Day 19: Notes

June 10, 2005

What are notes? They fill the gap between Bookmarks and Sessions. Just need to find a site later? Bookmark it. Need to re-create a moment in time? Sessions are the way to go. But what if you need something different?

Notes let you copy text from a website into a panel for later retrieval. Press ctrl + 6 to open the Notes panel.

How often have you come across something on a website that you wanted to remember later? Maybe it was a funny story or a great tip or a quote. What do you do? Bookmark it? Sure, but will you remember what you wanted to read later? (You might if you use the Description field in the Bookmarks panel) Given the all-too-temporary nature of the web, will the information be there when you want it, or will it have changed, been filed away, or the dreaded “404 - Page not found”? You could print it, but then you’ve got the file the piece of paper away, and you’ve killed a tree. You don’t need that on your conscience, and you don’t need more paper on your desk. Plus, if it’s on a note, you can use “Quick find” to track it down later. Paper doesn’t offer quick find either.

How do you make a note? Simple, just select some text and press ctrl + shift + C (Windows) or command + shift + C (Mac). Did you notice that this is similar to what you’re probably used to already for the generic Copy command used in almost every application (ctrl + c in Windows or command + c in Mac)? Just add shift to Copy To Note.

Need more Personal Information fields (see Day 2: Wand Preferences)? Store the information in Notes, and then use right click → “Insert Note” to add them to web forms.

You can also manage notes by going to: “Tools → Notes” which will bring up a Notes management page much like Bookmarks and History.

Have a lot of notes? Organize them into folders. Or don’t. With Quick view, searching makes organization optional.

Enhancement Request: I wish that Opera would store the URL at the end of the note, something like “(Note stored from http://operalover.tntluoma.com/8/day_19_notes)”. Maybe a different keystroke, one for “Copy Note” and another for “Copy Note with URL” (ctrl/command + alt + c would be one suggestion).

So there’s a brief overview of Notes… But I bet there are a lot of users out there who have come up with creative ways to use Notes. Leave yours in a comment below! (Have a good weekend)

  • Ride wind

    Notes is really a great tool for internet research! Just highlight the text you want to mark and Copy to Note. Wolla! And you can add your own comments and thoughts. So even you are offline, one can review your thoughts later. Truly useful when nowadays one has to surf so many different web pages for one idea. So you can easily group them under one note folder.


    In fact I think the Note feature is underdeveloped. Opera with access to the html codes can possibly develop it into a powerful markup tool so needed.

  • Ethan

    Also, you can see the URL in the tooltip by leaving your mouse on a note for a couple of seconds.

  • URL


    ID=783


    NAME=Chat Kommandos


    URL=http://home.no.net/polynar/opera/panel/chatcommands.html


    CREATED=1099075746


    VISITED=1100627658


    ICONFILE=home.no.net.png


    IN PANEL=YES


    PANEL_POS=14

  • Flavio: Yeah, that's true, 99.9% of the time that would work.

    In my case, though, every single note is some variation on "`roll 1d(n)+(n)" (not very descriptive on its own), and you can't have any extra text, since it would break the macro (and erasing the extra text every time would take the convenience out of it).

    Still, I agree, it was more of an idle wish on my part than anything, since mine's a very odd case... (though I guess it shows that Opera features can be useful for all sorts of weird things...)

  • Esteban: In Windows, look inside your “profile” directory (see <a href="opera:about" rel="nofollow">opera:about) is a notes.adr file.


    In Mac OS X look for ~/Library/Preferences/Opera Preferences/Notes

  • Ryan

    I know that this kind of defeats the purpose of not having to write a note down on paper, but I would like it if you could print a note directly in Opera without having to open anything else. Anyway, "notes" is just another feature that I have underused in Opera.

  • Esteban

    HOW TO.....save/back up notes? ex. migrate notes from (work/job/office) pc to my home pc?

  • Flavio

    Another use for Notes is to store patterns/templates for e-mail replys.


    To Liz Calkins:


    I always use the very first line of the note as its title. Works (for me), as this is what is shown for every note when you right-click and choose "Insert Note".

  • Andrew

    I use Notes to store a set of boilerplate paragraphs I find myself having to email at least a couple of times a week. Resume cover letters, discussion board registration messages, that sort of thing. Having them immediately available via "Insert Note" is incredibly useful!

  • Rafi - Sorry, the schedule changed. search.ini will be coming soon, I promise.


    Thanks for those who informed me about the notes storing the URL. All I have to say is "Well how 'bout that?"

  • A comment about your Enhancement request to to add the URL to the end of the note. Although it isn't visible, double clicking on a note will bring you to the page where it was copied from.

  • I don't know if this is creative, but it's certainly hopelessly geeky...


    I'm currently in a group of people who play D&D campaigns in an IRC channel. The channel has a dice-rolling macro you can call with a command and modifier parameters. So, to make my life easier, I created a whole bunch of notes with parameters corresponding to everything you might need to roll from your character sheet. Now when the DM says, "Roll a Search check", I can just right-click, choose "Insert Note", navigate to the Search folder, click on the note inside, and hit enter. Life is good.


    Although, if only Opera had a title feature for a note, I could ditch the folder used for naming each note and keep things a little tidier...

  • Notes are great for saving forum posts, draft submissions, login details and eReceipts. Double clicking a note takes you back to where you got the note from.

  • Rafi

    I was waiting for this day because the information written in ' Advanced Preferences 1':


    "We will talk about customizing these searches on Day 19: search.ini."


    Could you explain this?

  • Jen

    And let's not forget that you can edit notes, too! When you click anywhere into the text of a note, you can write and delete text, copy it to the clipboard, or insert it from there. (Works just like a text editor.) You can also start an empty note (click on "new note" for that) and write in it.


    This makes Notes a great tool for preparing an excerpt from a webpage (e.g., a scholarly essay, an online handbook, etc.) When, for example, the information you need is "hidden" in a lengthy piece of prose, the Note function can be used to jot down just a few headwords as you read. That way you don't have to re-read the entire document if you need it again. You can even copy your notes to your word processor, to use it in essays, presentations etc. Makes it a very useful function for students, like me! :)

  • lol

    Quote: "Enhancement Request: I wish that Opera would store the URL at the end of the note"


    When you use the feature "Copy to notes", Opera save the URL in the note (but doesn't display it). Double clic on the note will reopen the web page from which the text was copied.


    You will also notice that the icons for the notes are not the same if the note is linked to a page or not.

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