Opera Software made a big decision when it changed the browser’s core layout engine to Blink. Probably the biggest issue here was that the company had to modify and rewrite code that Opera users had grown accustomed to for the new engine. When the first preview of Opera 15 hit the scene, it was clear that Opera Software had a lot of work left to add even basic features such as bookmarking or user interface customizations to the browser.
Bookmarks in particular, or more precisely the missing option to use and manage them, is a high priority item for many Opera users judging from the comments on the Opera Desktop Team blog. While Opera has integrated a new feature called Stash into Opera 15, it is not the same as bookmarks for a number of reasons.
Core reason for this is the way it displays sites that you stash in the browser. One per line may be great on the Stash page, but it does not really work well for hundreds or even thousands of sites, and since you cannot import your bookmarks into the Stash, it is not really an alternative for veteran Opera users.
Bookmarks Manager for Opera 15 and above
Bookmarks Manager is a new extension for Opera 15 and up that adds basic bookmarking functionality back to Opera.
Note: Bookmarks are not fully integrated into Opera 15. This means that you cannot bookmark new pages in the browser. The shortcut Ctrl-D does nothing and a bookmarks menu is not available as well.
What Bookmarks Manager can do however is import a bookmarks file and make all those web addresses available for selection in the browser’s address bar. It also lets you bookmark individual pages by clicking on the icon in the address bar and then on the green bookmark icon.
Update: The original Bookmark Manager extension is no longer available. Check out Bookmarks instead, a more than suitable alternative.
Here is what you need to do to get started:
- Open the page of the extension on the Opera add-ons website and install it in Opera 15. Note that you do need to open it in Opera 15 or newer, otherwise you won’t be taken to that page.
- Open Opera 12 and press Ctrl-Shift-B to open the Bookmarks Manager.
- Select File > Export as HTML from the options.
- Name the bookmarks file and close Opera 12.
- In Opera 15, click on the icon of the extension in Opera’s address bar and select Manage and Import from the menu that pops up.
- Select Import bookmarks from the top, then Choose File and pick the bookmarks file that you have just exported out of Opera 12.
- The list of bookmarks should get updated automatically now.
Bookmarks can be moved around here, for instance into old or new folders. You can also delete bookmarks in case they are no longer needed.
You can access bookmarks with a click on the icon from now on. It seems that you cannot open them in new tabs at the moment, middle-clicking at the very least does not work to accomplish that.
Geeky side note: I tried to import Firefox bookmarks into Opera 15 using the same method described above but it did not work out. The extension displayed loading 1/567 and did nothing afterwards. The only option that I see right now is to import your Firefox, Chrome or Internet Explorer bookmarks into Opera 12, export them then as HTML to import them into Opera 15 or newer.
What’s interesting is that it is an official extension by Opera Software, not by a third party. It has received some low ratings from users who complain that it is missing bookmarking shortcuts, metadata support, sorting, nickname functionality, search or dates. (via Deskmodder)
Update 2: Recent versions of Opera ship with a bookmark manager and full bookmarking functionality.