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Andrey “Rarst” Savchenko —  — Software — bookmark, hotkey, opera, shortcut

Ultimate Opera bookmark techniques

Opera bookmarks were covered in the early days of this blog. I wasn’t actually using bookmarks much at that time. Need to quickly create, navigate and manage large amount of bookmarks for research had arisen since.

So I present you two ultimate techniques to create and find bookmarks at lightning speed.

Issues with mouse-driven bookmarking

Common ways to bookmark in Opera involve navigating bookmark tree (either in sidebar or bookmark creation dialog) with mouse.

This introduces some quirks with precision:

  • it is easy to hit wrong folder;
  • even if you aim for correct folder, bookmarks can end up on another tree level – interface cues that explain that are rather subtle.

Create bookmark

  1. Ctrl+D brings up bookmark dialog;
  2. Tab focuses tree list;
  3. Type first letters in folder name – focuses list on that folder;
  4. Enter confirms bookmark;
  5. Ctrl+W closes tab (finish it! :)

When you get hang of this sequence it is extremely fast to perform and very precise. It also fits perfectly when you need to bookmark and close multiply open tabs – you can breeze through them without even touching mouse.

Find bookmark

It is just at important to find and open bookmark quickly. You can type in address bar and hope it serves you a match (unreliable) or browse through bookmarks tree in sidebar (slow).

Instead of that try:

  1. Ctrl+Shift+B opens bookmark management window with focus in search field;
  2. Type to find.

Bookmarks window also has additional column, that shows actual URLs – invaluable for bookmarks with crappy non-descriptive titles.

Overall

Have favorite bookmark technique? Share it in the comments.

And in any case – go slay that tabs backlog! :)

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22 Comments

  • Olaf #

    Hi I have come to like your blog, commented only once. Now I had the need to do so again: Instead of using bookmarks I mostly use NOTES. With Notes I can copy the - for me most likely to remember part of the page, search for it as good as I would be able to search bookmarks but add additional information. This information often is the URL itself (as I did not add this to the notes in the first place) but even this would not be needed since Opera knows from which site / URL you created the note. I created some categories in the Notes panel like "Webdesign", "Writing" etc. for even better overview. Additional to this I am storing drafts for emails I often write e.g. "Congratlations - you won my auction". In the Notes panel the information stays and is available longer than regular drafts of messages which become "sent" once sent ;-) Olaf

  • Rarst #

    @Olaf Glad to see your comment again and you had actually commented twice before. :) Yep, notes work very similar to bookmarks in Opera. Still not exactly same thing. I wonder why they don't just merge them.

  • sennapod #

    "Ctrl+Shift+B opens bookmark management window with focus in search field;" It should read:"Ctrl+Alt+B"

  • Rarst #

    @sennapod Nope, it's correct. Ctrl+Shift+B is default hotkey for that, see http://help.opera.com/Windows/10.50/en/keyboard.html If it differs for you then it was redefined, or maybe from older version. I don't remember if it was changed over time.

  • sennapod #

    Apologies, Rarst.. I have an older version Regards

  • Rarst #

    @sennapod No worries. :) Keeps me attentive to small details.

  • The DataRat #

    . Thanx for the Ctrl+Shift+B tip, Rarst ! Amazing how often I find stuff about Opera that I didn't know ...despite having used it for years (since back when it was ad-supported and users paid a small fee to get rid of the ad). . The Computer Rodent .

  • Rarst #

    @DataRat Opera functionality is vast. :) I learned to ask "how can I do this even faster and easier" and quite often I find how.

  • Mojo #

    As an exclusive Opera user... a word in edgewise... I've found out that my every attempt at effectively using bookmarks fails miserably every time. The solution to this problem (at least for my way of doing things) would be bookmark tagging. Because I don't want to use delicious (for my needs it's an overkill and not elegant enough) I thought about using Opera's "description" field in bookmarks. The idea was that when I start writing text in the address bar - it would automagically scan the description fields and show me the matching results in the drop box. No need to mention that it don't work (I thought it would do that based on... hoping basically). For those of you still trying to light a fire in this deep, dark well of bookmark madness (don't tell me to start using delicious - unless the only option) I salute you... And if anyone tried/experimented/researched tagging bookmarks in Opera and getting a sort of functionality I described here... please for the love of god... say so. My bookmark use is at a bare minimum ever since they were "invented" because they soon deteriorate into utter chaos. With tagging that could be avoided in a very elegant way. Cheers, Mojo

  • Rarst #

    @Mojo I am not sure why tagging is so wanted in bookmarks. I never felt it was needed. Folders and search work quite good. Just checked and bookmark search does scan description field. It is indeed logical and Opera sustains logical interface expectations well. As for chaos management - there are handy sorting options, so it is easy to look up bookmarks that are really old and/or hadn't been visited in a while.

  • Mojo #

    @Rarst Hm... I might be wrong on that one then. If it works for you... try clearing opera's cache and do it again. I've noticed that it does seem to scan some meta-data but once I cleared the cache it no longer wants to do "what I want it to do". Tagging is just my personal preference for organising some forms of data. For example: I have links that I categorize as HOWTO's and searching through them using the address bar would be as simple as: address bar: howto linux somestuff P.S. I will try the "description" scanning thing again but I already did test it and it didn't work (maybe it's my Opera 10.10). Something obiously worked but after clearing all private data... no more searches giving "relevant" (from description field) results.

  • Mojo #

    Update: I did try it and found out that it "scans something" but only for accessed pages. If a page was visited it will behave as I expect it but as soon the cache is cleared it behaves differently - meaning it doesn't scan the description. I would so much like to be wrong because it would mostly solve my issue with bookmarks and also add a nice and integrated way of searching through them by tags.

  • Rarst #

    @Mojo Cleared cache, search still works just fine. I don't use address bar search much. Way better to open bookmarks in sidebar and work with them there.

  • The DataRat #

    . "Folders and search work quite good" . I use an extensive system of categorical folders which works just fine. Doesn't seem going to any more trouble creating folders than creating tags. . The Computer Rodent .

  • scott #

    bookmark works first time then when i try to bookmark(same) into different bookmark folder will not go just leaves a blank star!!!!! old opera did not do this worked fine. OPERA 10.51? NEEDS MORE WORK

  • Rarst #

    @scott Few version ago Opera made a change that you can no longer create duplicate bookmarks, you get bookmark properties dialog instead of bookmark creation. There may be some glitches left because of this change and you are no longer supposed to be able to do this anyway. Version is up to 10.53 at moment. Try that one and you should upgrade anyway - there were some security fixes.

  • The DataRat #

    . "Few version ago Opera made a change that you can no longer create duplicate bookmarks" . One of the few Opera features I ~don't~ like ! ( The others are v. 10.5x removing the minimize button from sub-windows, and removing the ability to categorically list widgets in folders. ) You ~can~ create duplicate bookmarks in v. 10.5x (I'm currently using 10.53, but have recently used 10.52 and 10.51. ). But you got to copy-and-paste an existing bookmark. Cannot simply bookmark the page again like you used to be able to do ! I view this as a retrograde event with Opera, and part of a disturbing trend for this wonderful browser to unnecessarily remove features. . The Computer Rodent .

  • The DataRat #

    . Yes, I know that the rationale behind Opera not allowing you to bookmark a page a second time is to prevent users from inadvertently filling up their bookmark lists with duplicates. But some of us maintain extensive bookmark categorization through a system of folders. Often a given Web page fits into more than one category ...and, therefore, folder ! An aqequate way to address both issues would be to simply have an alert when a site is already bookmarked. This permits the user to decide if he wants to bookmark it again. . The PC Rat .

  • Rarst #

    @DataRat I have mixed feeling about this one. I think it makes more sense for new users. But it certainly changes expected behavior for long time users. By the way Opera was never shy to remove or change how features work. It's not always perfect but trimming is important part of maintaining good user experience as opposed to deadly spiral of bloat.

  • Fill Craft #

    I’ve been using Opera for years, yet I’m learning all kinds of new stuff about it from you. And what useful stuff it is, I must say! I was recently pulling my hair out trying to figure out how to find and create and then migrate all of my bookmarks and thanks to these instructions, I was able to get it all done in less than 5 minutes. Great job!

  • lago #

    OK Oera bookmarks facility...............useless '''''''''Turbo? ''.................what the f..k does it do? ''''''''''search '' .................never works? I use Chrome, Firefox & now Opera, the 1st 2 have no problems WITHOUT USING HOTKEYS, (just drag & drop with mouse, Opera never? So if you have to use soft keys or whatever it takes fore-ver What's the point? How can you guys put up with it, WHY do you guys put up with it?

  • Rarst #

    @lago Why so emotional? :) There are no issues whatsoever with using Opera interface with mouse alone. Hotkeys simply allow to perform some tasks much much faster for people that like such workflow.