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The Technology Preview 2 version of Opera 5.0 for Mac is an initial partial work build. Features presented in the standard Opera version might be missing or only partially included. Opera notes that it is not customary to supply a full set of help files with a Technical Preview release. These files will be partially supplied in the beta version, and will, of course, be fully available in the full release.

Currently a public Technology Preview 2. Opera for Macintosh has been tested on MacOS 7.5.3 through MacOS 9.1. After the Power PC (PPC) version, a Carbonized MacOS X version will follow. Then an 68K version will follow.

Opera for Mac TP2 will not work under Mac OS X in Classic mode, this version is just an upgrade because TP1 expires. A new version will follow later in April that will work under Mac OS X Classic mode.

Opera is a fast, small, secure, configurable, and standards compliant Internet/intranet browser. Opera Software has licensed Macromedia Flash Player technology in the Windows, Linux and Macintosh versions of Opera. Macromedia Flash Player delivers motion, sound, interactivity and graphics.

Features:

Opera is faster

Speed is an issue Opera keeps in mind at all times while coding, resulting in a faster browsing experience for the user.

• Opera is created with speed and efficiency in mind.
• Opera takes care of itself, making little use of shared libraries, which results in increased efficiency and a faster response.

Opera is secure

Opera features 128bit SSL encryption, version 2 and 3. The first browser on the market to support TLS 1.0. This means that you can do secure online ordering of goods and services, online banking without any additional security proxy software or modules, ensuring complete security for your online transactions.

Opera complies with standards

It is fast becoming a nightmare for website developers to make their pages 'best viewed' with one of the big browsers. Using Opera, you know that your pages are best viewed on any browser. Use Opera as your standard reference browser to make sure that your pages are open to all, and not just to those with a specific browser, it will save you valuable time when developing your pages. As an effect of this, you also learn how to write proper code, which is invaluable in itself.

Opera continues its commitment to the standards as laid out by the W3C by supporting the following technologies:

• 128bit encryption
• TLS 1.0
• SSL 2
• SSL 3
• CSS1
• CSS2
• XML
• HTML 4.01
• HTTP 1.1
• ECMAScript
• JavaScript 1.3
• With new, limited support for:
• DOM
• DHTML
• WAP/ WML

Opera is extremely small

Installation is a breeze, taking merely a minute. Opera does not hog your hard disk space. Opera for Mac is a mere 2.2 MB download, so updating to the latest version is always fast and easy.

• Quick and easy to download
• Small size
• Low resource requirements
• Fast opening

Opera is ideal for people with disabilities

Using Opera means being able to access the Net quickly and efficiently. Only Opera makes it possible to navigate entirely with the keyboard, to the great pleasure of our thousands of visually or physically disabled users worldwide.

• navigate entirely with the keyboard for more speed
• zoom in and out of the pages without losing resolution
• Opera is simple to use with:

• Context sensitive menus
• An online support web
• Dedicated news server supplying quick answers by users to users

Session Management

• Start Opera with a number of windows
• Start with the same setup as when you last exited
• Each window can be with or without graphics

Download management

Multiple downloads are possible at the same time Opera features a special download window with your download items listed. In addition, Opera supports:

• resume download - if the server stops, you won't have to start again.
• dedicated Download window with FTP and HTTP
• file status

Cookie management

Opera continues it's commitment to user security and choice with Opera's advanced Cookie management capability.
• advanced cookie filtering
• accept or deny third party cookies

Web display management

Choose your own presentation styles: font type, color and other parameters for headers (H1 H6), normal and preformatted text, form buttons and form fields, newsgroup headers, group header and message text and more with your own user CSS. Fly the web the way YOU want!

Opera is flexible

Choose whether to show menus, buttons, scroll bars, progress information etc. If you don't need it, why show it? If you don't like the UI gadgetry, you can turn it off. If you don't like cookies or referrer logging, frames or multimedia, or if it's just Javascript, one click turns them off. If you'd like to customize the look and feel of your toolbar, no problem at all. Opera is customization friendly, so you can see the Internet the way YOU want and not the way the designer envisaged.

• toggle images online and per individual window
• toggle cookies or referrer logging
• toggle frames
• toggle multimedia
• toggle Javascript
• toggle document and user settings
• choose font type, color and other presentation parameters for headers (H1, H6), normal and preformatted text, and forms
• advanced link presentation: Choose color, bold, underline, strike through, etc.
• link to your favourite email client if you so wish
• save global and local home pages
• view the web the way you want with user CSS
• add your login user names and passwords to the Keychain and retrieve them later
• easily modify button sets, from using a smaller set, text only or even make and use your own plus so much more..

Sophisticated hotlist

• import from other browsers
• retrieve all elements of a hotlist (bookmarks) with one click
• add all active documents to a hotlist (bookmarks) with just one click

Support for multiple graphics formats

Opera includes support for multiple graphic formats. Support for wbmp, png without alpha transparency channels, gif, jpeg, bmp, xbm, animated gif, and transparent gif formats. Graphics can of course be turned off!

Opera for Macintosh: Known Issues

The following are known issues in Opera for Mac TP2:

ISSUES FIX STATUS
In some instances, Opera does not quit when all windows are closed. Just open another window and Opera quits without problems. Fixed in TP2.
Preferences dialog box displays just a text line. Delete any old preference files in the "Opera Preferences" Folder (System Folder :Preferences) Not fixed.
Opera is slow and unstable. Delete the cache folder in the "Opera Preferences" Folder (System Folder :Preferences:). Not fixed.
Right frame on frame pages might miss scroll bar or up arrow. To be fixed. Fixed in TP2.
Opera crashes with my G3 accelerator card. Yet unknown. Not fixed.
Opera seems to keep accessing the disk after a download. Open the transfer window, click the downloaded file(s), choose "Remove from list" in the transfer-window popup-menu. Fixed in TP2.
Setting the cache size in the Preferences does not limit the cache size and "empty now" does not delete cache. To be fixed. Not fixed.
I opened a new bookmark window, and now I can't close it! Add one single junk-bookmark, then click close. Opera now asks if you want to save, click "Don't Save", the window closes. Fixed in TP2.
Drag and drop of pictures for saving on the desktop doesn't work. Not implemented yet. Not fixed.
Parts of some pages are shown with very small fonts which make them virtually unreadable. Try setting the minimum font size in the Document pane in Preferences to 12. This will help on most pages. If you still encounter problems, try using "Zoom" (keyboard shortcut "+" and "-"). Not fixed.
Missing shortcuts compared with the Windows version: Not all shortcuts are implemented yet. The "ctrl" key will be used for the "Access Key" in HTML 4.0 Not fixed.
Even though I can see the global history (Windows:Special Window:History), visited links does not show up as visited in the next Opera for Mac session. To be fixed. Not fixed.
When I change the default zoom in the prefs, it doesn't have any effect on the zoom when I open a new window. To be fixed. Not fixed.
Opera for Mac is not able to really keep fixed elements in a fixed position but first moves them with the scrolling page and then recalculates their position. To be fixed. Fixed in TP2.
Opera crashes with error #3 on "File > Open". Happens when: User clicked "Open" in the "File" menu, and Opera crashes. Reason: Opera expects Appearance manager and Navigation Services to be installed, this is not always the fact under MacOS 7.x up to 8.1. Navigation Services is downloadable from Apple's software update page. How to td while waiting for a new version of Opera: Download and install Appearance Manager and Navigation Services. These cannot be found at Apple's place anymore, but I managed to get them from emulation.net (which is a safe source). They will be put up for download on Opera's site. (Eh, hopefully!)
- There is another solution as well: Do not use "Open" from the "File" menu, but drag the file you want to open directly to the window you want to open it in. May be fixed, can't correctly test. (We have no MacOS 8.1)
Preferences Dialog: OK button displayed wrong. Happens when the user gets a dialog-box on the screen. Reason: Bug in the framework called PowerPlant, which we use. They manually draw the "default" outline for buttons. This is a "cosmetic bug". How to fix: There is no fix. Wait for a newer version of Opera and hope that the bug will be fixed in the new version. (More dialogs will be fixed but it will take time before all of them are fixed.) Not fixed.
Problem dragging bookmarks into newly created bookmark folders. Happens when: The user opened the Bookmark window, added a folder. He now wants to drag the bookmark into this new folder, but he can't. He can only drag it into the folder that is currently listed in the Bookmark window. Reason: We didn't yet support this, but will do this later. How to fix while waiting for a new version of Opera: Open the newly created folder. Drag the bookmark into the window, and press the "Parent" button to get back to where you were. You can now drag new bookmarks to the folder as it contains at least one item. Fixed, but you'll have to drag the bookmark into the rightmost side of the folder.
View Source doesn't work. Happens when: User selects "Source" in the "View" menu. Reason: Not enabled yet, because there were bugs in the code. How to fix while waiting for a new version of Opera: Go to the Address- input field (aka. URL-field), move the caret to the very beginning and type "source:". Do not modify the address. Now Opera should display the source of the URL in this window. A bit better, still buggy.
Secure page will not open. Happens when: User is going to a secure site (HTTPS). Reason: Bug in the SSL code. How to fix while waiting for a new version: Not possible. An attempt to fix this has been done in build 258 and up. Should work in builds after 258. Fixed in TP2.
Appearance manager needed. Happens when: User is using MacOS 8.1 or below. Reason: Opera requires Appearance Manager and Navigation Services. How to td while waiting for a new version: Download and install the Navigation Services and Appearance Manager from our web-site (when it's put up.) - or download them from the nintendo-page on http:// www.emulation.net/ - The full URL is: http://www.emulation.net/nintendo/index.html Might be fixed, can't test until we have MacOS 8.1.
Cursor misbehavior when Opera is a background application. Happens when: User switched to another application, and Opera has a window open. Reason: Opera does not yet detect fore-and background switching and therefore does not disable the "change-to-hand" and "change-to-arrow" behaviour. There is no fix for this. If it's very annoying, please try and collapse the window by clicking in the upper right-hand box in the window's title-bar, then switch back to the other application. Fixed in TP2.
Form input messed up... (Aka: Form submit buttons do not work). Happens when: User go to a page containing submit-buttons (probably when the page contains more than one submit button) - This is known from Yahoo mail, greetings.yahoo.com, www.usa.net (web-mail) and a few other places. Reason: Bug in either cookie handling or JavaScript. This worked in earlier builds, but now it's broken. Not fixed.

Opera Software AS is is a privately held company headquartered in Oslo, Norway.

To download Opera:
http://www.opera.no/download/
or
http://www.opera.no/download/mac.html

Charles W. Moore

.