How to enable single key shortcuts in Opera?
Published September 7th, 2007 3:06 PM EDT By Daniel GoldmanStarting with Opera 9.5, single key shortcuts are disabled by default. Although powerful, these single keyboard shortcuts caused too many problems for new users.
So how do you re-enable single key shortcuts?
Go to Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Shortcuts… Check the ‘Enable single-key shortcuts’ option.
My favorite single key shortcuts are the numbers ‘9’, ‘0’, and ‘6’ (quick way to zoom in and out of a page).
(Enable single key shortcuts in Opera)
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I actually like the single-key shortcuts, but I wish I could control the Ctrl+Click action to open tabs in the background. That’s what Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 both do, but in Opera you have to use Ctrl+Shift+Click…that’s just too many buttons for me. I’ve been getting used to the “downward” mouse gesture though.
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as pointed in many other places, providing old (9.23), new(9.5), new with single shortcuts(9.5) configuration files beats adding an interface option (another hardcoded stuff into opera.. hardcodding is always a sign of bad quality programming. esp, when there is interface to support multiple keyboard layouts already build in)
and btw. 9.23 shortcuts were one of the best shortcut layouts out there. i know that they could have been confusing, but keeping the old layout should be done. simply as that. one of the strongest opera points - keyboard navigation, and mouseless usability - is ruined. opera hasnt got many more strong points to afford throwing them away, because developers were reluctant to add two text files into installation package.
with 9.5 opera did several very bad, strange, and useless moves, that LIMITED user experience:
- new shortcuts - catastrophic
- no extensions in cache - it would have been allright if opera could reuse cache files when accesed from opera:cache, as for now it downloads them again (pathetic! and counterintuitive)
- simplified download dialog (stupidified, and ‘remember this choice’ NEVER worked for me, never)
- windows shell menu removed from downloads. cross-OS argument doesnt hold water.
- no view bar. removed just to add another line into changelog. there isnt any serious reason behind it.
consider, that i dont comment on alpha-quality related stuff, i despise DECISIONS that are behind it. not the execution that is buggy, it was to be expected, and im fine with it (it is great quality alpha btw) but decisions, planning, someone workingon user usability - should be simply fired and made to work for mozilla. it would be a sure way to gain market share.
btw. firefox copied, improved and sold as its own the Star in the adress bar. only thing that separated opera implementation from the idal was the option to TURN IT OFF. lack of customisability.. complete lack of it. and now it is too late, “firefox’ star in address bar”.
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The screenshot reminded me you should really work on reorganizing the Preferences dialog, it’s a mess
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Ryan Wagner, you can just use middle mouse button to open tabs (links) in the background
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One more time I’m fully agree with sid.
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I’d use 9.5 if it didn’t spaz out on me. No matter what I do now it’ll only open and then instantly lock up and close itself.
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thx!
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Woah, Sid, time to cut back on the caffeine, man! You make it sound like the Opera crew has personally slept with your wife, or some betrayal equally as horrible!
So they’ve changed the shortcuts, can’t you just change them back? I use Mouse Gestures exclusively and even I know how to go in and change the keys, should I ever need to. The idea of selectable schemes is a good one but when your tone is bordering on the petulant why should anyone pay any attention to it? Look up the phrase ‘constructive criticism’ sometime, and join the ranks of the adult user.
Oh, and if Mozilla/Firefox is so perfect then by all means feel free to use their product exclusively rather than hanging round here directing your toddler-tantrums at the design teams.
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my attitude? get somethng done with yours. ‘if you dont like it, go away’ one isnt nice either. or rather - it is uite stupid for a company that struggles for market share. pissing old users, just to attract new ones, that are not going to come anyway because of lack of autocomplete, inlinespellcheck etc is STUPID.
id like to see what youve done if opera out of pure boredom deleted ability of two-stroke meuse gestures, just because it is too easy to do them. i think youd be really pleased.
and i DO use firefox 3alphas as my main browser, and ff2 at work. sorry to burst your bubble. it just happens, that i used to admire what opera did long. long time ago, and habbits dont go away so easy. but dont worry, opera lately is doing everything to make me go away. along with so many others, i dont see so many old time opera fans in opera forums. but i see their nicks over mozilla ones. theyve felt free to go away.
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Wow I love that 9,0, 6 zoo shortcut! Didn’t know about it but I’m sure to use it from now on (I use a laptop so I can’t press + and - on the numpad).
Love the alpha so far; everything’s been great!! Only 2 quibbles - please bring back the view toolbar (also google calender seems to be even more broken than before - can’t view event details)
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whatever2 (a.k.a Sid) and his drivel strikes again, huh?.
BTW, you gotta love how this self-called “old opera users” keep whining about changed keyboard shortcuts everytime a new version comes out; christ, change them or use your customized .ini for ****’s sake, it’s not that Opera is forcing you to use them. “Old Opera users” and they don’t even know how to change a friggin’ shortcut…
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It is ironic that people now see the 9.2 keyboard shortcuts as ‘perfect’, while we’ve already had two rounds of change (in Opera 8.0 and Opera 9.0) that were decried which much the same passion. I don’t hear from many of those from the first rounds, because they are now using a customized setup anyway
The View bar is a late addition, we’ve done years without it. The only unique thing about it, is that there is a button on another toolbar to toggle this toolbar on and off. Note that this is really peculiar interface design, the View bar doesn’t show on the View > Toolbars menu for example. That is also the problem - if we remove the button (and most people will grant us that exercise in cleaning up, with the newly populated status bar), we’re left with a toolbar that is practically *only* useful for customizers who get a toggle button somewhere else. Pretty much the same situation as we have right now, were people can use the Navigation bar or Main bar for the same purposes. I hated the removal initally as well, but I’ve had a few months to get used to it, and guess what? It is not a problem for me anymore…
I’m dismissing anyones arguments with these paragraphs - I hope others show the same courtesy when discussing these changes.
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Oops! That should read “I’m not trying to dismiss anyones arguments” !
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@marol - Thanks for the tip, but I can’t middle-click on my laptop.
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summing what youve just said - ‘you are going to get used to it, whether you like or not’
well.. no. we have choice. YOU had to get used to it, because you work at opera, and most probably it would be noticed if youd use ff at work. and you cant work ON opera without using opera anyway. i have a freedom of choice, and slowly start to see, that opera decision makers are simply stupid and leading desktop product to dead end. i dont know how much do you pay your architects, but i presume not enough to attract good ones.
opera claimed to be the most customizable browser on earth. it isnt true, we all know it, but what might be true, is that it is going to be the least customizable browser on earth. just remove few more options, and youll beat safari.
removing view bar, just for sake of removing it (no arguments opera provided up to this point hold any water at all) was a stone that started the avalanche. i dont like playing on loosing team.
as for the shortcuts. if you are a programmer, and think that hard coding a change, instead of adding two files that utilize already present interface is OK, than you are a VERY bad programmer. if you are not a programmer, ask anyone - hard coding stuff like that is a sign of very, very low quality coding. no matter how you are going to cover that, it is a junior coder trainee level error.
and you know what, that hard coding stuff was the same thing, that killed Star in address bar. you know the word ‘option’? turn on/off? hide/show? that one option was enough to it be ‘Operas star in address bar’. now it is Firefox’, and i have to say, i like it there. it does little, but i like the notion, that i can turn it of if i please.
and about courtesy. i know opera courtesy, it isn’t worth much. you are so close minded, that i dont even know why im wasting my time writing this stuff.
btw. removing viewBar killed WeDeveloperToolbar. only opera webdev tools worth mentioning. do you know how stupid this move was? and yes, i know, that i can workaround it, but, why should i be bothered? maybe opera should ease my work one time, not make it a little bit harder? do you think that webdevs are going to suffer this, just because there are ’standards’ that they have to follow? in theory, yes. in reality, no. altruists exist, but they are a rare breed. if it breaks in opera - tough luck, use firefox.
btw2. status bar sux. it mimics Firefox one, but instead of mimicking this POS, you should mimic their spell checker, auto updates and few other things.
and the last thing:
“I don’t hear from many of those from the first rounds, because they are now using a customized setup anyway ”
no, they are using Firefox, and couldn’t care less. open your eyes opera!
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You are a big big TROLL >/strong>, sir.
BTW, now that this sid/whatever2 guy is polluting and monopolizing this site with long tirades like he did with the Desktop Team Blog, a block user button is needed; scrolling through all his nonsensical **** is quite painful for people who actually want to read all comments.
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- new shortcuts - catastrophic
- no extensions in cac…
- simplified download dialog…
- windows shell menu removed…
- no view bar…
WHAT!!!!!!!!! Grrrrrrrr… so many reasons to hate 9.5
X-(
The only reason I deteced opera’s wonderful features was because they were enabled by default. I did not learn them from a manual I learned them all by accident. People who do not use 1/2 for tab switching and z/x for moving forward/backward still do not know the power of Opera!! I am serious these 4 buttons make Opera truly usable. I really hope that at the least they modify the behaviour to the way the have done with mouse gestures.
The first time you perform a mouse gesture the browser asks you if you want to enable them. They should at least do the something similar with one key shortcuts
Poor people who start using Opera now, may not know about some of its best feature.
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@ Ryan Wagner
It’s also a pet peeve of mine that you can’t edit Opera’s mouse-click config like u can gestures and keystrokes. While you can’t change it to Ctrl-Click right now, what you can do is use a UserJS that makes Shift-Click open the link in a background tab.
http://my.opera.com/Lex1/blog/2007/05/08/userjs
Hope this helps for now!
Cheers!
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I know I am gona be grump for many days, but then I will get used to it. It is harder to make modifications to your customization to opera everytime you get new versions, change office, etc better get used to what comes as default but hey there is one more option.
For old timers… how about (Like with toolbars/menu setup) have seperate profiles for shortcuts as well, and let old timers use older shortcuts by selecting older profile.
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@Harpazo
Thanks for the suggestion. I actually had seen that when I was looking for a solution, but chose not to do it because I hate having scripts that need to run on every page I visit. Event listeners like this just create more work for the browser, and I like to keep things as simple as possible.
I really do appreciate the tip though.
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More and more things being disable by default now ,start bar,view bar,single key shorcuts…(bad move ).To me,start bar is handy to open some bookmark.View bar,i can hide many rubbish in it!iAnd the return of status bar !with the swtiching image button,(not much ppl will use it often,i think it is better to hide in the view bar ), Eat up the screen…yet not so useful.WOW!all this make opera look even more alike to firefox ui.
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Ryan Wagner, here’s another thing you could try. Click on the link with both mouse buttons.
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That would have been a pretty clever idea Daniel, but it didn’t work in my Opera 9.5
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Ryan, hmm… it works for me. The only change I made with the keyboard is enable single key shortcuts.
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Daniel, Ryan: I tried that too, it works, but it seems Opera requires perfect timing on the “double click” to open a new tab. So I’m back to Ctrl+Shft+Click as well.
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What happens with me is that pressing the two buttons either take me forward or backward on the page.
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Ryan Wagner, ah… that’s part of the mouse gestures. Holding down the right-click and then left-clicking will go back in the browser’s history. And vice versa for going forward.
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Yeah, I use those all the time. It always does forward or backward when I try to press both at the same time though.
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I definitely turned single key shortcuts back on in 9.5, but what I’m missing the most is ctrl+b for “paste and go.” There’s no way I’m hitting ctrl+shift+v or whatever just for that. Using ctrl+v and then hitting enter is easier… which kind of defeats the purpose of a “shortcut.” Sigh.
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BAMAToNE, you could change the keyboard shortcuts: Tools > Preferences > Advance > Shortcuts > Keybard setup > Edit…
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Yeaaaaah… I could do that.
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I know ctrl+j makes far more sense than ctrl+alt+t for opening th transfers window, but I definitely had to change that back. I also have to (unfortunately) agree with sid that the removal of shell functionality in the that window seriously limits its usefulness.