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Opera Mini 5 Beta: Tips and Tricks

September 16, 2009 · by Haavard

Opera Mini 5 Beta is finally out!

As you can see, a lot has changed since Opera Mini 4. Here are a few tips on how to get more out of the new version.

1) The first thing you should know about is the long hold. Whether you are using a touchscreen or not, holding down for a moment when pressing something like a link or a Speed Dial entry (instead of pressing and releasing immediately), offers various options depending on what you press, such as:

  • Edit or clear Speed Dial
  • Open a link in a new tab
  • Select text
  • Copy text
  • Open image

2) To assign a new Speed Dial, simply press one of the empty slots and type in the address, or choose from the list.

3) The find in page option is in the menu (the button to the right in the touch user interface, or the dropdown below the button toolbar on non-touch phones), along with bookmarks, history, saved pages, settings, and help.

4) The new RSS/newsfeed reader is not available in this beta, but if you want to access the old one, add the address feed:list as a bookmark or Speed Dial.

5) You may be able to copy text from Opera Mini 5 to a different application despite Java not allowing this. To do so, open the Settings, go to Advanced, and disable Inline Editing. You can now copy the text from a page, and paste it into a text input field (such as the search field if none are available on the current page). Editing this text will open the phone's built-in text editor, which might allow you to copy the text from there and to a different application.

6) Non-touch users shouldn't forget the keypad shortcuts. * 1-9 will open a Speed Dial. * up arrow will open a new tab. * down arrow will close a tab, while * left or right arrow will cycle to the left or right tab.

7) Is the lack of T9 predictive texting bothering you? Because Opera Mini is a Java application it can't easily access things like the T9 dictionary on your phone, so it can't support T9 when you are typing inline in forms. If you switch back to the phone's native editor, T9 will work again, but you won't be able to type inline anymore. Disable Inline Editing in the Advanced settings to use the phone's text editor.

Keep in mind that this is a beta version, and there are more surprises in store for you.

Readers' comments 50

Left under the original article, as archived.

  • Daniel AleksandersenWednesday, September 16, 2009 12:26:43 PM

    Long hold is difficult to discover. I love the new copy’n’paste, though. :smile:

  • thobiWednesday, September 16, 2009 1:21:27 PM

    nice, but can i change the keyboard layout to german? i'm missing a return button and want a komma "," because it's used that often.

  • TamilWednesday, September 16, 2009 2:30:46 PM

    :up:

  • seaemptyWednesday, September 16, 2009 4:54:54 PM

    I wish I had read this before submitting a bug report about not being able to type CAPS in the text field :bigsmile: Turned off Inline Editing, and all's well!

  • LaurentWednesday, September 16, 2009 4:58:40 PM

    "* up arrow will open a new tab. * down arrow will close a tab, while * left or right arrow will cycle to the left or right tab."

    How do you do that on a Blackberry (8310)? We don't have arrows, only the trackball and it doesn't seem to work in combination with the * key.

  • Rolando QRWednesday, September 16, 2009 6:17:45 PM

    in my Nokia 5130 '*' is '#' and '#' is '*' :smile:

  • HaavardWednesday, September 16, 2009 8:12:20 PM

    lsaplai: I'm afraid I don't have a Blackberry. You may want to report this in the Opera Mini forum, although the Mini team might already know about it since they have been testing on BB.

  • Charles SchlossWednesday, September 16, 2009 10:13:52 PM

    :up:

  • Mad Scientist (عادل)Wednesday, September 16, 2009 10:17:20 PM

    Where is the carriage return for the on-screen keyboard? :sherlock:. This is an amazing beta! :up.

  • Muh. Caesar NovaldyWednesday, September 16, 2009 10:37:32 PM

    Originally posted by danaleks:

    Keep in mind that this is a beta version, and there are more surprises in store for you.



    wow!

    can't wait..

  • LaurentWednesday, September 16, 2009 11:05:10 PM

    Thanks Haavard. I have already opened a thread in the forum to that effect:
    http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=292110&t=1253141837&page=1#comment3119810

    Let's hope they add more navigation shortcuts on BB: after all we got a full keyboard!

  • Yeni SetiawanThursday, September 17, 2009 1:53:32 AM

    Surely it consume more memory than previous version. I can't wait to see the final version.

  • thermalwinterThursday, September 17, 2009 4:21:31 AM

    and the opera mini team finally disowns the non-touchscreen community. :sad:

  • Mağruf ÇolakoğluThursday, September 17, 2009 5:41:48 AM

    Thanks for tips haavard..

  • HaavardThursday, September 17, 2009 6:35:33 AM

    Originally posted by thermalwinter:

    and the opera mini team finally disowns the non-touchscreen community.

    No, there's a UI specifically optimized for phones without a touchscreen. In fact, the keyboard shortcuts are mostly only available for non-touchscreen phones.

  • Yeni SetiawanThursday, September 17, 2009 7:06:50 AM

    Originally posted by haavard:

    In fact, the keyboard shortcuts are mostly only available for non-touchscreen phones.



    That's rite. I can't use the keyboard shortcut on my touchscreen cellphone.

  • zeeshan90aliThursday, September 17, 2009 10:24:23 AM

    On my phone, short press to key 1 also does the same function as long press to centre key
    I've encountered following problems
    1. History holds a few pages in memory (infact on my W910 only 3 pages) and I've to load them again.
    2. The animations are not very smooth
    3. When entering address by pressing #1 and searching by pressing #2, the status bar at bottom doesn't show up and I can't tell if page is loading or not.
    4. Already missing the option to choose favourite skins
    5. On small screen of my W910, the large icons for navigation are annoying. There must be two versions of Opera 5. One for touchscreens with large icons and one for non touch with medium icons.
    6. I've been using Opera 5 for 3 hours and it has crashed one time and my phone has restarted one time.
    Other major problems that I faced have been already mentioned by others. When I find some new bug, I'll write here.
    One question. Do java applications support flash? I once heard about project capachun which intended to unite java and flash.

  • HaavardThursday, September 17, 2009 10:41:14 AM

    You would be better off reporting problems in the Opera Mini forum. There's nothing I can do about bug reports for Opera Mini. I'm in the Destkop department.

  • zeeshan90aliThursday, September 17, 2009 10:45:31 AM

    Oh my! Where is my dictionary.com search engine?
    Reporting one more crash
    I'm loving to add more and more tabs. By the way is there any limit for maximum tabs?

  • thobiThursday, September 17, 2009 10:46:34 AM

    there's no limit set by opera mini. you can have as many tabs as your phone is able to handle.

  • zeeshan90aliThursday, September 17, 2009 10:48:07 AM

    Oops! My mistake. Sorry to disturb you.

  • Tolek24Saturday, September 19, 2009 5:28:22 PM

    How to use copy/paste on BlackBerry Bold?

  • janjan acedilloThursday, September 24, 2009 8:49:32 AM

    that long pressing rocks.

  • ragavSaturday, September 26, 2009 2:26:36 AM

    first there is no download option in which was there in opera mini 4.2 and this is getting hanged while with no of tabs

  • Kenny CableSaturday, September 26, 2009 2:42:30 AM

    What happened to holding down the back button to clear the address on the address bar. Now I have to hold it down until it clears the address by going back to the beginning of the address bar.

  • walterMonday, September 28, 2009 10:25:50 PM

    :up:

  • blindspott10Tuesday, September 29, 2009 5:57:16 AM

    cool..

  • Chuckkey69Tuesday, September 29, 2009 2:28:54 PM

    on htc kaiser touchscreen is exactly just that . none of navigation keys have effect

  • Elijah BeesigomweTuesday, September 29, 2009 3:44:23 PM

    Dig the tiny fonts! Never seen a better app. Thanks Opera Team!

    Nokia N70-1

  • Elijah BeesigomweTuesday, September 29, 2009 6:52:17 PM

    How do I know if I have the latest OM5 build. I've checked my opera mini and it's 15650 hifi.

    Nokia N70-1

  • singletreeSunday, October 11, 2009 9:18:56 PM

    I have BB Bold. Downloaded Opera Mini 5 beta. All I can do is open one of the seven spots; one unused.

    Please help me to get started to the various functions available.

    All I can see when I push Menu on Bold is a horizontal line with 9 spots, left and right arrow, semi circle (does what? I select and nothing happens). After I select the right hand button, close button, it asks if I want to exit.

    Newbie Blackberry; extreme, extreme newbie on Opera Mini 5.

    I wonder if I downloaded the Blackberry version?

    Please kick start me.

    singletree

  • Unregistered userTuesday, October 13, 2009 1:06:31 PM

    nagsow writes: thanks brother.iam worrying about copy paste.now iam clear

  • illiadThursday, October 15, 2009 1:38:39 PM

    well it's good to see that some can copy text from Opera Mini 5 to a different application...
    Nokia seem to have forgotten this in the 5800??? the 'editor' that comes up has NO WAY to do anything like this!!(I cannot see how to normally access it either..) :sad: Is there any way that the messaging or notes editor could be used??

    T9 is only available when you use the alphanum phone keypad, not the proper keyboard options.. :sad:

  • ClemensTuesday, January 5, 2010 7:12:18 PM

    Works much better then the old opera mini 4, but:

    At my HTC Diamond2 (with 480x800 points on the screen) most of the fonts are too TINY!!
    I can't even read the URL of a WEB site ...
    And it is a hard job to read the favorites or the history, too.

  • Darryl MeganoskiSunday, January 10, 2010 7:58:59 AM

    All I want to know is how to access my notes like i can my feeds. it says there should be a link in my bookmarks, but there wasn't. I know I can access these.things via opera's site but i would think there was an easier interface like for the desktop, or the feed list, which I had to manually add with feeds:list. Is there a similar way to access notes? Another great thing would be integration into the notepad most phones alredy have :wink:

  • Slym07Sunday, January 17, 2010 12:54:08 PM

    I am the only only one who wants to cry about not having the 'move to the top and bottom of the page' features anymore? This was my lifeline! I would much prefer this to 'find in page' which has replaced it :-(. Here's hoping the final version has it. Other than that, I love 5!

  • akingsnorthMonday, January 25, 2010 12:23:09 PM

    Long Hold should be publicised more!! Made me switch back to version 4 originally. Now I know its version 5 all the way :-))

  • B.S.KushwahFriday, February 5, 2010 6:15:57 AM

    I am using Opera Mini 5 bita with Nokia n95 8gb after selecting setting- advanced & i did not find "Inline Editing."
    I have 4 option in advanced
    protocol
    Network test
    set saves pages folder.
    full screen edit.
    Tell me where I find "Inline editing"
    Help requested for copy n pest option.
    Regards.
    B.S.Kushwah

  • Yeni SetiawanFriday, February 5, 2010 1:16:05 PM

    Mr. Kushwah,
    Try to select "fullscreen edit", I think it's a toggle option. So you can choose Inline Editing or FullScreen Edit.

  • B.S.KushwahFriday, February 5, 2010 1:41:46 PM

    So you can
    choose Inline Editing
    or FullScreen Edit
    ."Yes it work"
    Thank You.
    B.S.Kushwah # 5.
    Februar

  • Tolek24Monday, February 8, 2010 9:54:17 AM

    Im waiting for BETA3, for more features :smile: OM5 works like a charm on my BB Bold 9000 with OS 5.0.0.411

    Just need to fix scrolling fix, currently is too slow but also you can use numbers like 4,6,2,8 on your keypad :smile:

  • B.S.KushwahMonday, February 8, 2010 10:27:42 AM

    Yeni Setiawan # 5.
    February 2010, 18:46
    Mr. Kushwah,
    Try to select
    "fullscreen edit", I
    think it's a toggle
    option. So you can
    choose Inline Editing
    or FullScreen Edit.

    Dear Friend.
    Many Thanks .
    Yes it works very goods.
    Also if auto spell correct,words underline & colour option/smilies possible ?
    Greetings.

  • Unregistered userWednesday, February 10, 2010 3:27:07 PM

    Anonymous writes: Why is 5 on my blackberry 8330 not letting me post anything? I fill out the text boxes, but when I hit submit or continue on every website I've tried, the next page that opens says that there is missing info, and every box is now empty!?

  • Unregistered userFriday, February 12, 2010 3:37:41 AM

    Anonymous writes: Singletree, what you need to do is scroll over one of the 9 tabs and press the W key. A prompt will appear giving you the option to either edit or clear the address of the selected tab. The semi-circle you see is actually the refresh button. I'm typing from my 9700 now and it's a much different browsing experience once you get the hang of the shortcuts. Also, if you hold the * key and scroll left or right you can switch between tabs.

  • Milli megalordTuesday, April 27, 2010 8:57:41 AM

    Great

  • Kslide11Friday, June 18, 2010 10:42:17 PM

    Yes but if u have no empty speed dial spaces is there a way to change existing speed dial box to a new one? Like I don't use twitter, etc...which is already on there

  • HaavardSaturday, June 19, 2010 1:15:25 AM

    Long-press for options, such as deleting existing Speed Dials.

  • mtiberioFriday, July 9, 2010 7:30:22 PM

    shortcuts

    # 1 enter address
    # 2 search
    # 3 find in page
    # 4 start page
    # 5 bookmarks
    # 6 history
    # 7 downloads
    # 8 settings
    # 9 saved pages
    # 0 reload
    * 1 1st speed dial
    * 2 2nd speed dial
    * 3 3rd speed dial
    * 4 4th speed dial
    * 5 5th speed dial
    * 6 6th speed dial
    * 7 7th speed dial
    * 8 8th speed dial
    * 9 9th speed dial
    * 0 mobile view
    * # landscape
    * * fullscreen
    * ^ new tab
    * v close tab
    * < prev tab
    * > next tab

  • Amodu Kazeem AbiodunSunday, October 30, 2011 12:30:19 PM

    I think its cool, cos i've been longing to download it... I use opera 10 for smartphones with similar large icon and its touchscreen which makes the pressing fun and ease to access facilties, but since i got my new java phone, i can't seems to download it.

  • Charles SchlossMonday, October 31, 2011 4:21:03 AM

    Originally posted by Abbeyjones:

    but since i got my new java phone, i can't seems to download it


    Opera Mobile is for smart phones and otehr high end phones, Opera Mini works on feature phones

    On a computer you can find it here: http://www.opera.com/mobile/download/pc/

About this article

Published inA Journal from Behind the Trenches
DateSeptember 16, 2009
AuthorHaavard
Tagsopera mini 5, opera, tips, opera mini, beta
OriginalInternet Archive

The Red O » Developers » Haavard » Opera Mini 5 Beta: Tips and Tricks

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