Opera Software

Using the Toolbars

Press Page Down and Page Up to switch slides

Opera's most important functions can be found on toolbars in the form of buttons, input fields and dropdown menus.

On this page you will find a description of the default toolbar setup. This setup is easily customized by going to Tools > Appearance > Toolbars, where you can add or remove items, change toolbar positioning, and so forth.

Page bar

The Page bar displays your open Web pages as tabs and contains buttons to help manage your pages. The trashcan drop-down button on the right end of the page bar contains lists of closed pages and blocked pop-ups so that you can easily retrieve them.

The simplest way to change focus between pages is to click on the corresponding tabs. You can also press Ctrl+Tab to cycle through your open pages. Drag and drop the tabs to rearrange your pages.

Close a page by clicking the tab's close button, by right-clicking the tab and selecting 'Close', or by pressing Ctrl+W while the page is active. You may also middle-click tabs to close the corresponding pages.

Tip: If you want to bookmark a page, you can drag its tab directly to the Bookmarks panel or a toolbar.

Address bar

The Address bar contains buttons for the most important browser functions as well as the Web address (URL) field.

Image Item Explanation
  • Back
  • Forward
Go back and forth in page history
Fast forward Analyze page and go to the most likely next page.
  1. Follows link rel="next" in page header.
  2. Follows link in page with text "Next page" or similar.
  3. Starts slideshow if page contains links to multiple images.
Rewind Jump back in history
  1. Go to entry page on this site
  2. Go to exit page on previous site (if on entry page)
  • Stop
  • Reload
Interrupt page load in progress or update current page from server
Wand Automatically log in to sites using the Wand
Page icon Drag to bookmarks panel or personal bar to create bookmark
Address field Displays the address of the current document. You can enter Web addresses directly
Security bar Displayed within the address field if current page uses security protocols. Padlock icon indicates level of security, name of certificate holder will be displayed
RSS icon Displayed within the address bar if current page contains valid link to an RSS or Atom newsfeed
Progress field Displayed within the address bar while document is loading
Address drop-down button Access recently typed addresses
Search field Search the Web directly
Search drop-down button Select search engine
View bar toggle Display or hide the view bar

Progress field

When a page loads, a progress field appears within the address field that displays information on the status of the document transfer.

Tip: If you have a Web address on the clipboard, press Ctrl+D to go to the address.

The Start bar drops down from the address field when it is focused.

Home Go to your home page
Top 10 Access your 10 most visited links
Bookmarks Access your bookmarks
Search fields

View bar

The View bar is toggled by the View button on the right end of the Address bar.

Find in page Search within current document
Find next Find next occurrence of search term in document
Voice Click to initiate voice command
Fit to window width Squeeze page contents to fit width of medium-sized screens
Page mode Customize page style; click button to toggle between modes, use drop-down to select style
Show images Toggle image display: all, none, or cached images only
Zoom field Zoom in to enlarge text and images, or zoom out to get an overview

Main bar

The Main bar is hidden by default. It mainly contains buttons for document handling, such as saving and printing files, as well as buttons that will tile or cascade all open documents on your workspace.

Personal bar

This toolbar is disabled by default, but is easily activated from View > Toolbars.

Put your favorite bookmarks/bookmarklets, bookmark folders, and Web searches on the personal bar so you can use them quickly and at any time. Bookmarks and folders from the bookmarks panel, links, page tabs, and bookmarklets can be dragged directly to the personal bar.

To add a search to the bar, select it from the toolbar's right-click menu.

Some sites provide special navigational links to make navigation within the site easier. Opera can display these links in the form of a navigation bar above the page contents.

Which buttons are active (not grayed out) on the navigation bar, depends on the information provided by each page. This toolbar is not turned on by default. A particularly useful setting for this bar is "Show only when needed", which will hide the navigation bar completely whenever it is empty.

Status bar

The status bar is also turned off by default. When enabled, it displays information about hovered items in Web pages as well as in the browser.

Tip: You can move the status field to another toolbar to save space.