Opera Software - Opera
Opera is an Internet suite which handles common internet-related tasks, including visiting web sites, sending and receiving e-mail messages, managing contacts, and online chat.
Opera is developed by Opera Software, based in Oslo, Norway. It runs on a variety of operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Solaris, FreeBSD and GNU/Linux systems. It has gained a leading role for use in mobile phones, smartphones and Personal Digital Assistants, and is also used in interactive televisions. In addition, ports have been created for the Nintendo DS and Wii. Technology from Opera is also licensed by other companies for use in such products as Adobe Creative Suite.
Desktop versions of Opera are available free of charge.
Features
In addition to the web browser, the other main component in the Opera suite is the Opera Mail client, previously known as M2. Opera Mail supports regular POP and SMTP mail as well as IMAP. It also has an Address book. Opera Mail also features a newsreader and a newsfeed reader for RSS and Atom, as well as an IRC client for online chat. The forthcoming Opera 9 will also feature widgets as well as further BitTorrent functionality.
Accessibility
Opera was designed to run on low-end and small computers, and with a commitment to computer accessibility for users who may have visual or mobility impairments.
* It is possible to control nearly every aspect of the browser using only the keyboard, and the default keyboard shortcuts can be modified to suit the user. Opera also supports the use of access keys. Opera was also one of the first browsers to support mouse gestures, allowing patterns of mouse movement to trigger browser actions, such as "back" or "refresh".
* Page zooming allows text, images and other content such as Macromedia Flash, Java and Scalable Vector Graphics to be increased or decreased in size to help those with impaired vision. User stylesheets may also be used to do this and to enable high contrast coloured fonts.
* Voice control, codeveloped with IBM, allows control of the browser without the use of a keyboard or mouse. It can also read aloud pages and marked text. IBM has a browser based on Opera.
* A "Fit to Window" feature that relies on technology similar to Opera Mini's Small Screen Rendering (SSR), allowing websites to fit within a smaller screen without the need for horizontal scrolling.
Sessions
Opera allows the user to save a collection of open pages as a session. This set of pages can then be opened later in a new Opera window, or inserted into the current one. Opera can also be set up to start with the pages that were open when the browser was last closed. A saved session includes the independent history of each page and the settings each page had, such as scrolling position, images on/off, etc.
Each session is saved in a file that can be transferred to another computer via mail or otherwise.
MDI and Tabs
Opera supports tabbed browsing and has a true multiple document interface. This means multiple Web pages can be opened within the same application window and resized, moved, tiled and cascaded like normal application windows in the operating system.
In subsequent years the default settings have changed from MDI to the simpler concept of tabs. Since version 6.0, Opera offers users the choice of three modes: Tabs, MDI, and SDI (No tabs).
Pop-up blocking
Opera lets the user control whether Web sites can open pop up windows. By default Opera blocks all unrequested popups, but can work in a variety of different ways, such as opening a pop-up as a background window, or only blocking pop-ups when they do not result from a user action like clicking on a link. Windows that have been blocked may be later opened at the user's discretion.
Download manager
Opera allows the user to list, pause, resume or restart the downloading of files. It also keeps history of recently downloaded files and allows opening them from within the browser. It can also be used with external download managers.
Search facilities
Opera provides a number of features to allow quick and easy use of a variety of search engines and commerce sites, such as Google, Amazon.com, Ebay. It also allows a user to translate a paragraph or look for meaning of a word directly by a right mouse click.
User Defined Themes
Opera supports customized user interfaces themes, allowing users to change the location and style of toolbars, buttons and menus. A Drag and Drop functionality allows placing links and buttons on toolbars with ease. Many user-created themes, ranging from colour changes to OS adaptations can be downloaded and installed with a few clicks thanks to the built-in automatic installer.
Standards
Since version 3.5, Opera has supported CSS, and one of the inventors of CSS is an employee at Opera. Up to 6.0 Opera supported most common web standards, Netscape plugins and some other recent standards such as WAP and WML for wireless devices, but its implementation of advanced ECMAScript (better known as "JavaScript") and the HTML Document Object Model was poor.
Version 7.0 introduced the faster and more powerful Presto layout engine. Opera introduced a completely new browser, which supports the standards of the older Elektra layout engine and has almost full support for the HTML DOM.
Version 8.0 introduced support for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 Tiny. This marked the first major web browser to natively support some form of SVG. Opera has a presentation mode called Opera Show, which allows the use of a single HTML or XML document for large-screen presentations, and web browsing. The appearance of the web-page in full screen is changed with CSS when specific code for media="projection" is in place.
Mobile devices
Opera can dynamically reformat any webpage for narrow tall viewports, such as smartphones and PDA displays. This can also be used with Panels. The technology in itself is proprietary, but authors can affect how webpages look in SSR by using Cascading Style Sheets for the media "handheld". Mobile Versions of Opera which utilize this technology are available on a number of smartphones and PDAs, including those produced by Nokia, BenQ, Sony Ericsson, Sharp Corporation, Sendo, Kyocera, Motorola, and Psion.
Opera Mini is a free compact browser for mobile phones and other devices that have Java ME installed. It uses Opera's servers to render and compress pages before sending the binary data to a small display program run by the phone. The method makes many pages mobile-compatible.
On January 1, 2006 Opera announced that Google will be its default partner for its mobile browser.
On February 15, 2006, Opera announced that they had developed a web browser for the Nintendo DS. It will take advantage of the system's dual screens for either zooming in on certain sections of a website or having a longer vertical view. Opera for the DS will have an upgradeable firmware, which will enable software updates. The browser will go on sale in Japan on June 2006, for 3,800 yen. (32.15 USD). So far no U.S. or European release has been mentioned.