OK, Opera 7 is finally released. It works better with UT than previous versions. You can get it at www.opera.com.

"Why try a different browser", many will ask. I now want to briefly outline some of my favorite features in Opera, which make it superior to IE.

But fist, note that the free version of Opera shows ads in a corner.

Now, the features. These are just my favorites; the complete list can be obtained at the Opera site. Decide for yourself whether you think Opera exaggerated with their slogan, "Love at the first site".

Open an entire folder of favorites (called "Bookmarks" in Opera) with a single command.

Ctrl-Shift-Click will open a link in a new window. The new window will not come to front. Very useful for opening several news items on CNN, for instance.

Child windows within a single parent window.

Page indicators change appearance when the page is finished loading. This is simpler than cycling through the windows, to see if some window finished loading.

The capacity of automatically rejecting popup windows.

For some reason - perhaps, Opera handles the cache better - pages load faster, especially when returning to them. Also, you can better fine-tune the control of the cache (for instance, "check for new version of page after 5:00 hours; of graphics, after 24:00 hours").

Graphics on Web page: you can choose between showing graphics, not showing them, or only showing graphics that are cached. You can then quickly show graphics for an individual page, if so required.

Multi-language support: just download a small text file with the definitions for any additional language (not yet available for version 7).

Well, these are some of the options I like best. Opera 7 has improved support for pages that previously had problems, including the UT. However, and especially in the case of UT, the placing of elements is not exactly identical, so some mis-alignments do occur.

The download is ca. 3 or 11 MB, depending on whether you include support for java or not.


Note: I have no commercial interest in Opera whatsoever. I am merely trying to convey my enthusiams over what I consider an excellent program.

Hilmar.

Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)