Using panels

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Introduction

Opera's panels, enabled with F4, gives you quick access to your bookmarks, contacts, messages, and much more.

Operation	How to do it
Display generic multiple choice menu	Right-click the panel header
Display specific multiple choice menu	Right-click list items in a particular panel
Display panel in compact mode	Single-click respective panel header


Remove panel	Hide panel pointed to with mouse
Edit panel	Edit panel properties (Web panels only)

Search	Show panel with multiple search fields
Bookmarks	Organize bookmarks of your favorite Web sites
Mail	Read, write, and organize e-mail and news
Contacts	Organize your list of contacts
Chat	Join chat rooms on the Internet and talk to people
History	Keep track of recently visited Web pages
Transfer	Monitor file transfers
Links	View all links in current Web page
Windows	Organize all your open pages and application windows
Info	Display technical information about Web sites
Notes	Take/copy notes from Web sites, write "to do" lists

Add panel	Make a panel for current Web page
Get panels	Download panels from My Opera

Panel placement »	Decide where or whether the panels should be displayed
Panel selector placement »	Decide where or whether the panel selector (the panel buttons) should be displayed
Show panel toggle	Choose whether to display a thin, clickable line next to the panels that toggles them on and off

Customize toolbars	Go to dialog where you can change the entire user interface

Search

The search panel contains a collection of search engines and other on-line searches.

Bookmarks

Opera comes with a wide selection of bookmarks to popular sites already installed. You may add and organize bookmarks as you wish.

Operation	How to do it
Create bookmark for active Web page	Drag page icon from Address bar to Bookmarks panel (or press `Ctrl` + `T`)
Open bookmark in active page	Click bookmark
Open bookmark in new page	Press `Shift` and click the bookmark
Open bookmark in the background	Press `Ctrl` + `Shift` and click the bookmark
Make bookmark available at all times	Drag bookmark or page icon to Personal bar
Find bookmark	Enter text to search for in "Quick find" field
Create folder to organize bookmarks	Click "New folder"
Open all bookmarks in selected folder	Drag bookmark folder to Opera's workspace
Move bookmarks and folders around	Drag and drop items
Sort your bookmarks	Click "View"
Fast access to bookmark	Press `Shift` + `F2` and enter nickname
Manage bookmarks	Press `Ctrl` + `Alt` + `B`

Bookmark properties

Press Alt + Enter to:

Edit the bookmark's name and Web address, give it a nickname
Add a bookmark description
Move the bookmark to another folder
Make the bookmark available on the Personal bar
Show the bookmarked page as a panel

Mail

Read about Opera's news and e-mail client

Contacts

Create contacts and store e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, chat nicknames, and postal addresses.

Operation	How to do it
Create new contact	Click "Add"
Create folder for group of contacts	Click "New folder"
Recognize sender of e-mail as new contact	Press `A` while viewing e-mail
Show messages associated with contact	Click contact
Make contact available at all times	Drag contact to Personal bar

Contact properties

Press Alt + Enter to:

Edit selected contact's name, e-mail address, homepage address, chat nickname, postal address, and phone numbers
Write down notes about the contact
Select a picture (around 60x50 pixels) that you would like to associate with the contact
Select a small icon you would like to have displayed next to messages from the contact

Tip: If you type the word "party" in the Notes field of your coolest friends, you can later type "party" in the "Quick find" field to find all those people, then drag and drop them into an e-mail to send a party invitation.

Chat

Read about Opera's chat client

History

Opera's History panel keeps a list of Web pages that you have recently visited. In Opera's History and cache preferences, you may choose how many addresses to keep track of.

Tip: If you recall having visited an interesting site, but forgot to bookmark it, use the "Find" field in the History panel to locate it.

Links

The Links panel extracts all links in the current Web page so you can easily find images, music, video clips, zip files and other downloads, as well as links to other pages.

Example: Type "mp3" in the "Quick find" field to find all mp3 files on the page.

Tip: Click the "Lock" button to keep the current list of links even if you browse to other pages.

Windows

The Windows panel displays a tree-structured view of your open pages and application windows.

Operation	How to do it
Create application windows	`Ctrl` + `Alt` + `N`
Create page tabs in current window	`Ctrl` + `N`
Re-arrange your windows and tabs	Use drag and drop
Delete selected item	Press `Delete`
Further window options	Right-click the tree

Transfers

Opera's Transfers panel lets you monitor and control files being transferred between your computer and the Internet.

Operation	How to do it
Download file linked to in a Web page	Click the link to the file or drag the link to the "Quick download" field
Download file	Enter file address in the "Quick download" field
Resume transfer of selected files	Click "Resume"
Stop transfer of selected files	Click "Stop"
Transfer selected file again	Click "Retransfer"
Sort list of files	Click column headers

Note: Not all Web sites support resuming of file transfers.

Notes

The Notes panel can serve as a clipboard manager, a "to do" list, and other means of remembering multiple strings of text.

Operation	How to do it
Write a new note	Click "New note"
Organize notes into folders	Click dropdown arrow on "New note" button, and select "New folder"
Take notes from a Web page	Mark text in page, then press `Ctrl` + `Shift` + `C`
Paste from clipboard into note	Press `Ctrl` + `Shift` + `V`
Search the Web for contents in note	Drag note to search field and press `Enter`
Delete a note to Trash	Select note and press `Delete`
Undelete a note from Trash	Open Trash and drag note out of Trash
Organize notes and folders	Use drag and drop
Send a note as an e-mail message	Select note and click "Send", or drag note into message body

Tip: The right-click menu of all edit fields, such as e-mail messages and Web forms, contains the sub-menu "Insert note". Use Notes to store strings of text that you use repeatedly, such as standard e-mail messages or templates, and signatures.

Info

The Info panel displays technical information about the current Web page.

Web panels

To show a Web page in a panel, bookmark the page by pressing Ctrl + T and select to show it as a panel.

Some Web pages provide special links (rel="sidebar") that make it easy to add Web pages as panels.

Example: Create panel with table of contents for Opera help