Let Opera speak to you
Even many experienced Opera users do not know that it is possible to activate the so called "Voice" mode in Opera to use voice commands in Opera and also let Opera read text in websites for you. Before you can use any of the voice features in Opera you need to install the voice add-on package which can be downloaded right from withing Opera. Go to Tools > Preferences and select Voice from the left pane. Click on the button "Enable voice-controlled browsing" and follow the few steps that are self explanatory.
10 Tips to speed up Opera 9
Opera is already a very fast browser, but if you would have the choice between fast and faster than fast, what would you choose ? I took the liberty to compile a list of 10 great tips that speed up Opera in several unique ways. Many of the settings can be changed by simply going to Tools > Preferences in Opera but some can only be used by accessing not so obvious ways like ini files.
Please note that everything that I'm describing here worked fine on my computer. It speed up Opera and increased my browsing experience with it tremendously. While most tips will work for any users no matter their connection to the Internet some tips might only increase performance for broadband users.
10 must-see Opera Widgets
Firefox has its extensions, Internet Explorer its plugins and Opera has Widgets. They basically mean the same: addons for your browser of choice that add functionality to it. I don't think that Opera deserves to take the third place in the ongoing browser war, it's fast and resource friendly and many users who rely on Firefox or Internet Explorer should at least take a look at it and evaluate it for themselves. They might be surprised about Opera after all.Widgets for Opera come in all colors and shapes and you can compare them pretty much to the excellent list of extensions that are available for Firefox.
Opera Customization Guide
I found a great guide for Opera 9 which extends Opera tremendously. The guide is divided into seven sections: Menu editing, Integrating Opera with download managers, User Javascript, Buttons, Panels, Widgets and Misc. The menu editing section for instance has some great tips that enhance opera in great ways: It gives you tips how to integrate the bugmenot website into opera, it lets you lookup the bugmenot website for login information of the page you are visiting atm. You also find tips for the following things: How to open graphics with an image viewing program like irfanview, how to open websites with internet explorer or firefox, how to create tinyurls for the current url and much more.
