FAQ
FAQ
Opera 5 online manual
Working with Opera...
This tutorial will explain the menu functions of Opera 5 for Symbian OS. Simply click on the menu to be taken to the appropriate section of the manual. This reference is based on the ER5 edition of Opera and although other releases may not provide identical features or use the same menu system, most of this document should remain useful to all users.
Throughout the guide you will find various abbreviations and technical terms, many of which are explained by hovering over them*. Additionally, the Opera glossary is available to further explain many technical terms.
*(Some browsers have inadequate support for this)
New window
Select this option to open a new unnamed window which will work independently of all existing windows. Regardless of the current window's settings, the new window will initially load the start page in default Image and CSS modes, and at the default zoom level (usually 100%). From there you can browse other pages while existing windows remain loaded and ready to view instantly, simply by hopping between them via the Window menu.
Unlike many desktop browsers, Opera displays it's windows individually and at full size rather than on top of one another. Javascript intended to alter the window size or display properties will have no effect, so any popups will be displayed using all of the available screen area and showing the Progress bar, Toolbar, and scrollbars if enabled by default.
Open web page
Use this option to go straight to a file or document on the
Internet. When selected, a single text field will appear prompting you
for a URL. Opera will automatically add the http://
string to the begining of a URL however if you wish to use HTTPS, FTP or other non-HTTP protocol the full URL must be given.
Name-completion is also available which will automatically add other
strings to the begining and end of the URL, so depending on your Connections settings you may be able to omit the www
and .com
strings too.
Open file
Use this option to view a document or file stored locally on your Symbian device. When selected, you will be presented with a simple dialogue to choose the disk, folder and the file to be opened. Viewing local files does not normally require Opera to connect to the Internet, however if a saved web page contains ad banners, external images, iFrames or is set to refresh automatically Opera may attempt to go online. To prevent this you may go into Offline Browse mode.
Disconnect from Internet
This option disconnects your Symbian device from the Internet immediately, irrespective of any other application that may be sharing that connection. You will be asked whether you are sure you wish to end your current connection and upon clicking Yes your machine will disconnect.
If a page is left open which is set to refresh itself periodically, or contains rolling news and adverts, Opera may attempt to reconnect to the Internet again unless you enter Offline Browse mode.
Offline browse mode
Whilst in this mode, Opera cannot initiate an Internet connection or request a remote file over an established connection without your prior consent. This may be useful when viewing local pages you have saved from a previous session, or other downloaded documents which contain remote links and embedded objects.
If the RAM cache is sufficiently large, then entering Offline Browse mode temporarily can also be used as a method to return to pages from the current browsing session which aren't supposed to be cached, without having to download them again.
Upon loading any page that contains external content (such as ad banners or iFrames), Opera will display a dialogue informing you that the page requires an Internet connection and present you with options to proceed or abort. This dialogue will also appear if you attempt to follow a link to an online document.
Save as...
This option will save the current page or file to a drive on your
Symbian machine. When saving a web page, images and other embedded
objects will not be saved and if viewing a frameset, only the selected
frame will be saved. Note that the saved file is actually copied from
Opera's cache so if you have used the Stop
button while the page was loading then an incomplete page will be saved
to disk. If this happens with binary files (Zips, SIS files, office
documents, etc) then a Corrupt
error may be raised when you attempt to open them, so ensure they have fully loaded before saving.
If you wish to save a web page as plain text without the HTML, change the file extension in the dialogue to TXT. Opera will automatically filter out the HTML and attempt to replicate alignment and positioning using spaces. These files will be best viewed in a monospace font.
Save page and images as...
Select this option to save the current web page along with any inline images. The file paths in the document will be modified to point at the local images when viewed offline and like the Save as option the files will be taken from the cache, so if you haven't actually loaded any images when viewing the page online, none will be saved.
Close
This option exits Opera immediately but will not usually affect your Internet connection. While closing, any current download is terminated, all windows are lost and, depending on your Cache settings, the contents of the RAM cache will be saved to disk (for your next browser session) or all cache data will be wiped.
If Opera is the last Internet application to be closed, the connection will be left idle until your machine automatically disconnects depending upon Internet settings in the Control Panel.
Cut
This option can be used to remove highlighted text from a form element, Java applet, Address Bar, or other text field and place it onto the System clipboard. From there it can be pasted into another form element or other applications. To highlight the text simply drag the pointer over it or use the Select all option.
Copy
Use this to copy any highlighted text from a web page in the current window. This can include form elements, Java applets, the Address Bar or the text content of a rendered web page. The text will be placed onto the System clipboard where it can be pasted to other locations or other applications etc. Images or other objects will not be copied however.
Unlike EPOC Web, the formatting of rendered text copied from Opera will not be preserved. Headings, tables, lists and body text pasted into other Symbian applications will appear as blocks of plain text. It's also possible that after pasting into applications such as Word or Data some stray characters will appear, especially if the text was originally contained within separate table cells or other parent elements.
Paste
This option simply inserts the text content of the System clipboard into a dialogue, selected form element, Address bar, or Bookmark manager etc. After the text is pasted, it remains on the clipboard allowing you to make multiple pastes.
Delete
If the Address bar or a form element is in focus, this option will clear the entire contents of that element without copying to the clipboard. Once deleted, individual fields cannot be restored since there is no undo function, however if a form contains a Reset button you will be able to return all fields to their default values.
Select all
If a form element is selected, this option will automatically highlight all text but not copy or delete it. If used when no element is in focus, all rendered text in the page will be highlighted instead. You can use this option to easily highlight long documents without dragging the pointer.
Find...
This option allows you to search for a simple text string in the current web page, or within a selected frame or iFrame. Wildcards are not allowed. You will be presented with a simple dialogue containing a text field to enter the string and a few preferences refine the search:
Case sensitivity
This simply makes the search case sensitive, so a search for Epoc will ignore instances of EPOC
or epoc
.
Match whole word
This preference will ignore matches occuring within a longer string, so a search for Opera would not show instances of Operation
or inoperative
etc.
Direction
This option determines the direction in which the search will be performed relative to the current position, so if you click on the screen while half way down the page you can choose to search above or below that point only. If no part of the page has been clicked then the whole page will be searched, starting at the top.
Wildcards are not allowed in searches and upon the first match the browser will jump to that part of the page and automatically highlight the string.
Find next
After using Find, select this option to jump to the next instance of the search string and automatically highlight it. If no search has already been performed then the Find dialogue will be displayed instead.
Zoom in
This increases the zoom level of the current window by 10% and cycles through 80%, 90%, 100% and 110% levels. The option is identical to using the printed zoom icons at the side of the screen.
Opera 5 will always start with a default zoom level of 100% (unless you manually edit Opera.ini) regardless of any changes made via this option, the Progress Bar or the native Opera keyboard controls during the previous browser session.
For greater control over the zoom level you can either manually enter a figure into the Progress Bar or use the native Opera keyboard controls to rescale the display anywhere between 10% and 1000% in 10% increments.
Zoom out
Like the Zoom in function, this option simply mimics the zoom icons next to the screen by cycling down through four levels; 80%, 90%, 100% and 110%.
Show toolbar
This option toggles between hiding and showing the Toolbar at the side of the screen. Enabling it reduces the width of the browser window by 70 pixels (60px for the Revo/Mako) but gives ready access to some commonly used functions.
| Opera | By tapping on the application name (Opera) at the top of the toolbar, a list of all open files and applications will be displayed in a floating dialogue. From there you can close some of them to free up more RAM if Opera requires it. |
| Stop | Stops all downloading in the current window. This button mimics the Stop option on the Navigation menu and the smaller button on the Progress bar. |
| Find in page | Brings up a dialogue to search for a text string within the current window/frame. Clicking this button is identical to using the Find option on the Edit menu. |
| Home page | Loads the Opera start page, as defined by the Set home option on the Navigation menu, into the current window. |
| Search page | Loads the search page into the current window. By default this is a multi-search page on the Opera website however you can change this URL to your favourite search engine via the Set search page option. |
| Add Bookmk | Mimics the Add bookmark option on the Tools menu. |
| Book marks | This button displays the Bookmark manager in the same way that selecting Bookmarks from the Tools menu does. While the Opera Toobar is displayed, a tick will appear to the left of this option. |
Scroll bars
This option is used to display scrollbars on all windows and frames. Scrollbars are usually applied only where necessary meaning if a long page can be displayed without the need for side scrolling then only the horizontal bar will appear. Scrollbars reduce the width/height of the browser window or frame by 23 pixels (17px on Revo/Mako).
When scrollbars are enabled, a tick will appear to the left of this option, regardless of whether the current page requires them.
Progress bar
This option toggles the address and information bar at the bottom of the screen on and off. Unlike EPOC Web there is no option to move the bar to the top of the screen. Enabling the Progress bar will allow you to view live status information and display options including:
Security mode
A padlock symbol at the extreme left of the bar will show if Opera is currently using SSL or TLS1 encryption protocols. An opened padlock indicates a normal HTTP connection. This icon is for display purposes only and is not a button. You cannot force a secure connection to a server so clicking it will do nothing.
Image mode
The second button shows a picture frame symbol and this indicates the Image mode Opera is currently in. An empty frame shows that Opera is set to download and display all images, including backgrounds. A frame with an arrow pointing downward means that Opera will only display images that have already been downloaded and are still held in the cache. New images will be ignored though if image sizes have been set in the HTML/CSS then an outline containing the Alt text will be drawn to preserve layout. Finally, a picture frame icon with a cross shows that no images will be displayed at all, even if they're available from the cache. While in this mode Opera will ignore any specified image sizes and reflow the page to display all Alt text in full, without it being clipped. Click on this icon to cycle through all three image modes.
CSS mode
The third permanent button indicates the current CSS mode and shows a symbol of a paper document with a folded corner. When in Document mode Opera usually applies CSS to the page as the author intended though this can be augmented via the Documents settings. Clicking the button will put Opera into User CSS mode where, depending on the User mode settings, it will ignore the author's CSS and apply your own stylesheet instead. While in User mode, the icon will change to show the figure of a person.
Stop
While a page is currently loading, a fourth button will temporarily appear displaying an icon of a small disc with a cross on it. Simply click this button to stop the current document downloading immediately. This button mimics the larger button on the Toolbar and the Stop option on the Navigation menu.
Percentage of document
While a page is still loading, an icon of a paper document under a percentage sign will be shown next to a live figure indicating how much of the document has been downloaded so far. Usually this figure will be a percentage however if the server isn't configured to tell the browser the file size before sending it, Opera will display the amount of data it is receiving in KB.
Number of images
While a page is loading, a picture frame icon with a hash symbol will be displayed next to a live ratio of the total number of images contained within the document to the number downloaded so far.
Total data retrieved
This live figure is displayed only while a document is loading and indicates the total amount of data in KB downloaded by Opera. This figure includes the HTML, images, Javascripts, Stylesheets, Java applets and any other files downloaded as part of the whole document.
Connection speed
While still downloading the document, this section of the Progress bar will display the live transfer rate between you and the remote server. Normaly this figure will be in KB however if the connection becomes slow and drops under 1KB it will change to B/s.
Download time
This simple timer will be visible while Opera is still downloading data and tells you how long it has been loading/rendering the page in mm:ss format.
Connection Status
This part of the Progress bar displays live server information such as whether Opera has located and connected to it, whether it is waiting for a response, establishing a secure connection or is currently downloading data, etc.
Address Bar
After the page has finished loading, all but the first three buttons on the Progress bar will dissapear and be replaced with a drop down list showing the URL of the current document or file. Focusing on the field will allow you to enter another URL or bookmark nickname (or Ctrl+Click to highlight the whole field) and clicking on the button to the right of it will bring up a Recent history list.
Zooming
When downloading is complete, another drop down list will appear at the extreme right of the Progress bar providing ready access to several zoom levels. In addition to the six preset options you may also manually enter any zoom size between 10-1000%, in 10% increments, for instant re-scaling.
Load all images
After a page has loaded with Image mode disabled or set to display cached images only, this option allows you to load all of the remaining images. If used while Opera is set to display no images at all, Image mode will be changed to Cached only.
Cache...
When selecting this option, a three-card dialogue will be displayed containing all of the RAM and Disk cache settings:
Disk cache
| Disk cache | Limits the amount of disk memory available for the cache. Once the amount of data Opera has saved to disk reaches this limit the oldest files will start to be overwritten. |
| Cache documents | This option determines whether HTML documents will be included with the cache data. |
| Cache images | This option determines whether inline images, within HTML/XML documents will be cached. |
| Cache other | Depending on whether this option has been enabled, Stylesheets, Javascripts, applets and other files (including those used by any installed plugins) will also be cached. |
| Empty on exit | If enabled, the entire contents of both the RAM and Disk caches will be deleted when you close Opera. If left un-ticked, the RAM cache will be appended to the Disk cache on exit though the Disk cache limit will still be respected. |
RAM cache
| Automatic RAM cache | When this mode is set, Opera will automatically adjust the RAM cache limit to around 10% of the system RAM currently available and cache all files there initially, before transferring them to the Disk cache later. It's normal for Opera to consume more RAM while in this mode, especially if few other programs are running at the same time. |
| Cache documents | If Automatic RAM cache is disabled this option will determine whether all HTML files are initially cached into RAM rather than to disk. |
| Cache images | If Automatic RAM cache is disabled, this option will allow all images to first be cached into RAM rather than Disk cache. |
| Document cache size | When manually set to cache documents, this option will limit the amount of RAM reserved for the caching of HTML/XML files by the browser. This figure is independent of the RAM Opera is also using to function in and render web pages with. |
| Images cache size | If Opera is set to RAM-cache images, this option will manually limit the amount of RAM used. |
| Cache rendered images | This option, also known as Turbo mode determines whether the images held in the RAM cache are the original JPEG/GIF files or the decoded (and so substantially larger) images that Opera actually displays. |
Misc
| Check modified documents | If a cached HTML file was downloaded from a server which sent out a Last-ModifiedHTTP header then this date will be sent back to the server whenever you display that document again. If the Last-Modifieddate on the server has changed then Opera will receive and display the updated file, otherwise Opera will display the file currently held in it's cache. |
| Check modified images | This setting enables Opera to send the Last-Modifieddate of cached images back to the server each time the images are displayed. As with modified documents, if the image file hasn't changed since it was last downloaded then no image data will be received and Opera will display the cached image instead. |
| Check modified other | As well as checking for modified HTML documents and image files, Opera can also check for stylesheets, Javascripts, Applets and other embedded objects that may have been updated since last being downloaded and cached. |
| Check redirect documents | This option will check for any changes made to files that redirect Opera to another URL. |
| Check redirect images | This option will set Opera to check for updated image URLs that redirect Opera to another file. |
Note that checking for modified files is only possible if the web server supports this feature, and has been configured to send Last-Modified
headers on the types of file selected. If there is no valid file date
for Opera to return to the server then it will download the file again,
regardless. For more information, see the Opera 5 cache FAQ.
Connections...
This option will display a dialogue with two cards which contain several settings that affect the way Opera connects to a remote server and requests data:
General
| Identify as | Opera has the ability to identify itself to Web servers and Javascripts as other browsers such as MSIE, Netscape 3/4, or Mozilla. Use this drop down list to select which browser you wish to identify as. By default, Opera identifies as MSIE 5.0 though changing this to Opera will help make Web authors more aware of the browser's growing userbase and hopefully dissuade them from using the kinds of poor browser sniffing that have blocked Opera users in the past (Hence this feature). |
| Server error handling | This drop down list determines Opera's response to server errors such as 404 (Not found) or 403 (Forbidden) etc. Choosing Always will make Opera download and render the full error page returned by the server whereas the Dialogue box setting allows Opera to download only the HTTP header and instead display a popup dialogue informing you of the kind of error that was encountered. The Automatic option lets Opera decide whether to download and display the whole error page or just raise a dialogue, depending on what kind of error was encountered. |
| Use absolute FTP paths | While browsing FTP sites with this option enabled, Opera will always use the full URI to files and directories. For instance, when moving up or down through directories a full path such as /usr/ftp/users/opera/dir would be used in the request instead of ../dir. |
Performance
| Synchronous DNS | When a URL such as www.google.com is entered into the Address bar, Opera must first find out the IP address which corresponds to that host name
(216.239.35.100). Only then can it can begin to exchange data with the
remote server. To do this, Opera uses part of the Operating System to
connect to your ISPs or LANs Name server and perform a lookup of the host name. Resolving a host may take a few seconds, during which time you'll normally see a Looking up host namemessage in the Progress bar, and Opera will continue to perform other tasks simultaneously (loading data in other windows, rendering the current page, etc). However, with Synchronous DNS enabled Opera will suspend all operation once it requests a lookup. Until the Name server responds (Or the 15-second timeout is met), Opera will not even respond to any key press or update the screen. Connections being used by other windows will also pause, and the Progress bar will freeze with a Request queued for sending to hostmessage. If the Name server is slow to respond, it may appear as though Opera has hung however this is expected behaviour when Synchronous DNS has been selected. Once the Name server responds, Opera will finally connect to the remote host and all other tasks will resume. |
| Maximum connections to a server | This figure limits how many connections (usually HTTP) Opera may make to a specific server at any one time. When loading a page that contains images and external stylesheets etc, Opera may establish a separate connection to download each file in parallel rather than loading them sequentially. |
| Maximum total connections | This setting limits the total number of simultaneous connections to all servers at any one time. Opera could establish several connections if multiple windows were open and the downloads manager was retrieving various files at the same time. |
Below the cards are two buttons which bring up further dialogues containing settings for proxy/webcache connections and automatic URL completion:
Proxies
This button will display a dialogue containing five cards. Each card contains fields to enter a proxy server address, port number and a checkbox to enable/disable it's use for each of the protocols supported by Opera:
- HTTP
- HTTPS
- FTP
- Gopher
- WAIS
Below these cards is a button to display and edit proxy Exceptions in a simple dialogue with a large text field. On each line of the field you can specify a full URL that will not be retrieved through a proxy, even if one is enabled. The exceptions list may contain URL's for all protocols since each full URL specifies the protocol to be used (ftp://domain.com)
Name completion
| Look for local network machine | If you're using Opera on a local network, such as a LAN, then to access other devices on that network you may be able to enter a one-word URL into the Address Bar such as intranetserver. When Name completion is enabled, these kinds of address may be interpreted as incomplete URLs, lacking the www.and .comstrings, so Opera will automatically append them and connect to a remote Web server (http://www.intranetserver.com/). By enabling this option, Opera will search your local network for the address first, before trying name completion. |
| Try name completion | This setting will allow Opera to add various prefix and suffix strings to invalid URL's entered into the Address Bar or Open web page dialogue. Enabling this feature allows you to enter simple strings such as symbian and, depending on your string lists, Opera will look for http://www.symbian.com/. |
| Prefixes | In this field you can enter the list of strings that may be added to the start of any incomplete URLs you enter. The most useful string for this field is probably www. Each string must be separated by a single comma, and when Opera begins to search for a valid URL it will try each string in the order they are listed. The first valid URL to work will be loaded and displayed. |
| Suffixes | This field contains the list of strings to be appended to any invalid URL you enter into Opera. Each string is separated by a comma and will be tried in the order they are listed. The most useful string here is probably .com though you may like to list several TLD's. (eg. .com,.de,.co.jp,.co.uk,.net) |
Documents...
This option will display a dialogue with four cards containing the settings for User and Document CSS modes, and other options to enable frames and inline frames.
| Enable frames | This option simply controls the handling of frames based documents in Opera. Disabling it will result in the <noframes> content being displayed instead of the frameset (If any has been included). Unlike Symbian Web 2.x
there is no clever handling of framesets. You're not presented with the
option to view one frame at a time, or even the links/URLs of the
frameset pages. Since many authors give little regard to <noframes> content, and often only include a simple message telling you to upgrade to MSIE and come back, disabling this option may only prevent you accessing some sites. |
| Enable inline frames | This option enables iFrames, which are used to embed files in a normal web page. Many ad banners are inserted using iframes so disabling this option may help you avoid them, however if an author uses iFrames to include a navigation menu, online vote or news ticker, etc, you will lose this content too. When iFrames are disabled, the alternate content will be displayed instead, if any has been included. |
| Show active frame border | Select this option to display a thin black border only around the frame that is currently in focus. This is extremely useful when navigating via the keyboard controls or when viewing nested framesets as it allows you to see which frame(set) you're currently navigating, and which frame has been selected when you cycle through them. |
| Document mode as default | If this setting is selected, Opera will start in Document CSS mode, which renders pages using CSS as the author intended, and any new windows will also open in Document mode. |
CSS mode settings will be explained in a separate document due to the document size...
Multimedia...
Selecting multimedia preferences will display a dialogue that allows you to set the default Image mode when Opera starts or new windows are opened. From the drop down list, choose No images to disable all images and make Opera ignore any specified image sizes. This will usually speed up loading times and alter the layout so that all Alt text is visible and on a single line. Cached images only will allow images that have already been downloaded and are still available from the cache to be displayed. In place of missing images will be a grey border containing the Alt text. The border will be drawn to the specified image size (if given) to preserve the layout of the page however this can often lead to the text being clipped inside the box. Finally, the All images option will allow Opera to load and display all images by default.
JPEG settings
At the bottom of the Multimedia preferences is a button that brings up the JPEG settings. From this dialogue you select the following options:
| DCT method | Before a JPG file can be displayed on the screen it must be decoded into image data. Opera has different ways of doing this which can improve performance or reduce RAM consumption, however not all of these are useful on current Symbian devices. Selecting the Floating point option can allow images to be decoded much faster, but only if the machine contains a CPU with a floating point unit, or it has a maths coprocessor. The Integer option will allow Opera to decode JPG files in a simple way that uses relatively little RAM but takes more time. For devices that don't have a FPU (all current Symbian devices) JPG decoding can be accelerated by selecting the Fast-integer option however this will require more RAM for each image decoded. If you're running into memory problems while browsing with images enabled, changing back to normal Integer mode may help. |
| Smoothing | When a high-colour image is displayed on a low-colour screen, this option will smooth the outlines of sharply contrasting areas of the image. For photographs with a light, out-of-focus background displayed on a 16-shade grey screen, this could improve the jagged outlines of dark, round objects in the foreground. |
| Dithering | When rendering high-colour images on systems with limited colour support, most of the original shades are mapped to the nearest colour available. On a screen with only 16 shades of grey or 256 colours this will produce banding effects where colours should slowly blend into other shades, resulting in very poor image quality. To overcome this, Opera can apply dithering which speckles these areas with alternating shades, achieving smoother gradients. If applied to photographs, images will look grainy compared to those on full-colour screens, but still a lot better than those suffering from banding. Dithering images consumes much more RAM and CPU, and delays rendering slightly. Floyd-Steinberg will produce the best results but has greater overheads, so if running low on RAM you may prefer to select Ordered. This option produces a rougher dithering effect and some degree of banding will still occur. |
| Passes | On devices with a 16-shade grey screen you can set Opera to dither JPG images twice to reduce banding effects even further. Images will take longer to render and Opera will become more CPU intensive. This setting is of minimal use on devices with 256 colours or more so to improve performance and reduce battery consumption One pass is recommended. |
| Progressive downloads | This option allows Opera to display Progressive JPEGs as they are downloaded. Initially, progressive images appear as a blurry, low resolution image and gradually increase in clarity as they load. Disabling this option will still allow Opera to display both progressive and normal JPG's however they will only appear after the whole file has been downloaded and decoded. On slower Symbian devices, disabling this option may improve the overall rendering speed and improve your browsing experience. |
Plugins...
Selecting the Plugins preferences will display a simple dialogue
with options to enable Javascript, Javascript error reporting and Java
(if installed). Note that if Java has been enabled in this dialogue but
no JVM has actually been installed on your Symbian device then any Javascript that checks for the presence of Java will incorrectly return true
. Note that Java and Javascript are two entirely unrelated technologies that share nothing beyond a similar name.
At the top of the dialogue is an option to disable all plugins which as well as turning off Javascript and Java will also disable additional plugins that are listed via the Tools Toolsmenu.
Privacy...
Selecting this option displays a two-card dialogue with preferences for cookies and other information sent by Opera that can be used to monitor and log browser activity:
Enable referrer logging
When you follow a link or submit a form, a Web browser usually tells the server the URL of the page it has just come from. This HTTP referrer can then be used by the server to help verify that an official form was submitted (rather than a copy made for malicious purposes), to monitor traffic and detect browsing patterns, prevent other sites leeching images, or to find which websites are linking to it, etc. Disabling this feature will prevent Opera sending out the URL of the previous page when it requests a file from the server.
Enable automatic redirection
This setting can be disabled to prevent HTTP server headers or HTML <meta> tags from reloading the current page automatically, or redirecting the browser to another URL.
Documents such as news pages, splash screens and chat
rooms/messageboards sometimes use a Meta refresh to update the display
periodically, however you may wish to prevent this if the refresh
occurs too quickly to read the initial content. If you are frequently
encountering Object moved
errors (or similar) when trying to access correct URLs, it's likely that you have deselected this option.
Trace password protected documents using cookies
When you close Opera with this option enabled, it will not only delete cookies that have been set by secure servers, but it will also check whether those cookies were subsequently (and legitimately) read by another server over a normal connection. Online banks/services often use a normal server to allow any visitor to browse most of the site, but then change to an encrypted connection when a customer logs in to their account or other private areas.
If a cookie set by the secure server is subsequently read by the normal server, and that server updates it or sets another one, both cookies will be deleted on exit to maximise your security.
Cookies
| Accept cookies | This setting determines Opera's behaviour when a Web server sends a cookie as part of it's reply to a request for a file. if set to All, Opera will send and receive cookies from any server and will not notify you when a new cookie is set. The Display setting will cause Opera to display a dialogue every time a server attempts to set a cookie. This dialogue will show you the cookie name, it's value, expiry date and other information about the server sending it which you can view to decide whether to accept the cookie or not. If the Only selected servers option has been set then Opera will accept cookies without notifying you, but only when sent from the servers you have specified. All other cookies are simply ignored. Finally, if set to None then Opera will ignore all cookies however this may lead to problems with sites that rely on cookies to work, or sites that deny access for those with cookies disabled. |
| Accept from servers | You can use this setting to filter cookies sent from third party web servers. This often happens when websites embed adverts or other sponsored content, and the cookies can potentially be used to build up a list of the sites you visit and your browsing habits. |
| Throw away new cookies on exit | When enabled, this option will preserve any cookies saved in previous browsing sessions (until they expire) but any cookies accepted during the current browser session will be deleted when you close Opera. Throughout the current session Opera will continue to send the cookies it has picked up back to the server just as if they had been saved. This may be useful if you want to access a site that requires cookies, but you don't really want or trust them. |
| Display warning for illegal domains | This option allows Opera to display a warning if an attempt is made to set a cookie with an invalid domain name, such as simply .com.
Companies that try to covertly monitor peoples' browsing habits may
attempt to use techniques like this in an attempt to make the browser
send the same cookie to every site with a .comdomain. If you then browse any site affiliated with this kind of monitoring, your cookie will be recognised and the visit logged. |
| Display warning for illegal path | When enabled, Opera will warn you when a server or Javascript attempts to set a cookie containing an invalid file path string. This string tells Opera which areas of a website should receive that cookie if you request another file. |
Security...
This option will display a dialogue with preferences for secure-server connections, password management, and personal certificate control.
Enable SSL/TLS
| Protocol | Encryption |
|---|---|
| TLS v1.0 | 128 bit |
| SSL v3 | 96 bit |
| SSL v2 | 64 bit |
These three checkboxes enable Secure Sockets Layer (Versions 2 and 3), and Transport Layer Security which are commonly used to send encrypted data between the server and Opera. Opera supports full 128-bit security, just like MSIE5
and Netscape 6, so there is no reason why it cannot be used for online
banking and other secure services, though unfortunately some poorly
designed websites still exclude Opera and other equally capable browsers. If you do encounter this, first try altering Opera's Connections preferences so that it identifies as Internet Explorer or Mozilla/Netscape. If you are still told that you need to upgrade
your browser then try contacting the site to explain that your browser is fully capable of coping with 128-bit security.
Ask for password
This setting controls whether Opera will prompt you for a password
every time you request a document from a server that requires basic HTTP authentication, or only once per browsing session. Choosing the Every time needed
option will be safer when using your Symbian device in a shared
environment or where others may have access to it however if you are
the only person using the machine you may find the repeated password
prompts annoying and choose to select Once per session
instead.
Alert before insecure form
If this setting is enabled, Opera will display a dialogue whenever you attempt to submit a form that doesn't send the data over a secure connection (SSL). Having this option enabled will alert you before making online transactions or sending sensitive data without encryption however it will also warn you before submitting data to search engines and other sites where security is not important. If you choose to disable this feature for convenience, you can still monitor Opera's connection status and security level via the Progress bar.
Certificates
Below these settings are buttons that bring up further dialogues for viewing and deleting any Personal and Autority certificates Opera has been issued with. Certificates are used to verify the user and are installed simply by loading them in the browser, either from a remote website or by loading a local file that has been Emailed to you.
| Certificates | No entry found |
| Certificate name | No entry found |
| Issuer | No entry found |
| Details | No entry found |
| Certificates | No entry found |
| Certificate name | No entry found |
| Issuer | No entry found |
| Details | No entry found |
| Allow connections | No entry found |
| Warn before sending | No entry found |
Duplicate window
This option opens a new, unnamed window and loads the contents of the current window in it. The duplicate window will be opened in default CSS & Image modes, and at the default zoom level. From there you can continue browsing whist the document in the original window remains unaffected. Note that the history list in the first window is not copied to the duplicate window, nor is it's own history list appended to the original window upon closing it.
Close window
This option simply closes the current window and returns you to the previous or parent window. If no other windows are currently open then the screen will be cleared and the contents of the Address bar will be replaced by a flashing cursor prompting you to enter a new URL. Doing so will automatically open a new window for you.
Close all
This option is similar to the Close window option however all open windows will be closed before the Address bar is highlighted.
Before closing the windows, Opera will display a dialogue asking whether you're sure you want to close them.
Title of an open window
This part of the Window menu is used to list all open windows and navigate between them. This menu item and any that appear below it represent each open window and will display the title of the document currently displayed there. If the document has no title or a file is being displayed then the URL to that file will be displayed instead. To move to another window simply display the Window menu and select it from the list.
If a large number of windows are open simultaneously, it's possible for the Window menu to grow so long that it extends below the bottom of the screen. If this happens then a scroll bar will appear on the menu card allowing you to reach the windows at the bottom of the list.
Title of another open window
Selecting this item will take you to another open window, the title of which will appear in the text of the menu item
Title of a third open window
If a third window were to be open, it's title would be displayed in this menu item and selecting it would take you to the window itself.
Add bookmark
This option adds the current URL and page title (if present) as an entry at the bottom of the root folder in the Bookmark manager. From there you can move it to an appropriate folder and edit it.
Bookmarks...
This option brings up the Bookmark manager, which will be explained in a separate document to reduce file size.
Transfers...
Selecting this option will display the Downloads manager, from where you can monitor, pause, and restart downloads.
More information will follow in a separate document due to it's file size.
History
Selecting this option will load a page displaying a table with all the URLs you have visited in the last few days. The log shows full URL's and the time you viewed them:
| [Day] [Month] [Date] [Year] | |
|---|---|
| hour:min:sec | Page title presented as a link |
| Wednesday May 30 2001 | |
| 22:13:37 | Opera Software - The fastest browser on Earth |
| 14:07:29 | Welcome to Google |
| 09:17:58 | Opera 5 for Symbian online manual & tutorial |
| Tuesday May 29 2001 | |
| 19:27:06 | Welcome to the LBC 1152 website |
| 19:27:02 | Symbian - Powering the heart of the wireless community |
Plugins
This option brings up the plugins manager which displays informtion about all browser plugins currently installed on your Symbian machine. Depending on the device you are using and the version of Symbian OS it's running, this list may include a Java Virtual Machine, Flash player, Real player, etc...
Cache
This option will display detailed information about the current contents of the RAM cache and Disk cache. The list includes local file names, original file names from the server, the URL of the original file, file sizes and whether the file is currently held in RAM or on disk.
Help on Opera
This option opens Opera's own help file which was included with the installation.
About Opera
This option will display a simple dialogue showing the version and build number of Opera that you're currently running, a copyright notice and a support Email address.
