Opera’s desktop browser includes tools for grouping tabs, collecting useful pages, capturing excerpts, and adjusting browsing controls. These 15 practical tips explain what each feature is for and where to find it; labels and availability can vary by operating system and browser version.
Organize tabs around the way you work
1. Separate projects with Workspaces
Use Workspaces for broad contexts such as work, trip planning, or research. Click a Workspace icon in the sidebar to switch groups. To move a tab, right-click it (or Ctrl-click on macOS), choose Move tab to workspace, then select the destination. Workspaces separate topics; they are not the same as clusters of related tabs within one topic. Opera Help: Browser window
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2. Group related pages in Tab Islands
Tab Islands keep related tabs together within a browsing session—for example, several pages about one purchase. Opera can create an island automatically when you open a new tab, and the behavior can be adjusted in Settings under Automatically create tab islands. Use a tab’s context menu to open a new tab in an island or move a tab between islands. Opera Help: Features
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Right-click a tab and choose the pin option to keep an important page at the left end of the tab bar. Opera says pinned tabs do not close like ordinary tabs and remain pinned after a browser restart. Pin a page you need to revisit, rather than using a pin as a substitute for organizing a whole project. Opera Help: Browser window
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4. Close duplicate tabs
Hover over a tab to see whether Opera highlights a duplicate. If it does, right-click a tab and choose Close duplicate tabs. This is a quick way to remove repeated copies without manually checking every open page. Opera Help: Features
5. Let inactive tabs snooze
Tab Snoozing pauses inactive tabs; Opera says it is enabled by default. Click a snoozed tab when you need it again. Treat this as a built-in way to limit activity from tabs you are not using, not as a guarantee of a particular memory or battery saving. Opera Help: Features
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6. Switch tabs with the visual tab cycler
On Windows and Linux, hold Ctrl and press Tab to open the visual tab cycler; release Ctrl when the desired tab is highlighted. Opera’s cited browser-window guide does not establish the corresponding macOS key combination, so check the shortcut guidance for your installed version rather than assuming it is identical. Opera Help: Browser window
7. Save a set of open tabs for later
To keep a collection without leaving all its tabs open, right-click the tab bar (Ctrl-click on macOS) and choose Save all tabs as Speed Dial folder. The pages become a reusable folder in Speed Dial. This is useful for a set of links you want to reopen; a Pinboard, by contrast, is suited to collecting individual links and other material. Opera Help: Browser window
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Make Opera’s sidebar and start page work for you
8. Show or hide the sidebar
Use Easy Setup > Appearance > Show sidebar to toggle the sidebar. You can also find its controls in Settings > Sidebar. If you want to add or remove individual sidebar items, open the sidebar’s three-dot menu to reach its setup panel. Opera Help: Browser window · Opera Help: Customization
9. Keep only useful sidebar items
Opera’s customization documentation lists options such as Workspaces, messengers, Flow, bookmarks, news, Pinboards, tabs, history, downloads, extensions, and settings. The available integrations can change, so choose from the items shown in your current sidebar setup panel instead of expecting every listed service to appear in every version. Opera Help: Customization
10. Use Easy Setup for quick browser changes
On the start page, Easy Setup offers quick controls for options such as themes and wallpapers, sidebar display, the bookmarks bar, ad blocking, download location, and clearing browsing data. Speed Dial provides visual shortcuts to sites you visit often. Use Easy Setup for a quick change; for more detailed controls, open the relevant Settings section. Opera Help: Start page
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If you regularly begin with the same set of sites, use Opera’s startup customization to retain the previous session or open specific pages. The customization guide describes adding page addresses or selecting currently open pages. Find the startup options in the browser’s settings; their exact location and labels may differ by version. Opera Help: Customization
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Collect, capture, and reuse what you find
12. Collect links and notes in Pinboards
Pinboards can hold text, links, images, and YouTube links, making them useful when you want a collection of references rather than a saved set of open tabs. Opera says a board can be shared by copying a share link. Avoid putting private material on a board you may share. Opera Help: Features
13. Capture part of a page with Snapshot
Snapshot is Opera’s built-in screenshot tool. Use it to capture a selected part of a webpage, then use the editor tools to customize or highlight the capture. It is for preserving a visual excerpt, not for saving a navigable collection of links. Opera Help: Features · Opera Help: Get started
14. Search or copy highlighted text
Select text on a page to open a new tab searching for that text with your default search engine, or copy it for later use. This can save a trip to the address bar when you want to look up a phrase you have just read. Opera Help: Features · Opera Help: Get started
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Adjust optional controls with their limits in mind
15. Choose the controls that suit your browsing
Opera provides several settings that can change how the browser handles ads, connections, background activity, and account data. They are separate choices—not a single “optimize” switch—and their presence or menu paths can vary. Review each control before enabling it:
Quick Recap
- Ad blocker: Opera documents a switch under Settings > Block ads and a quick switch in Easy Setup. Site exceptions can be configured. Opera says blocking ads can make pages load faster and look cleaner, but that is the vendor’s stated benefit, not an independently established speed result. Opera Help: Features · Opera Help: Start page
- Browser VPN: Opera’s help describes enabling it under Settings > Advanced > Privacy & security > VPN and choosing virtual locations. This is a browser feature; do not treat it as VPN coverage for other apps on your device or as a promise of anonymity or access to a particular service. Available locations and labels may change. Opera Help: Features
- Battery saver: Opera says this feature can limit background-tab activity, pause plug-ins and animations, reschedule JavaScript timers, and tune video playback. Its activation options are under Settings > Advanced > Features > Battery saver. Opera recommends using it with ad blocking, but its documentation does not establish a measured battery-life gain. Opera Help: Features
- Sync: Opera lists bookmarks, Speed Dial entries, browsing history, passwords, settings, and tabs as sync categories, with controls for selecting data types in advanced sync settings. Opera also says synced data remains on the device and Opera’s servers after sign-out. Check the selected categories and account privacy details before enabling sync. Opera Help: Features
- Mouse gestures: To enable them, go to Settings > Advanced > Browser > Shortcuts. Hold the right mouse button, move in a direction, then release; Opera’s examples include left for Back, right for Forward, and down for a new tab. Opera warns that gestures may behave unpredictably with a Magic Mouse or trackpad. Opera Help: Shortcuts
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