave even though it will be used mainly to get more and more users to register to the Opera community (I did, at least), which is indeed very active any way.

To conclude this article, which still barely scratches the surface of this very powerful application, I'd like to praise two more things about Opera:

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digg_url = 'http://digg.com/software/A_Firefox_Lover_s_Guide_to_Opera';
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* Their website network, and in particular their truly excellent documentation knowledge base, which is very comprehensive of references, tutorials and interesting articles. I am a full time technical writer myself, and I've hardly ever come across better documentation.
* Their extensive "support and compliance to web standards":http://www.opera.com/docs/specs/, which makes Opera the most advanced browser ever made.

If you've not tried Opera before, or if you've always dismissed it because "X browser is better", you may want to "give it another shot":http://www.opera.com/products/desktop/: for me it was definitely worthwhile!