Periodically, I'll be posting Top 10 lists in my journal. Sometimes the list will be about problems, sometimes about ideas, sometimes about other stuff I haven't thought of yet. I'd like for others to post Top 10 lists about the same subject, so I can get a good idea how others feel. You can post in a comment, on a MyOpera journal, on a blog, in an appropriate forum, etc. But make sure you post a comment here telling me where you posted. ;)
Disclaimer: Any list is my personal opinion and does not necessarily reflect the focus of Opera Software.
I'm going to start with usability issues. Usability issues are things that make it hard to use Opera. They are usually not missing features, but can be in extreme cases. And they are not accessibility issues (a topic for another Top 10 list ;)) or Opera Mail issues.
So, here goes (in no particular order):
- Link addresses in tooltips. They block useful information on web sites (specifically in CSS/DHTML menus). They are usually pointless if you have the Status bar enabled.
- Intrusive notifiers (download completed, new mail received, popup blocked, etc.). There needs to be a way to configure what notifiers appear, how often, and for how long.
- Cookie management. Cookie management is one of the most confusing and intrusive things in Opera. Set Opera to warn about cookies and you're assaulted by dialogs. And the dialogs don't make much sense, either.
- System tray icon. There should be an option to toggle the display of the system tray icon independent of the Opera Mail toggle.
- Customization via INI files. There needs to be an easier way to customize Opera (not just the UI, but settings, too) than via INI files. The INI files aren't well-documented, you have to shut down Opera in-between changes, and they're difficult for novice users.
- Link-style panels. The new link-style panels (i.e. one-click triggers actions) create several problems when you want to manage the items in the panel, rather than open them. Selecting multiple items, moving items, and removing items can all be problematic. Windows Explorer has an interesting solution to this. In any case, this should be configurable on a per-panel basis.
- Bookmark management. There are various problems with bookmark management, specifically when adding new bookmarks. It's very difficult to add a new bookmark to the root bookmark folder (you have to unselect all other folders) and the folder select widget is tiny.
- Wand notification. The first time Wand pops up telling me that it can save a password for a site, I go into preferences and disable Wand. I don't want dialogs telling me such things. Give me a button or something.
- Customizations lost between upgrades. If there have been changes in the UI, customizations have to be redone. I have to change keyboard shortcuts any time a keyboard action is changed because I like Ctrl+R to mean Reload from cache.
- Importing settings. There's currently no method for importing settings from previous installations. There should be an easy, centralized method of importing preferences, bookmarks, cookies, Wand, etc.
