Day 3: Web pages preferences

Ok, if you were the argumentative type, you might complain that “Web pages” was overly generic. But for the purposes of this article, let’s assume that you aren’t going to be argumentative and will just accept it.

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s look at what you’ll find there:

Images

This tab does contain one of my favorite features of Opera: image handling. Opera has 3 settings:

1. Show images (default)
2. Cached images (my favorite)
3. No images (fastest)

Even if I didn’t like anything else about Opera, the image handling alone would be enough to keep me using it. Turning off images is one of the easiest things to do to speed up your web connection. Why don’t more people do it? Because most browsers make it far too difficult to turn images on or off.

Most browsers cache images, but if you turn off images, then it won’t show any images, even the ones already downloaded! So the image is sitting somewhere on your hard drive, but you don’t get to see it. That seems silly, doesn’t it?

Now I know that many of you are living behind high speed Internet connections, streaming music, downloading multiple BitTorrent files, and video chatting with your friends. Some of us are still stuck with dial-up connections (at a rollicking 26,400 baud!) Cached images allow those poor unfortunate souls to surf the web at a much better speed. If you come across an image you do want to see, simply right click on the image and choose “Reload image” or if you want to load all of the images on a page, just press shift + i (as in “images”)

In previous versions of Opera, the keyboard shortcut to toggle images was G. Unfortunately it was too easy for people to accidentally press G and turn off images accidentally without knowing how to turn them back on. So it is now shift + i

But I’m not on a dial-up connection, why would I want to use this?!?! Good question! I use it on a DSL connection at work all the time. Why? Because faster is always better, and every website, every single website in the world, is faster with images turned off (well, except those websites without any images, obviously).

Now there are some sites where images are necessary, the Daily Dose of Ethan, for example, is not nearly as cute if you can’t actually see the picture. But how many sites have pictures as cute as the DDOE? NONE! (Good answer!) Some sites, such as Amazon.com, do a terrible job of being accessible, and hide some features; little things such as View Cart or Wishlist!!!) unless you load images. But many sites, such as Wired.com, CNet, or other news sites, may have several images on each page, but you don’t really need to see them. Loading a single image that you do want to see is simple enough, why not take advantage of the speed increase? Pressing shift + i only takes a second, and the images will load every bit as fast (even faster, because the rest of the page will already have been downloaded) if you load them manually.

Image preferences will be even more powerful once Opera adds the often-requested ability to store settings on a per-site basis, so you can tell Opera to always load images at some sites and not others.

Once you turn on images for a certain tab, any links you follow from that page (including links you choose to open in a new page, or new window) will have images turned on. That seems only logical: if you say “This page has images I want to see” then Opera will continue to do so until you tell it not to.

Pressing shift + i multiple times will switch between the three states (No images, Cached Images, and Show Images). For example, if you have Opera set to “Cached Images” and press shift + i once, it will change to “Show Images” and if you press it again, Opera will switch to “No Images” and if you press it again, Opera will switch to “Cached Images” again.

You can also control images by using the View Bar which we’ll discuss below.

Page Zoom

Another great and powerful feature of Opera is the ability to easily change the zoom and restore it to 100% quickly. Most browsers will let you increase or decrease, but then you have to remember (or guess) how many times you increased it to get back to 100%.

Unfortunately you are limited to the percentages which Opera pre-selected. Ideally you would be able to input your own zoom setting rather than the rather arbitrary decision that no one would want to set their default to anything between 120% and 150% etc. You can however, set the zoom to whatever you want via the View Bar (click on the icon to reveal the View Bar).

In the preference panel, you can set a default zoom but unless your eyes are exceptionally poor (or good!) I would recommend leaving it at 100%. Why? Because it is so easy to change it once you get to a page which needs to be adjusted, and using a different setting may make some sites look strange.

To change the zoom when you are viewing a page, you can use the following commands:

Zoom Page
Keyboard Shortcuts

Zoom Change	Key(s)
100%	6 or * (on keypad)
+ 10%	+ or 0
- 10%	- or 9
+ 100%	ctrl & + or 8
- 100%	ctrl & - or 7

Note that the numeric values (which are useful on computers, such as laptops, which lack keypads) run 6, 7, 8, 9, 0. 7 and 8 are paired, as are 9 and 0. Use them a few times and it will quickly become second-nature.

Preferred Fonts and Colors

Ignore these. Several people who know me well will be shocked, shocked, I say! to hear me say this, but Opera could drop these options and I don’t think many people would notice.

There are two reasons for saying this: first, these are only used for pages which do not set their own styles. When was the last time you came across a page that didn’t already have fonts and colors chosen? Probably 1996. Secondly, there’s a better way to control this, called Author/User Modes which we will talk about on Day 5.

Note: if you want to set a minimum font size, you need to go to “Advanced” and then click on “Fonts” which we will talk about on Day 5 as well.

That’s it for today! Move along, nothing else to see here.