This is another in Wap Review’s ongoing series of tips on getting the most out Opera Mini, the full-web mobile browser that works on most phones.
Opera mini is quite configurable. Using the build in “Settings” menu (top image) you can:
- Set the default font size.
- Change image quality or turn off images entirely to manage memory and bandwidth use.
- Toggle fit-to-width “mobile view”.
- Switch the default view between portrait and landscape.
- Disable fancy sliding screen transitions which can be slow on some phones.
- Change the default skin.
- Toggle full-screen mode.
- Choose whether pages should open zoomed out or zoomed when the browser is in desktop mode.
- Turn off auto-completion of URL entries. This is something I turn off as I find the auto completion more trouble than it’s worth. I can enter URLs more quickly using the phone’s default input handler which lets me easily switch between abc, T9, symbols and numbers.
- Switch the clock display between 12 and 24 hour modes.
There is another undocumented “Power Users” settings menu hidden in Opera Mini. To access it enter the URL config: in Opera Mini’s address bar and select “OK” or “Go To”. A screen similar to the one in the bottom image should appear. Power User Settings include:
- Large placeholders for images. (Default:Yes) If you have images turned off or Opera Mini doesn’t have enough memory to load all the images on large pages it will show colored boxes which by default have the same dimensions as the original images. Choosing No is supposed to make Opera Mini use smaller boxes which I think I’d prefer. Unfortunately this option doesn’t seem to work, I still get the large boxes with it set No. Aside: I’d really wish Opera Mini would follow web standards and display the image’s Alt Text when can’t display an image.
-
Fit text to screen (Default:Yes) In desktop mode, Opera Mini reflows text columns so they fit the screen’s width for easy reading. This is generally a good thing but it can make parts of pages look ugly and cause overlapping text, especially in tabbed menus. Changing this setting to “No” will cause the page to be rendered just like it would be in a desktop browser. While this makes the page prettier, it also means you have to scroll back and forth horizontally on every line to read text. I tried it and quickly set it back to the default!
- Use bitmap fonts for complex scripts (Default=No) Opera mini normally uses your phone’s built in fonts which generally have characters for only a handful of languages. If you try to view a Chinese webpage with a phone that doesn’t have Chinese fonts all you will see is a bunch of squares in the place of characters. Setting this option causes Opera to render the text of any language your phone doesn’t support as an image of the the text. This will make the page load more slowly but at least you will be able to read it. Apparently quite a few languages supported by this feature. I haven’t been able to find a list but users have reported that they were able to view Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Bengali pages using this feature.
- Loading Timeout (default:30) This is my favorite Power User setting. It specifies how seconds the Opera Mini server should wait for a 3rd party web server to respond before giving up and displaying a timeout message. There are some slow sites on the web aznd 30 seconds is just too short. Before this error was added I’d often get a timeout on HowardForums.com or if I asked Bloglines to show all the posts in my subscribed feeds for the last 24 hours. I set the timout to the maximum allowed, 3600 seconds, and now I never see timeouts. If a site is really down or I get tired of waiting, I just press the right softkey labeled STOP to make Opera mini give up. Pressing STOP works fine on my phones although it can cause lockups on Palm OS devices. If you have one of those you might be better off setting the timeout to 60 or 120.
- Show feedindex (default:Yes) The default causes Opera Mini to show an RSS feed icon at the top on any page that has a feed. Clicking the icon adds the feed to Opera Mini’s built in feed reader.I don’t use the Opera Mini reader because it doesn’t synchronize with anything and seems to lose my subscribed feeds with every server upgrade. If you are serious about feeds you will want to use Bloglines or Google Reader as your feed reader in Opera Mini. I do like to see the feed icon though as it tells me when a site has a feed that I can add to Bloglines using a bookmarklet.
- Keep styling in RSS feeds (default:No) As I mentioned I don’t use Opera Mini’s built in feed reader but I’d think changing this to Yes would improve the appearance and formatting of feeds in Opera Mini. It seems strange that it defaults to No.
- Fold linklists (default:Yes) When Opera Mini is in mobile view it will replace long lists of links with a plus sign graphic. Clicking the plus sign will expand the list. The intention is to make large repetitive menus less intrusive. I set this to No as it tends to collapse things I want to see like news headlines or the list of unread feeds in Bloglines.
- Phonenumber detection (default: Yes) Opera Mini tries to detect plain text phone numbers in web pages and turn them in click to call links. When this feature first came out is was buggy and tended to treat “1 2 3 4” page menus on web forums etc. as phone numbers so that clicking them tried to dial 1234 instead of loading the next page. That bug has been fixed and I don’t see any reason to disable the very useful phone number detection feature.
- Minimum phone number length (Default:9) Numbers less than this length will never be detected as phone numbers. US phone numbers are 10 digits so you could set it to that, although leaving at nine seems to work fine.
While most of the Power User settings are of limited use I’m really happy about the ability to increase the Loading Timeout and to turn off linklist folding. Although I don’t use it (English is my only language) the ability to use server side bitmaps to display character sets that the phone doesn’t support is another great feature. I’m glad the Power User Settings are there although I think Opera should make them easier to find.
Im hacked my clock settings are not visible
i need bangla
I’m using operamini browser with my my laptop.But i can’t read my native language(sinhala-Sri Lanka) and i can read my language with other browser.I know how to get if fixed with smart phone.But i don’t know how to get it fixed for laptop.Pls kindly help me on this issue and i’m anxious to able to read my language see.
Hi.. Where does opera mini v7.5 for Android store saved pages on phone.. Recently I had updated the version and all my saved pages are lost..i need them badly.. Kindly help..
Saved pages are the .obml files in /data/data/com.opera.mini.android/files/ You need to be rooted to access that folder.
how clear cache at opera mini 7.1
opera:cache show all caches but how cleard
The Opera Mini cache is cleared when the browser is closed.
pls am have a problem on my phone,i couldn’t able to browse or enter facebook on opera mini and have clear d cookies but still d page is not connecting.pls what am i going to do to solve d issue
The free Facebook site at o.facebook.com doesn’t work in Opera Mini. Try facebook.com or use the phone’s browser for o.facebook.com
i need amharic font config user power setting
Urm whats url
where do you type it because i dont know and need to know right now
The URL is config: and you type it in the address field which is at the top of the start screen in all versions of Opera Mini.
Bro I’m fresh user.I use symphony FT05 n use opera mini.But I’ve faced some problem e.g. I couldnot write any bengali word from my mobile.But I can’t read bengali fonts without facebook n bdnews24.com.Such as bengali newspaper,online bengali blogs,magazine etc.What can I do now.Pls advice me.
haw can i read amharic/power geez/
i have nokia mobile model E-5 but i doesnt seport amharic softwer the mobile is so smart in other application please how can i read amharic /power geez ethiopia local language
With Symbian the only way to change the supported languages is by replacing the operating system with a version that supports the desired language fonts and input methods. If an amharic /power geez version of the E-5 system software exists a Nokia Service Center can put it on your phone. A local phone repair shop may also be able to do it.
amharic/geez/ font, which is ethiopian national language is also became readable on those phone not support it by enabling the “Use bitmap fonts for complex scripts”
In regards to accessing the Power User Settings:
I am prompted to access the data network, being asked
to connect, data charges may apply. I thought going into
the settings is something that can be done offline.
Here is what I did to get to that point (using an LG420G) …
Upon Opera Mini 4.4 opening to the main page,
in the topmost field (displaying www.), I clicked
on “edit” and deleted the “www.” and entered
“config:” (I also tried “opera:confi:”), and then
pressed the “go” button on the navigation key
(as well as trying as an alternate approach,
selecting “go to”).
The response of the Opera Mini was to ask me if I wanted
to connect to the network and that data charges would
apply.
It seems that Opera thinks what I am entering is a URL
versus a command to access the settings.
In the original topmost field, after I clicked “edit,”
and deleted all preexisting characters in the field,
there was still an icon in the leftmost position, of
unknown symbolic meaning, other than I could not delete it
to display a completely characterless and/or symbolicless
field.
What should I be doing differently?
Opera Mini is a server based browser. Pages are rendered, reformatted and compressed by 80% to 90% on the server and sent down to the Opera Mini client on the phone. That’s what makes it so fast and able to load large pages on a phone with very limited memory and processing power.
The Power User Settings menu is on the server so network access is required to view it. Other menus are local to the app on the device.
The icon on the left of the URL entry field is supposed to represent a web page. It can’t be deleted and doesn’t effect the ability to enter URLs
Regarding previously entered addresses …
With use of Opera Mini over time, entering many
addresses during surfing, wouldn’t the list of
“previously entered addresses” accumulate and
potentially reach a list of thousands?
It’s hard to believe that Opera Mini wouldn’t
provide some way of deleting previously entered
addresses!
(Or that some enterprising programmer wouldn’t have
come up with some way of helping the user.
I guess if the matter gets to be unmanageable, the
user could delete the application, and relaunch
the file and start all over again.)
Opera Mini will only show 22 addresses in the auto complete list. In Opera Mini 4.4 you can turn off address auto-completion on the regular settings screen (Menu > Settings) although that has the side effect of forcing you to use the phone’s full screen input editor instead of Opera’s inline one.
Maybe I am misunderstanding your comment
regarding Opera Mini displaying a maximum of
22 previously entered addresses when the
URL field is being accessed and the “auto
complete” setting has been selected.
I was referring to displaying “previous
addresses.” I don’t recall the path to get
to it, but I believe it is accessed if connected
to the server. I thought of the possibility of
all those previously entered email addresses
accumulating, taking up precious kb (!!) of space
on phones such as the LG420G which have limited
memory.
Maybe your comment also refers to the fact that
Opera Mini will not only display a maximum of
22 previously entered addresses in the URL auto
complete field, but it will automatically STORE
a maximum of 22 addresses, i.e. the 23rd address
results in the oldest address being removed.
Do you mean the browser history (Menu > Tools > History)? It’s self limited to about 100 items. You can clear it by pressing the left softkey labeled “Clear” when you’re on the history screen.
No. What I was referring to is this path …
From the first page displayed when Opera Menu opens …
With the URL (top most search field box) search field
active, select “edit,” then “options,” then “previous
addresses.”
“Previous addresses” will list previously entered URLs
(or in my case, my attempt to enter the Power User Settings
by entering “config:”). More accurately, the list includes
text entered in the URL field.
Since I have not used the browser much, I have a list
of only six addresses.
I am curious if there is a maximum of addresses listed.
In doing additional research on Tracfone charges for
download of ringtones and the use of the Tracfone browser
services, I was surprised the learn that there is a
subscription price to access news, weather, sports, by
way of the Tracfone browser, and if a URL outside the
Tracfone supported mobile services is entered through the
Tracfone mobile browser, there is another charge.
I had to consult the online Tracfone price conversion page
due to Tracfone tech help not being trained to understand
ringtone charges and store content (yes, sad to say).
All the more reason to use Opera Mini for web browsing.
Due to the lack of clarity and suitable products on the
Tracfone store, if I can get a compatable bluetooth
adaptor for my laptop, I will see if there are useful
apps and/or games that will accommodate my remaining
memory in my cellphone. A future project may involve
exploring converting mp3 files to an amr format which the
LG420G handles. I really regret that the LG420G doesn’t
have a separate memory card; therefore the use of
an mp3 to amr converter to get some audio files on the
cellphone.
It sounds like you have “Auto complete address input” turned off in settings. The “Previous Addresses” are limited to about 20 and they are deleted when you clear browser history.
TracFone charges for all online access including using Opera Mini. Charges will be lower with Mini than the stock browser thanks to the compression.
Yes, I took your suggestion/recommendation and
did turn off the auto-completion setting. As you
said, it turned out to be more of a hindrance.
Good to know that the list of previously entered
addresses stops at 20, and gets cleared out with
a clearing of the browser history.
Currently, only “Power User Settings,” is displayed
in the history page.
I thought my explanation about TracFone charges
would come out fuzzy. I wasn’t able to explain
myself clearly. I am aware that TracFone will
charge me for online surfing with Opera Mini, but
due to the compression, the surfing time will be
done more economically and efficiently.
What surprised me was the way that TracFone on its
data conversion page explains the additional
charges beyond the normal ones for going beyond
what it considers Tracfone approved mobile
browser URLs (with using its own mobile
browser). And … it does seem that there is an
additional charge to subscribe to its “service”
for news, weather, etc. Why would someone do that
if they can get sufficient data via Opera Mini
through some site that condenses the news, weather,
etc? Doesn’t make sense!
I was going to start a new posting thread so as to
keep the content of a post from being off-topic to
a pre-existing thread. I went to the sitemap and
it might be my brain fog, but I did not see the way
in which a person can start a new thread. How to
do this? (I had thought of starting one dealing with
the mp3 to amr conversion for the tracfone that doesn’t
have mp3 audio recording capability.)
I really don’t know much about TracFone’s web services other than that they aren’t very popular and seem over priced. There’s so much free web content that it hardly makes sense to pay for it.
As for creating your own topic on here, the short answer is you can’t. This site is sort of my personal soapbox for my rants about mobile web browsing. The site’s comments section is for discussing, arguing about and asking questions about the posts I’ve made. The software I use to run this site doesn’t really support letting anyone but me make posts (start new topics).
An online forum is a place where anyone can register and create new topics for others to discuss. Howard Forums is the largest general mobile forum and it has a dedicated TracFone section at http://www.howardforums.com/forumdisplay.php/330-Tracfone-Net10 I’m active on Howard Forums as “Yeswap”.
Turk Forums http://s1.zetaboards.com/Turk/index/ is a large, active, TracFone specific forum. I’m not a member there (I don’t own a TracFone)
I think you would make a valued member of either of those forums and a discussion of audio format conversion would be well received on Howard Forums and probably Turk Forums as well.
I am writing config: in URL bar.but its not working.how can i get the power settings page??plz help..
It works for me, What version of Opera Mini are you using?
Got the answer to my last question regarding
accessing the Power User Settings.
I learned that I DID have to access the
data network. By doing so, I was able to
change the setting for “loading timeout.”
It occurred to me that the use of Opera Mini
other than the opening page settings
which seems to apply to superficial display
option to do commands resides on the server
not on one’s cellphone chip. (I like to think
that there is a hard drive in my cellphone
storing the program allowing me to do
modifications to the browser program!)
When I clicked on “options” for the URL and
chose “previous addresses,” I viewed my other
attempts to access the Power User Settings.
There was no option to delete these other
addresses. Offline and from the opening
start page, all I see is a “delete cookies”
option. I assume that I have to be connected
to be offered an option for “deleting history.”
I do not see that the “mobile view” box is checked,
although most text seems to fit my cellphone screen
well. Though the box is not checked, it seems that
Opera is using the most optimal display mode vs.
trying a desktop view.
There is no way to delete previously typed addresses as far as I know.
Mobile View re-formats pages to a single column. It can make pages easier to use on the small screen. Unfortunately it doesn’t work on all pages.
hi frds, h r u?
am using nokia n97mini. and also am using opera mini ver10.1. as per i open opera:config: in my opera mini ver10.1, there no any such a bitmap letter in that config list. how can i fix this problem in my opera mini ver10.1. please frd help me to fix this.
And Mr.Dennis Bournique, i thankful for ur such ideas. but it’s not working for me. so pl tell me how i fixed this problem in my mobile nokia n97min with opera mini ver10.1.
notes: i like to read my language Tamil(India)
There is no Opera Mini 10.1. It sounds like you are using Opera Mobile 10.1 which is a direct browser and can’t use server based bit-mapped fonts.
If you switch to Opera Mini (the latest version is 6.1) the Use bit-mapped fonts option will be available and should work with Tamil.
I am not sure about Arabic but Ooera Mini still shows squares instead of any Persian/Farsi (UTF-8) character. Thank you anyways.
Hai,
Thanks now i can browse tamil sites in my karbonn k30 obile with operamini 4.2
Operamini 5.1 not work sinhala font
hey, got it now! thanks a bunch man, I really needed this!
couldn’t find a power-user menu in opera mini 5.1. is this feature missing in this version? is there any other way to read foreign language sites in opera 5.1??? pls reply. thanks in advance.
Though i changed all the settings, i couldn’t read tamil,malayalam,kannada languages in my nokia e 63.
It should work. Go back into config: and verify that “Use bitmap fonts for complex scripts” is set to Yes. Sometimes those settings seem to get reverted. Don’t forget to press the “Save” button at the bottom of the config: page after changing anything.
massive thanks for this – using opera mini 5.1.21214 in which release the content folding suddenly appeared and was really annoying me.
i had no idea this config menu existed but it is VERY useful :-)
any one know, how to show sinhala letters on opera?plz help me
Did you try the “Use bitmap fonts for complex scripts” config: option? If that doesn’t work for Use bitmap fonts for Sinhala you can either get a phone wtth Sinhala fonts installed or file a bug report asking Opera to add Sinhala to the support bitmap fonts
hi hi, frineds i thank your A lot to all.. its very very helpfull for sri lankan people to read sinhala on opera mini. im Lufry from sri lanka.
facebook.com/coolmsal
hey friend pls help me..
is there more codes like it pls pls pls leave a comment. plsss
Thanks Dennis . I have been making a slight mistake . I forgot to type : . config: and opera:config both work here too .
Today I was reading this article and that’s how I got the idea :
http://www.nokiamobiletalk.com/2009/11/tweak-opera-mobile-optimum-nokia-n97/
:) Regards jApi NL
config: (the colon is required) still works for me. opera:config does too
config didn’t work in my OM 4.2 . Instead URL opera:config , without (www.) worked OK !
Thanks a lot .
:) Regards jApi NL
Doesn’t setting “Use bitmap fonts for complex scripts” to yes in the power user settings menu work?
I think that the only way to install a different font on an S40 phone like the 3110c is by flashing the phone with a firmware image that supports contains the font.
Please let of know how i can install tamil fonts for my 3110c? I want to see tamil websites through opera mini 4.2. How to do that? Please help.
my cannot display in tamil word
This article is very helpful for me. now i can read text in the site in my mother tounge it self, that is “malayalam”. It also showing other indian languages like hindi, tamil,telugu,kannada etc,… Thanks for the useful information.
i have been using opera from atleast 2 years and i never even imagined about these extra settings. i am now able to view few regional texts in websites. thanks to your post…
Hi Dennis, I know what you mean about rss feeds however, with some effort, I found a way to reaquire my lost feeds after the last upgrade: go to ‘debug:’ and you will find all your user account information, including all rss feeds subscribed to which, if you click on them, you will reaquire. Which was a godsend since I depend on those feeds (including yours) more than my bookmarks. Btw, I wonder if you would do a post on uk payg data plans – they seem to be a nightmare and, apart from 3 (£5 per month, 2gb fair usage), damn mean.
Hi Dennis
Now that was a useful post! It just so happens that I’m learning Mandarin Chinese at the moment in preparation for a relocation to China on the 1st of February, and I’m doing quite a bit with my mobile – downloading MP3 files and practicing pronunciation that way. The convert bit font tip was much appreciated. Thanks for that.
Kent F. Kruhoeffer
I have been using the bitmap fonts of Opera Mini to read pages in the native languages of my country ( Sri Lanka), i.e. Sinhala and Tamil, for some time now. But I, being a language buff, found that, although the bitmap fonts supported a number of scripts, phonetic symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet were not among them. (These are important for language learners- and others interested in languages- to study the pronunciation of words, given for example on Wikipedia pages on phonology.)
However, after I recently installed a font type called Goerge on my Nokia N70-1, which I found on a site named Noeman GSM (i did it simply because it looked better than my native fonts), I discovered to my surprise that the phonetic symbols are now fully supported on my phone by Opera Mini.
The reason perhaps is that some of these symbols were correctly displayed by my native fonts while others used to come across as squares, and Opera Mini therefore wrongly assumed that they were all supported. On the other hand, the new font can’t display any of them (as I tried with bitmap fonts off, all of them appeared as squares), and so Opera Mini now sees them as a complex script for my phone and processes them on the server, luckily for me . I assume most people can’t see these symbols on their phones with Opera Mini as they have their native Latin fonts on, although Opera Mini does have the capability of showing them if only it knew that they are not fully supported by the native phone fonts. (This continues to be the case on my wife’s Sony Ericsson K530i that uses the built-in fonts.)
Then again, I also see now on Wikipedia that very few of the Wikipedia languages like Buginese can’t be correctly seen with bitmap fonts although earlier more languages, i.e. Korean, were not displayed. So there seems to be something not quite right about the way Opera Mini determines which scripts are not supported by a phone’s native fonts.
Another problem it that, like images, bitmap-font script is also left out towards the bottom of the pages on large web pages. It would be great if Opera could find a way to avoid this as lots of people are annoyed by this, especially in the case of images.
If the current Opera Mini 4.2 also used page segmentation like the older Opera Mini 3.1 when it thinks it would run out of memory, I think it would be a better way of memory handling than leaving part of the page out. After all, Opera Mini prides itself on presenting the full web on mobile devices and it should not load half- empty web pages, with no way to get around it.