Opera 7 released

[time]

I really expected Groltz to notify us, but it looks like I'm first.

For those who weren't paying attention, this is a complete rewrite of the rendering engine that should cope with dynamic HTML and all sorts of crap - er, I mean clever web design.

So far, it looks like a huge improvement. I'm on record here as losing faith with the release of Opera 6.05. Opera 7 looks more like being the sort of solution I can recommend to people with confidence (bear in mind that this is only a beta and I am drawing a long bow).

Speed really is better, although you really need broadband and a fast web site to see the difference. Sites that were problematic with lengthy pauses during loading seem just fine now. After all the testing I've done over time, anyone here who is brazen enough to tell me IE is faster can expect an earful.

CougTek will be pleased to know that ESPN's front page now renders correctly (as far as I can see). I've yet to try it on the secure sites (banks) that have caused big problems with Opera 6. There's way more 'javascript' support, but I'd really appreciate compatibility reports from people here.

Personally, I don't particularly like the new look, but I imagine many people will be blown away by it. 3D vistas with surging buttons, all in blue. :roll:

The useful new feature department includes Open requested popup windows only, which is very welcome indeed. I can't see any expansion of image loading control to be site-specific, so I guess Mercutio won't be all that impressed.

But with what I've seen, I am. Pretty damn good for a rewrite beta.

 

[time]

Crap! They don't appear to have fixed the bug when printing HTML email. That's not good ...

 

[CougTek]

Opera 7 hasn't been released yet, just the first beta of Opera 7. It crashes too often to my taste on my Win2K box, and I had to hard-reboot twice so far because of it.

Unlike you, I like the new look. There are a few annoyances though, which is normal for a beta release. The bookmarks' management for instance. If you create a new folder in your bookmarks, you have to click on "enter" once you typed-in the desired name for the folder for it to change. If you simply type the name and click elsewhere with your cursor, the name will remain "New Folder". Drag-and-drop in the bookmarks would have been nice to have too.

There are several little rendering problems. Our own site for instance. Opera 7 often doesn't show the frame of text blocks.

On the good side, the speed is, like you wrote, very satisfactionary. No complain here.

Overall, I would say that it is a promising browser, but with a lot of refining work needed to be done.

 

[Groltz]

I really expected Groltz to notify us, but it looks like I'm first.

I did.

It was a news posting on the old SF site and wasn't carried over.

 

[Prof.Wizard]

Where can I find screenshots of the new interface?

 

[Tea]

http://www.opera.com/graphics/docs/screenshots/opera-7-win-beta.png

Well-hidden, isn't it?

 

[James]

Is there any way to make the toolbar smaller? The icons are all well and good, but they're way too large.

This is my first foray back into Opera since about version 2 or thereabouts.

 

[Groltz]

Is there any way to make the toolbar smaller? The icons are all well and good, but they're way too large.

This is the only gripe I have about v7...I can't turn the "Main Bar" into text-only. It seems to be a bug. In Preferences>>>Browser Layout>>>Toolbars there is a dropdown menu that should let you select between "Images only" "Text only" "Images and Text below" & "Images and Text on right" Regardless of the setting I place this on it stays as Images Only, with the big gaudy icon buttons.

Hopefully this will be fixed.

 

[Tea]

If they want my money, it has to be fixed. Of all the things I hate in browsers (and there are plenty) wasted screen space is Number One.

 

[Prof.Wizard]

I like the new look.
And those 3D icons look really neat. 8)

 

[Groltz]

If they want my money, it has to be fixed. Of all the things I hate in browsers (and there are plenty) wasted screen space is Number One.

I agree. This is how is set v6.05:

You too?

 

[Tea]

Yup. I set mine the exact same way. Minimum BS, maximum screen.

 

[Groltz]

I just finished doing some poking around Opera's support forum. Apparently the problem with trying to get text only on the Main Bar is
because Beta 1 does not have that option enabled.

Some of the forum members there made some altered skins that allow smaller, less flashy buttons in v7b1. The forum topic is this one.

v7b1 Original

v7b1 Altered (skin name is "Grey.zip")

There are a few others available besides the ultra-minimalist "Grey.zip"
Instructions on installing altered button-sets can also be found within that thread.

.

 

[Tea]

Mmmm. Guess I'll wait for beta 2 then.

 

[James]

Thanks Groltz. At least it's a start...

 

[Splash]

Mmmm. Guess I'll wait for beta 2 then.

I would even recommend waiting until the the golden version of 7.00 is available.

The current version definitely has some serious bugs. I've had it to cause a sudden reboot in WinXP (SP-1) when I visited an intense Java-laden website.

 

[Groltz]

Personally, I am waiting for the Main Bar/no Text Only problem to be resolved. Even with the modded buttons I don't like how it looks.

Sticking with v6.05 for now.

 

[Bozo]

Just installed Beta 7 on XP pro. Really is fast!

I found that loading the Java upgrade from Sun seemed to fix a few of the page rendering problems.

Bozo

 

[Groltz]

.

Opera 7.0 Final has been released.

Download page


.

 

[CougTek]

I did read your post at the moment I posted the news on the front page Steve, otherwise I would have given you the merit for it.

They haven't fixed the frame problem when viewing our forum under their browser. Does anyone view the frame (like the nickname/password frame) while visiting SF's forum with Opera 7.0 final? I don't and I find it kind of anoying.

 

[Groltz]

Does anyone view the frame (like the nickname/password frame) while visiting SF's forum with Opera 7.0 final? I don't and I find it kind of anoying.

Do you mean this?

 

[Groltz]

Checking "Always show active frame border" gets you this:

 

[Groltz]

Checking "Always show active frame border" gets you this:

Disregard that last suggestion. It doesn't seem to be the solution.

 

[CougTek]

Yes, that's what I mean. It sucks. Makes you wonder how can they claim that they comply with most standards when they can't render something that basic correctly.

 

[Groltz]

Yes, that's what I mean. It sucks. Makes you wonder how can they claim that they comply with most standards when they can't render something that basic correctly.

Try this as an experiment:

Go into Preferences>>>Page Style
In the "Author Mode" section check the box next to "My style sheet"

Next, go to View>>>Style
Make sure "Author Mode" is selected. Put a check next to "Use default forms design".

See what you think.

--Steve

 

[CougTek]

No change. The Preferences were already like you wrote they should be and I cannot check "Use default forms design" when Author Mode is selected.

 

[Groltz]

I cannot check "Use default forms design" when Author Mode is selected.

The only thing that would prevent you from being able to check "Use default forms design" is not having a check next to "My style sheet" in the Author mode (not User Mode) section of the Page style preferences.

Should look like this:

 

[Groltz]

Even with it set this way, things don't look quite right.

The box for typing posts into shrinks in width by about 1/3 :-?

I went back to leaving "Use default forms design" unchecked.

 

[Buck]

I gave Opera 7 a try - I think I'll stick with Mozilla or phoenix.

 

[Groltz]

The only problem I see with the new Opera besides the gripe that Coug mentioned is that the sorting of bookmarks by one's own order doesn't work. (This has been mentioned in the Opera support forums).

On the other hand, it runs very well and is quite fast. Some of the new features like "close all windows except active" and "open requested pop-up windows only" are fairly handy. The inability to customize the toolbars, that existed in the first v7 betas, is all gone. I have this install looking just like my previous v6.05 install in regards to appearance.

 

[Adcadet]

I really like Opera so far - especially having the mail client built in. Yeah, I know, Mozilla does too, but I never really liked Mozilla's mail client. I'm just sick of how slow Outlook can be - even with my laptop's 5400 RPM HD, the disk swapping is very tiresome. Perhaps it's time to buy that extra 256MB or RAM to finally get to 512MB.

I do not like how it renders the forums, though.

I also like the looks, to be honest, including the eye candy on the icons.

 

[timwhit]

I do not like how it renders the forums, though.

I recommend that you get a real better newsreader if you spend any amount of time reading forums.

http://www.forteinc.com/main/homepage.php - good for everything

http://www.shemes.com/grabit/ - good for binaries

 

[SteveC]

I do not like how it renders the forums, though.

I recommend that you get a real better newsreader if you spend any amount of time reading forums.

http://www.forteinc.com/main/homepage.php - good for everything

http://www.shemes.com/grabit/ - good for binaries

I think he means web forums such as this one, and not newsgroups.

 

[Groltz]

.

An overview of v7.0 can read here.


.

 

[Ralf Hutter]

OK, after trying O7 "final" for four days I'm going back to 6.05. I just can't get past all the bugs. I've used Opera since v3.5x almost exclusively and I realize that it has it's quirks and I've put up with buggy "final" releases before (anyone remember v5.0?) but this is just too much.

O7 Pros and Cons:


Pros:

-Slightly faster page loads than 6.05

-Movable toolbar buttons

-right-click "Paste and Go" context menu

-Password "wand"


Cons:

-M2 email program. I just can't get the hang of it. Virtual folders. "K" to mark read. Ever-growing contacts list. Can't choose from different contacts by pressing the "To" button on a new, blank email. No visual pop-up for "email received". Non-adjustable columns, etc.

-"Alphabetical only" non-sortable Bookmark menu on main toolbar. Yeah, you can sort the Hotlist bookmarks but I don't leave the Hotlist on, I want access to my Bookmark folder from the toolbar.

-Using the "Back" button or "Z" key actually reloads the entire page on a lot of sites. That's one of the best things about the older Operas, you push the back button and it just goes back to the cached page, IE and Netscape have always reloaded the entire page. Now Opera 7 does the same thing a lot of times, but not always(?)

-Sometimes the "Back" button loses it's place and takes you back an extra page or two. And if you use the "down" arrow on the "Back" button the missing pages are gone form there as well. It's like they've been erased from the Hisory.

-Progress bar is fixed at the bottom of the window. All other Operas let you move it to the top toolbar to save screen space.

-Pages load text first, then graphics, and while the graphics are loading the page keeps moving and realigning itself. This is how IE works and it bugs me. I start reading the page as it's first loading then have to keep following the text around as the page realigns itself as the graphics load. Makes me kind of dizzy. Pre-Opera 7's loaded all the text in it's final position, why can't O7?


There's probably more "cons" but I'm back to 6.05 now and am trying to forget O7 for now. I'm not giving up on O7 but I will not use it until they fix more of the bugs. I'll just keep reading the "opera.general" newsgroup to keep up with further releases.