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| PC Today: Personal Finance, Web Browsers, PDAs & Handhelds | |
| February 2001• Vol.9 Issue 2 Page(s) 136 in print issue | |
Troubleshooting Opera We Help You Overcome A Few Obstacles |
Jump to first occurrence of:
[OPERA]
[BROWSER]
 A Web browser is a great tool for navigating the
Web, but occasional problems and annoying settings can make browsers seem
like a cruel joke inflicted on your computer by someone who doesn’t care
very much for you. While Opera is a great
browser, its many features make it almost incomprehensible at times, and
you often have to tweak the browser or even download additional items to
view a Web page. The following troubleshooting tips point you to solutions
for some of the more common problems you may encounter while using
Opera. No-Show Windows.
If you are using the Netscape or Internet Explorer browser with
the Windows operating system, you can easily see and switch between the
open windows with the Task Manager at the bottom of your screen. Because
Opera combines all its windows into one workspace, this isn’t possible,
but Opera uses a Window bar that shows all open Opera windows so you can
easily navigate between them. From the View menu, choose Window bar, then
select where you want the bar to reside on your screen (top, bottom, left,
right). You can also turn the bar off here.Now to toggle between open windows, just click the window you want from the Window bar. You can also do this from your keyboard by pressing CTRL-TAB. Where Is The
Address Bar? Users new to the Opera browser may have a hard
time typing a URL (universal resource
locator; Web address) until they realize that Opera places its
version of what Microsoft’s Internet Explorer calls the Address bar on the
bottom of the screen by default. Opera calls it the Progress bar, and in
addition to the text box where you type a URL, the Progress bar contains
icons for toggling images on and off, previewing a document before you
print it, and more. If you’re a little put off by Opera’s atypical default placement of the Progress bar on the bottom of the browser window, you can easily move it to the top by right-clicking anywhere in the margin of the text box and selecting Top from the pop-up menu. Slow Browsing.
By default, Opera supports asynchronous DNS (domain name
system), which means it can have several windows open and receive
information from the Internet at the same time. Not all servers support
asynchronous DNS, though, so Opera also supports synchronous DNS, which
means that when it is transmitting information to or from the Internet,
all other actions cease. For that reason, if you check the Synchronous DNS
checkbox, Opera may perform more slowly. Speed up the browser by
unselecting the Synchronous DNS box; from the File menu, choose
Preferences and select Connections. The Synchronous DNS checkbox is in the
Performance section. Flickering Web Site
Images. Opera can double buffer Web pages, which keeps images
from flickering but also uses a lot of RAM. If you have RAM to spare but
no patience for flickering, choose Preferences from the File menu, select
Windows from the Category menu on the left, and check the Avoid Flicker
option in the General section. Can’t Connect To
The Internet. Whenever you have problems connecting to the
Internet, you should first make sure your dial-up networking is configured
correctly and that all your connection hardware, such as the modem and
phone line, are hooked up correctly. Other factors such as ISP downtime,
Web site problems, or heavy traffic can effect your ability to connect to
the Internet, but if you can use other Web browsers or applications, your
problem could be with Opera’s offline browsing feature. To check this,
make sure the Offline Browser Mode option in the File menu isn’t checked.
If it is, Opera won’t connect to the Internet. Scripting Error
Messages. Unfortunately for Opera users, most Web pages are
designed with just two browsers (Netscape and Internet Explorer) in mind.
This won’t usually cause problems, as Opera follows a lot of the same
standards as Netscape and Internet Explorer, but you’ll occasionally run
into error messages, especially in relation to scripting languages.
Opera recommends that you write to the designers of Web sites that you have problems with and politely remind them that there are other browsers on the market. A quick fix if you’re sick of seeing error messages is to choose Preferences from the File menu, select Plug-ins, and uncheck the Enable Scripting Language Error Messages checkbox. Java Won’t Work
With Opera. When you download Opera 4.02 from the Opera Web
site, you will see that there are two versions: the standard 1.84MB
version and the 9.29MB Java version. If you download the standard version,
you will be unable to use applications written in the Java programming
language. If you have the 9.29MB Java version but still can’t view Java
applications, choose Preferences from the File menu, select Plug-ins, and
check the Enable Java checkbox in the Java section. Good As New.
Even though the majority of PC users don’t surf the Web with
Opera, it is a competent and useful browser. And once you work out some of
its kinks, you’ll find it even more useful.  by Rich Gray
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