Enticing Interface. More Familiar to IE Users?

I tried the beta release of Opera 9.5 earlier in 2008, but after installing the official release of the software milestone, Opera 9.5 — available at www.opera.com — I lauched the updated version only to find myself caught off-guard by a completely redesigned user interface. This is the first major change to the Opera skin in years (e.g. button icons, toolbar, menus, etc.), and its complemented by two new buttons. The enhanced User Interface, a subtle change to veteran Opera users, adds basic functionality which might be enticing to users who never tried the software.

The new buttons activate functions which existed in previous Opera versions, but the intuitive design of the new interface may strike new users as a a welcome improvement on the default layout. Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer users who, prior to the release of version 9.5, found Opera to be …“too foreign…”, could find the latest release offers precisely what they need to better appreciate the web through Opera.

In Opera 9.5, two new buttons have been added, providing access to two primary functions which were previously available, but were not accessible via any part of the graphical interface. The redesign now includes the following buttons, available to everyone after a regular install:

• Open New Tab
• Toggle Panel View

In order to open a new tab in Opera 9.5 (a feature which should make Internet Explorer 7 users feel at home), one simply presses the new-tab button, now part of the browser interface, placed to the right of the right-most active tab. The second new button, found at the left-most side of the tab-bar, controls the visibility of Opera’s Panel. Though they may be the most easily identified changes to basic functionality in Opera 9.5, to leave the list of improvements at the addition of two buttons, in my opinion, would be to do a great injustice to the overall improvement afforded to the Opera 9.5 user in general. With this . I hope that my existing affinity for Opera does not skew this article to the point of fanaticism. I don’t think so, but the reader may disagree. Please read on, and judge for yourself.

Highlights: Outstanding Changes in Opera 9.5:

Opera Link: A Model Manager

Opera has a reputation for being on top of the latest advancements in global communication through technology inherent to the Internet, and maintains legendary status for pioneering features in groundbreaking software. For anyone familiar with Opera, it comes as no surprise that the a new release would introduce a new way of looking at web browser technology.

Opera Link, a service provided as a courtesy by Opera for Opera users, seems to solve the problem of maintaining web bookmarks, for example, between the Home and Office, or the Dorm and School. Now, instead of selecting from the hosted-bookmark services– a list of providers, mind-numbing in number–to manually maintain an account of remotely stored bookmarks, the Opera user is releaved of any such stress activity altogether because Opera Link solves the problem, however, only per a user option (i.e. not required, but convenient).

Anyone who uses the latest version of Opera need only activate an Opera Link userid and thereafter, any URL saved by clicking the add bookmark button is automatically synchronized with the user’s associated account, as the data is transferred safely through an encrypted connection back to Opera HQ. Once the Opera Link account is created, the user’s favourite web sites will forever be safely stored, without any need for manual account maintenace, and available from any location (e.g. at the home or office, while visiting friends and family, etc.). In Opera 9.5, the legend lives on.

Dragonfly: The Bug you Want to Catch

Having a tool as thoroughly complete as Dragonfly now included, as an addition to amazing improvements to the web browser itself, I find it difficult to append discussion to the end of this general entry. I will try to find the time to discuss Dragonfly in more detail at another time, after I’ve had more experience with it as well. For now, I leave you with an illustrated screen-capture which shows Dragonfly in use, inspecting the DOM tree of a document here at NoviceNotes™. I recommend you view the full-size image, and ensure that your web brower is also zoomed in to 100% to elimiate any distortion caused by resizing, as it is a large image with annotations. Enjoy!