News groups in Opera

News settings

The internal news reader in Opera must be configured in order for it to work as it should on the news groups. These are the settings on the "News settings" menu:

News server

There is a box for the domain name of your news server here, which needs to be filled in with the correct server name for Opera to be able to access the news server, if you are using your Internet Provider's news server. If not, you could use news.opera.no as this is Opera's very own news server.

The field below this one is where you enter the maximum number of articles that Opera is to fetch from the server specified above when connecting. The default is 500, as too many would cause Opera to become frightfully slow, while too few would hardly be of any use.

If your Internet Provider requires you to log in securely, you should tick the "Secure" box here. Note that you should not do this if you have not been specifically told to do so.

Group window

This section allows you to select the way that "Group windows" are to be displayed:

• Share with group list window
  If you select this, you'll share the "group window" with the "group list window", meaning clicking a link in the group list window will not spawn a window for the selected group. Use the "Previous" and "Next" buttons on the main Opera button bar to move between them.
• One for each group list window
  The default, this will open a new window when you click on a link in the group list window. Clicking on another link will open the selected group in the same group window that was first spawned from the group list window. Here, you use the "Previous" and "Next" buttons on the main Opera button bar to move between the groups you have opened.
• Multiple
  If you select this option, you'll open a totally new "group window" whenever you click on a link in the "group list window".

Article windows

This section allows you to select the way that "Article windows" are to be displayed:

• Share with group window
  If you select this, you'll share the "article window" with the "group window" you have opened, meaning clicking a link in the group window will not spawn a window for the selected article. Use the "Previous" and "Next" buttons on the main Opera button bar to move between them.
• One for each group window
  The default, this will open a new window when you click on a link in the group window. Clicking on another link will open the selected article in the same article window that was originally spawned from the group window. Here, you use the "Previous" and "Next" buttons on the main Opera button bar to move between the articles you have opened.
• Multiple
  If you select this option, you'll open a totally new "article window" whenever you click on a link in the "group window".

Default group sorting

This section defines how the articles are to be sorted in the group window. Your options are:

• Author
  This will sort the articles by the name of the author.
• Date
  This will sort the articles by the date they were added in descending manner, first entry at the top of the window.
• Date reversed
  This will sort the articles by the date they were added in ascending manner, latest entry at the top of the window.
• Subject
  This will sort the articles by their subject.

Group threads

The options here will decide how the group threads are to be displayed.

• Show
  This setting is enabled by default and elects to show the group threads.
• Open all
  Also enabled by default, this has all group threads open, so that you may see the name of the articles they spawn.

These are the settings of the news reader in Opera. Read below for information on setting up Opera's news reader for Opera Software's news server.

Settings for e-mail

For just viewing news groups, you'll not need to configure anything than the above settings, but that's probably not what most people wish to use news groups for. If you wish to post new articles or respond to existing threads, you will have to configure an e-mail client as well, so that you are able to send e-mails to the news server.

In order to do so, please "File/Preferences", select "E-mail" and choose between using Opera's internal e-mail client, using another application, or simply using the e-mail client that's been set as the system's default e-mail client.

If you select to use Opera's internal e-mail client, you'll need the following information to set up an e-mail account:

• Your e-mail address
  This is the most important thing to have. If you do not add this to the Opera e-mailer account properties, you cannot send e-mail.
• User name
  This user name is used along with your password to define you as yourself when logging onto the mail server.
• Password
  The password is used in conjunction with your user name to define you as yourself when logging onto the mail server.
• SMTP server name
  The name of the server for outgoing e-mail, e.g. www.outgoing.com. Note that this may be the same name as the POP server name.
• POP server name
  The name of the server for incoming e-mail, e.g. www.incoming.com. Note that this may be the same name as the SMTP server name.

All of these details should have been given to you by your Internet Service Provider, and if you have not received these details, you need to contact them.

With the information in hand, please follow the instructions on setting up an e-mail account, and you should not have any problems.

If you select to use another application or to use the system's default e-mail client, please consult the documentation for your selected e-mail clients.

Introduction to News groups

Discussion groups are places where like-minded souls meet and discuss issues that range from the abstract to the bizarre. There are currently over 20.000 newsgroups available. Subscription is free in most cases. Please refer to the group:

news.announce.newusers

for details on how to conduct on the news- or discussion forums.

News Reader Setup

In order to set up the Opera News Reader, you'll need to know the name of the news server your Internet Service Provider has, or your Intranet or Local/Wide Area Network is connected to. This name should be provided to you by your Internet Service Provider or System Administrator.

This server name needs to be placed in the "News server" box in the "News" part of "File/Preferences" in Opera. Click the "OK" button to save the name, and go to "News/New" to open the Opera News Reader which will contact the news server and retrieve the news groups.

We believe a news server is a sound and solid way of keeping the exchange alive, and have therefore set up a dedicated news server for you. In order to post messages to this server, you will have to change your news server setting to news.opera.no as we are not using the public USENET which can be accessed through your ISP. The name of our news server is:

news://news.opera.no

Sub-forums are:

• Afrikaans language forum
• Amiga forum
• Official Opera announcements from our side
• BeOS forum
• Beta testers forum
• Bookmark exchange and other worthwhile links
• Brazilian forum
• Button Set forum
• German language forum
• EPOC forum
• Spanish language forum
• French language forum
• General discussion forum
• Italian language forum
• Linux forum
• Mac forum
• Opera.magic
  • Project Magic forum
  • Official PM announcements from our side
• Opera.off-line
  • Off-line version forum
• Opera off-topic; for anything not relating to Opera
• OperaMail forum
• OS/2 forum
• Page display problems
• Plug-ins forum
• Public Relations and Marketing forum
• Opera users promoting their own home pages
• Scandinavian language forum
• Technical discussion forum
• Tools for Opera forum
• 16-bit Windows forum
• Wishlist forum

These groups are ideal for support or other complex or complicated issues. Many users are there to help you, and we are also actively monitoring and participating when appropriate.

We would really appreciate you using this service before contacting us with general issues. Opera users are extremely helpful and will be delighted to assist you wherever they can.

The news reader windows

Opera's built-in news reader can be set up to use either one main window in which all news group listings, news groups and articles will be accessible, or segmented down to one window per category, as described in the news settings. In any case, the news reader windows are clearly definable as three types of windows.

Group list window
This window shows a list of all the news groups on the news server you are currently in. Read more about this window in the group list window section.

Group window
This window will display all the articles in the current news group you are in. Read more about this window in the group window section.

Article window
And this window will show the article you choose to read. Read more about this window in the article window section.

Newsgroups: Group list window

The group list window contains a list of all the news groups available at the news server. In this window's menu bar, you will come across these things:

Further, unless you use the filtering field, you will find that the window may contain the complete listing of the news groups on the respective news server. You use the first button on the button bar in the group list window to toggle between it displaying only news groups you are subscribing to, or all the news groups available on the server. Note that news groups may be collapsed in folders, which is why you may not notice them all at once.

To the right of the news group listing is a column that will show you how many articles are in each listed group. This number gives you an incentive as to which news groups are the most visited ones, and it goes without saying that accessing a news group with several thousands of articles will take longer time than accessing a news group with only a few hundred articles.

Newsgroups: Group window

In the group window you will see the news articles listed in the way you have sorted them. In this window's menu bar, you will come across the following buttons and options:

Probably the most important option to notice here, particularly if dealing with news groups of substantial sizes, is the news group sorting method. This drop-down box will let you choose how the articles in the news groups are to be listed. Choose between listing them either by Author, which will list the articles in a descending alphabetical manner based on the author's name; Date, sorting by date, this will give the earliest created articles at the top of the list; Subject, again listing the articles in a descending alphabetical manner, based on the subject; and Date - reverse, which lists the articles latest created at the top of the list.

The main part of the window contains the list of articles in the news group. From left to right, you will find these columns:

• Unread/read indicator
  The box to the extreme left will show as a square with a lined pattern if the article is unread. It shows as a blank square if the article is read.
• Author
  To the right of the unread/read indicator is the name of the author detailed.
• Subject
  Next up is the subject of the article. This should be your indicator as to whether the article is an interesting read or not. If the article is a followup on another article, the subject should begin with the prefix "Re:", which stands for "Regarding".
• Lines
  Column number four shows the number of lines in each article.
• Date
  The date the article was posted to the news server is displayed in column number five, for your reference.

Tip! You may use the mouse cursor to resize the columns. When it is directly above one of the column edges, it will change from the standard pointing cursor on your system to a resizing cursor.

Newsgroups: Article window

The article window contains the actual information in the article, for you to read. The button bar here is made up of these buttons:

The article window is where the actual content is located. There are a few small fields aside from the main text in this window, as well:

• From:
  This field details the name of the author and the authors e-mail address.
• Subject:
  Here, the subject of the article is displayed.
• Date:
  The date of the e-mail is shown, including the time and time zone it was created/sent.
• Message-ID:
  Every article has its own message-ID, which is shown in this field.

Below these fields is the actual article content itself. If the article contains any binary attachments, the article will have a link to the attachment below the actual content.