Customizing Opera
This is how my opera homepage looks like, haven’t got time to update this for quite sometime. 2 or 3 years ago, I’ve read an article from a mobile co-blogger that Opera homepage can be edited. Of course, I’m intrigued and challenged.
Why do I want my Opera browser customized?
- I got bored easily with the default homepage.
- I want colors and graphics.
- I want my bookmarks included on the html pages.
- I want it suited to my needs.
I’m using Opera 8.65 now with minimal bookmarks saved. These are new bookmarks that I haven’t included on my html pages yet. My homepage consists of Google search engine, links to 5 more personalized html pages, css and links to some of my mobile accounts. The layout had a transparent image background (just like others did to their friendster accounts), marquees, animated buttons, etc. For the record, I’ve started from scratch since at that time I don’t know any html, css and javascript codes. Some modifications followed as I learned html codes. In fact, some are doing this for their Opera desktop. A little googling around, you’ll find some tutorials on customizing Opera desktop.
HTML eBook format on Mobile
There’s a lot of eBook files available on the web, its confusing to others understanding these formats and what mobile application to use. Sometimes, we came across with html formats. HTML or Hyper Text Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. In layman’s terms, it should be read on the web therefore its NOT an eBook format. There are lot of sites intended for online reading. There are ways to read it online, using GPRS is the most popular but it is costly. In the Philippines, it will cost you 0.15 cents/kb. Good for you if you have WIFI supported symbian phone.
If you downloaded a html file, it is possible to read them on symbian phones. I’m using Opera 8.65 in reading HTML file on my 6630 occasionally. You can open the html file through FExplorer. Here’s how to do it. After opening it to Opera, just add it to your opera bookmark for future reading. I don’t suggest to read HTML files on your phone frequently, Opera browser consumes a lot of memory in RAM (random access memory). The symbian system will close all applications including Opera, sometimes the phone will restart by itself. Here are the tips to avoid this:
- Limit yourself with 1-2 pages as possible
- Delete images included in the html file (do this using Fexplorer)
- Close all running application including FExplorer (after opening html file)
- Turn off images at the Opera settings
- Clear the cache of Opera before reading
- Restarting your phone before doing all these could help also
This is just an option if you’re in a hurry to read the file on your phone. For larger html files, do take some time for conversion. Take note that Opera is for browsing purposes only, its impossible to bookmark your eBook page or change the layout settings like what were doing to regular eBook readers.
