Guide for Opera for Pocket PC by
your web, your choice
![[logo]](operasoftware.png){kind=small}
11. September 2006 - Version 1: initial version
This is my collection of tips and hints towards Opera 8.60 for Windows Mobile, Pocket PC (in the following text called Opera Mobile).
Please provide feedback towards the tips and additional solutions with a post in the >>> forum thread ... <<< For general feedback not related to the tips (smilies, praise, resentment, pagedesign etc) please leave a >>> comment in my blog <<<
If you have a problem not related to the tips in this guide please search the >>> Forum for Opera Mobile <<< and start your own post if it is a new topic. Or you can provide feedback in this >>> thread for Opera Mobile 8.6 <<<
This presentation is based on a template generated with Opera Show Generator 1.0. I added the content as XHTML using the German (X)HTML-text-editor Scribe! and I tweaked the CSS a little bit. Choose Opera, press F11 and enjoy :-)
The text should be well readable in any browser, but only Opera is capable of all the goodies. Besides projection especially print layout is really nice in Opera. Firefox manages at least the numbering. Don't ask about stupid IE (but it should be no problem to just read the text).
\Application Data\Opera\cache4
with an image viewer and copy files with a file explorer
(easier with
cleared cache).Fit to width on Opera Mobile is an automatic mode switching between Small Screen Rendering (SSR, Shift+F11 on Desktop Opera) and Medium Screen Rendering (MSR, Fit to width on Desktop Opera) depending on screen width.
Using Zoom can change the behaviour of fit to width. An explicit media=handheld CSS with the page will probably switch to SSR.
With the setting Fit to width on my iPAQ (QVGA 320*240px) in portrait mode SSR is used (I could force Desktop view with the setting View - Desktop) and switching to landscape mode MSR is used (I could force SSR with the setting View - One Column).
Opera Mobile and Desktop Opera use almost the same bookmark format. Import and export work fluently with one visible difference:
(Re-)Importing bookmarks into Desktop Opera will lead to "=" in front of the bookmarks name: "=Opera homepage" instead of "Opera homepage". Opera Mobile makes "==" out of a single "=".
Exporting bookmarks from Desktop Opera and use them in Opera Mobile
works without drawbacks. You can export (all or selected, see 3+4 on next slide) bookmarks from Desktop Opera and replace
opera6.adr in \Application Data\Opera\
You can try third party tools like the
Bookmark Manager
or Bookmarkbridge,
but there are more difficulties besides "==": no direct file-access via ActiveSync,
Opera Mobile has to be closed
and there are no entries for icon and last visited.
[mobile device]\Windows\Favorites to a desktop folder\Application Data\opera\The procedure should be pretty similar to import bookmarks from other browsers.
Step by step instructions are in the handout to this slide (not visible in projection mode).
All following steps use Desktop Windows, with access to the mobile device in Windows Explorer with Active Sync:
[mobile device]\Windows\Favorites
to any place on your Desktop PC (you have to remember it, for example you can copy it
to the Desktop)
[mobile device]\application data\opera\opera6.adr from Opera Mobile)
the same way or copy additional bookmarks from your Desktop Opera into this bookmark folder).
[mobile device]\application data\opera\ and
copy the exported opera6.adr into this folder
while Opera Mobile is closed
Customizing your Opera Mobile is similar (but more limited) to customizing Desktop Opera.
Even without knowledge of HTML you can add your favorite links to your startpage.
[mobile device]\Application Data\Opera\startpage\home.html<li><a href="[link adress]">[shown name]</a></li><li><a href="http://mobile.opera.com/">Opera Portal</a></li>Open home.html with an text editor (either on the PPC or copy it to your desktop computer and use e.g. notepad) and replace [link adress] (copy and paste from browser adress bar) and [shown name]. For additional links just duplicate a whole line.
Of course you can change the content and design of the whole page.
You can change the icons in the skin-file like on Desktop Opera. I haven't managed to change the color for the toolbars. The colors are controlled by Windows Mobile (at least on WM2003SE) and I have no idea why there are colors defined in default skin.ini at all.
[mobile device]\Application Data\Opera\skin\ standard_skin.zipTo make your own skin see the guide for Desktop Opera. The buttons can be smaller to spare room or bigger for easier use without stylus.
More proof of concept than beautiful you can download my gray-scale_standard_skin.zip.
Instructions: download and copy the file to \Application Data\Opera\skin,
backup the default standard_skin and rename the new file to standard_skin.zip
The input.ini of Opera Mobile is similar to keyboard.ini on Desktop Opera.
The actions are defined in several sections like [Browser Widget] for actions on the web page
and [WinCE Application] for actions on browser level.
[button OR key] = [action]Left = Navigate leftFor most PocketPCs the most useful buttons are the ones on the D-PAD: Left, Right, Up, Down and Enter. Other keys (1...9, A...Z, Tab, Space etc.) can be accessed with virtual or real (external) keyboard.
All default sections are in the handout to this slide (not visible in projection mode).
[Browser Widget]Navigate down, Scroll up, Page down, Focus form[WinCE Application]Cycle to next window, Enter fullscreen, Open url[Widget Container]Focus next radio widget, Focus previous widget[Form]Focus form[Button Widget]Click button[Radiobutton Widget]Click button[Checkbox Widget]Check item[Dropdown Widget]Next item, Click button, Unfocus form[List Widget]Next item, Click button, Unfocus form[Edit Widget]Next character, Next line, Unfocus form[Browser Widget]Navigate {left|right|up|down}
Scroll {left|right|up|down}Page {left|right|up|down}Go to start, Go to end Focus next widget, Focus previous widgetThis is a normal notation, just for the case you don't know it:
{required}:
within the braces "{" and "}" are required arguments for the function.
Actually I use this notation only when there is a choice:
{either use this|or this}:
the vertical bar "|" seperates two or more possible values.
You can choose which one you like.
Within braces you have to select one.
[optional] OR [ini-section]
within the square brackets "[" and "]" are usually optional arguments.
If you don't need it you just can leave it away, even if there are multiple choices
(seperated by the vertical bar "|").
However with editing ini files from the Opera browser there is another meaning of
the square brackets. They define sections inside the ini-files
to build groups of related settings.
[WinCE Application]Left=Back and Right=Forward to browse history
with left and right on D-PAD{Enable|Disable}
{mediumscreen mode|handheld mode},
{Enter|Leave} fullscreenCycle to {next window|previous window}There are a lot of examples from Munk on aximsite (mirror on joshuateoh.com). For further actions (not all work in Opera Mobile) see this this list of commands in a forum post.
Some keyboard-settings do not work although they should,
e.g.
[WinCE Application]
+ = Zoom in, 10
Enter = Enter fullscreen | Leave fullscreen
Very similar things do work like:
Z = Zoom in, 10
- = Zoom out, 10
* = Zoom to, 100.
I have no idea whether this is a bug in Opera or a limitation of Win CE (Windows Mobile).
It is possible to change the language. I had success to change single words of the menu. Yesterday I didn't manage to have a complete German translation - Opera refused to start with it (I merged lng files from Opera8.54 and Opera Mobile via csv>Calc>Base>Calc>csv and translated the remaining entrys). I will search the bug and put a guide here - and of course the German language file.
[mobile device]\Application Data\Opera\english.lngSilvio Iaccarino posted a German language file (he claims it's quick & dirty).
Some of the settings in opera.ini for Desktop Opera work in Opera Mobile. See Opera's Settings File Explained (for Desktop Opera9).
Maybe you like the suggestions from Joshua Teoh (Munk) in (1) = (2):
\Application Data\Opera\opera.ini[User Prefs] the number of the entry
Max Direct History Lines=10 to your preferred
drop-down list size of the adress bar.[User Prefs] the number of the path of the entry
Download Directory=\My Documents to your preferred download-path
first displayed in the download window.The more saving main memory the more tweaking is necessary.
There is a description of the files used by Opera on opera.com.
Some thoughts about flash memory are in the handout to this slide (not visible in projection mode).
Internal memory like iPAQ file store is very good for opera.exe + dll's, because it couldn't get lost and its not in danger to get a lot of write cycles. Startup time will be slower compared to fast external storage cards and main memory.
Don't use build in Flash memory for cache if you want to browse on a regular basis. At least I wouldn't risk it anymore after my iPAQ main board was exchanged because of a corrupted (read only) iPAQ File Store.
Already cheap SD cards should be fast enough for most purposes. Backups and other important data is not very save on external storage devices (neither tiny storage cards nor USB-sticks) - as they easily could get lost.
External cards should be good for big cache (big reduces write cycles to the same memory cells). With slow internet connections it should be even faster than with small cache in main memory. Additionally full main memory and especially a lot of files in main memory will slow down your whole PDA - for Opera and for other applications.
With heavy usage of Opera I advice to have big enough cache and of course enough free memory for this (memory is not reserved by Opera Mobile and some applications including Opera and the OS may run into trouble when trying to write on a full memory card).
Opera Mobile with cache on a storage card and fast internet connection may be somewhat slower for surfing (you'll probably not really notice it).
The granted number of write cycles on flash memory is increasing far above the former 10.000. Additionally there is a better memory management, using the least used memory cells for next write operations (I wouldn't rely too much on this, not only because of Murphy's laws. If there is only little free memory left the write cycles have to be on the reduced number of memory cells). Reaching 10.000 write cycles will take a lot of time - storage cards will be (much) bigger, faster and cheaper then (just for the case).
The right storage of Application Data stuff depends on individual usage. There are write cycles in history and maybe cookies etc. for every (new) page visited.
On a fast storage card the data gets lost easier. In main memory on WM2003 not backuped data can be at risk due to an empty battery.
If you don't need to open local files and links from other applications in Opera number 2 is an about equal choice to 1.
There is a very comprehensive description about optimizing storage card speed and another thread about Installing programs on Storage Card that can further guide your decision where you want to have your Opera (and other applications) store its files.
\Application Data\Opera\opera.ini
under the section [User Prefs] the line
Cache Directory4=[path]On a storage card you should use a cache size much bigger than the default 2000 (2 MB) to reduce write cycles.
Drawbacks of relocating cache: 1) with a big cache the startup time of Opera Mobile may increase. 2) Do not remove the storage card with the cache while Opera Mobile is running as this may or will require a soft reset.
Starting Opera browser with cache relocated to memory card while there is no memory card in the PDA caused no trouble for me.
I couldn't find the place where the files are stored (please give me a note when you discover it).
It is pretty easy to install Opera Mobile outside main memory but it causes some problems:
Drawback: if you want to use Opera Mobile as standard browser on your PDA you have to fix the wrong registry entrys. Opera will probably need longer time to startup.
HowTo: 1) Download the MSI version and install it with your connected PDA via ActiveSync - just answer the question "install in default location" with selecting your storage card. Or 2) Download the CAB version and install it directly on your PDA with CabInst where you choose a path for installation on your storage card.
Besides the steps from the former page you can relocate
nearly the complete folder Application Data\Opera
by manually moving the files and editing the paths in opera.ini
See guide
from Werner Ruotsalainen (Menneisyys) to completely relocate Opera Mobile
or just move the complete folder \Application Data\Opera
except english.lng, input.ini and the (empty) skins subdirectory
to a (subfolder on a) storage card and edit the paths in opera.ini
from \Application Data\Opera\ to the new path.
Drawback: you have to do this manually with every reinstall or update of Opera Mobile. Opera may be slower.
Opera Mobile installer has a bug: if it is installed outside main memory there are wrong entries in the registry and you can not open local files and links from other applications in Opera (Opera as default browser).
HowTo: 1) Post with a list of the registry entrys or 2) Guide to completely relocate Opera Mobile (same as on previous page) or 3) After setting Opera as standard browser you can use (free) PHM Registry Editor, search for the string "Opera" and replace the paths (and images).
Tip: you can also reassign PIE bookmarks towards Opera by changing the urlfile entries in the registry.
Caution: you can completly mess your PDA (requires Hard Reset).
Because it is supposed to be only a small change in the installer this behaviour should be changed in the next minor update of Opera Mobile.
Software I use on my iPAQ rx3715 running Windows mobile 2003SE
Hint for the Games Warring States, Viking Saga and Cities: on localized versions the start links are also installed into Windows/Start Menu - you have to move it manually to the proper folder, e.g. German: Windows/Startmenü)