Ram & Reason:  Opera: Better than the Best

        By Rob Rice     January 2005

I'm one of those people who uses at least three different Internet browsers every day and at times even more. The reasons vary, but typically it is because someone at work has built an Intranet Website that will only display correctly in Internet Explorer, or I need the tabbed browsing feature of Firefox while doing research, or I want to see how one of my Websites looks in Mozilla/Netscape or some other type of browser. But when I come home and kick off my shoes, Opera is my browser of choice. The only browser I have ever paid for.       Opera, (http://www.opera.com) is a fast, easy to customize and secure browser from Norway. The speed and the tabbed windows feature is what first attracted me. With a multitude of skins that can be downloaded to change Opera's appearance and the numerous button and search field combinations available, Opera can have a setup for just about everyone.           But it was the many security features that enticed me to stay with Opera. Two of my favorites are the ability to have your Internet cache and cookies deleted automatically when you shut down Opera and the one click deletion of cookies, cache, history, and all private data.         I have also come to love "mouse gestures". This is a way of navigating back and forth between web pages by simply holding a mouse button and sweeping it to the left or right.       Are you tired of pop-up ads? Opera has a built in pop-up blocker that is one of the best I have ever encountered.             Opera also has a very nice download manager that allows you to stop and resume downloads.       If you ever add up the cost buying a pop-up blocker, download manager, and a cache and cookie cleaner you will see I saved time and money by buying Opera. For purchasing and pricing information check the opera Website. A free version is also available that is advertiser supported.     Features found in the latest version include:   Small size Opera is less than half the size of most major browsers. Sessions Opera lets you save a collection of open pages as a single session. Multiple Document Interface Displays multiple pages in the same application window, allowing you to resize and position the pages next to each other. Changing clients Opera can import bookmarks and e-mail messages from the most commonly used applications and formats. The Wand Opera's password manager, the Wand, remembers your usernames and passwords so you will not have to. Pop-up blocking Opera lets the user control whether Web sites can use pop-ups. Select to block them all, or let the browser open only pop-ups that you have requested. Opera Mail In Opera's e-mail client, the full texts of messages are indexed to allow for speedy searches. There is a built-in spam filter that learns as you add and remove messages. You may also set up custom filters. Voice Interaction The voice feature allows you to control the interface by talking and to have documents read aloud. The voice feature is customizable and adaptive according to your needs. Voice is currently offered in English and runs on Windows 2000 and XP. Chat Client You can now use Opera to connect to IRC servers and chat in rooms or privately, send files to other users, and so forth. The chat panel lists previously-visited chat rooms and contacts that are on line. WAP Opera can access WAP and WML content (content designed primarily for mobile phones) without a mobile phone connection. Mouse Gestures Opera supports mouse-movement recognition, allowing users to perform certain movements with their pointing device in order to access commonly- used features. These gestures can all be customized. Fast Forward Opera can automatically analyze the current page and work out the most likely URI for the next page in a sequence, and provides a button for this purpose. For example, when visiting an image gallery with numbered images, clicking the fast forward button will move you to the next image in the sequence. Hotclick Double clicking on a word on a page will pop up a menu that provides options related to the selected text, such as a Web, dictionary or encyclopedia search. Delete Private Data Opera can be configured to clear the history and cache when exiting, to protect the user's privacy. Any kind of private data can easily be erased at any time. Cookie Control Opera gives you detailed control of which cookies to accept and reject, such as allowing for different set-ups for different servers. Master Password Set a master password to block access to e-mail downloads and Wand logins. Browser Spoofing When sites are poorly written and set up to work with only one or a limited set of browsers, Opera provides the user with the ability to masquerade as another browser to get optimized content. Off-line Mode Set Opera to "work off-line", and no attempts will be made to contact remote hosts. Only cached Web pages will be displayed. Print Preview When printing the whole document, Opera supports previewing what pages will look like before they are printed. Favicons Opera supports favicons (Web site icons) in the address field and in bookmarks. Standards Support Opera prides itself in supporting all major Web standards currently in use, including CSS2, HTML4, XHTML1, HTTP1.1, DOM1, JavaScript, PNG, Unicode, and the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm. Validation Opera provides Web authors with immediate access to page validation, thus encouraging good practices on the Web. Check Your Spelling If your computer has Aspell with one or more dictionaries installed, Opera will recognize this on startup and let you spell-check any input to an e-mail message or other text edit field in Opera. Kiosk Mode Registered versions of Opera support a lock-down mode in which the browser can be used for unattended information stands in public environments.           Rob Rice is a computer specialist working in Anchorage, Alaska. Rob can be contacted at articles@isp.com