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This documentation is a very early and unfinished version. Please do not rely on any information stated.
Otter is a powerful, still lightweight browser based on Qt5. Its main source of inspiration is the former Opera 12.16 and earlier.
Otter browser can be launched from desktop icon, applications menu or command line. On startup, Otter will display a startpage, homepage or session chooser.
Startpage is a set of desktop icon-like shortcuts to multiple webpages that the user can customise, like Opera's speed dial. This is the default startup behaviour.
Homepage is a webpage that the user will have to set so the browser can go there at startup.
Session chooser is a startup dialog to select the specific formerly saved sessions and tabs for launching.
For command line options, type otter-browser -h or man otter-browser in a terminal or console.
The quick preferences menu allows you to quickly enable and disable features like images, javascript, and plugins. Press F12 to access it.
You may not want all settings to apply to all websites at all times. For example, for performance or security reasons you might wish to globally disable Javascript, only to enable it on certain websites. The easiest way to set up site preferences is by right clicking on a page while browsing.
Browser actions can be triggered by keyboard shortcuts. For example the Back action (go back one page in browser history) is usually done by clicking the Back button with the mouse, but it can also be triggered by Alt+← on the keyboard.
Forward action (go forward one page in browser history) is similarly triggered by Alt+→ on the keyboard.
A very useful keyboard shortcut is tabs switcher or tabs cycler: Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab
In Otter browser, keyboard shortcuts, also known as keybinds, can be assigned and configured to all actions that are implemented in the browser.
The configuration dialog is located at Preferences (accessible with the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F12 by default) → Advanced → Keyboard. There you can select, clone, edit and remove different keyboard profiles.
Mouse gestures are a convenient feature that trigger browser actions by mouse movements instead of pointing and clicking. To use a mouse gesture, hold down the right mouse button, make the movement over the Otter browser window and then release the button. For example, to move a page back in browser history:
- Hold down the right mouse button
- Move the mouse to the left over the Otter browser window
- Release the button
To move a page forward in browser history, move the mouse right in the second step as described. To move up a directory, move the mouse in the second step first upwards, then 90 degrees to the left, and then release the button.
Tabs switcher or tabs cycler is accessible with the following mouse gesture: Press the right mouse button and scroll.
Otter browser comes also with the so-called rocker gestures:
- Hold down the right mouse button and click the left button to go a page back in browser history
- Hold down the left mouse button and click the right button to a page forward in browser history
Preconfigured and configurable mouse gestures are found in gestures.ini
Otter browser team strongly believes that people use bookmarks. Therefore we aim to provide a functional and flexible bookmarking experience.
Bookmarks are most visibly accessible from Bookmarks menu. Other ways of access are Bookmarks sidebar (panel) and Bookmarks window. Bookmarks window can be accessed by typing about:bookmarks in the address field or by expanding the Bookmarks panel.
Under File → Import and Export menu, the user can select to import Opera's bookmarks format or HTML bookmarks format.
Bookmarks contain a folder labelled Start page. This folder contains the Startpage shortcuts, so don't delete this folder, if you use the Startpage. However, if you delete a folder or a bookmark, it can be restored from the Trash folder in Bookmarks.
Bookmark items (as viewed in Bookmarks manager) contain, in addition to the usual Title and Address fields, a field titled Keyword. By filling in this field, the user enables quick access to this particular bookmark.
There are two ways to access bookmark items by keyword. One way is to type the keyword on the address field and press Enter. This requires the user to type the complete keyword accurately.
Another way to access bookmark items by keyword is to use the keyboard shortcut assigned to Quick Bookmark Access dialog. The default keyboard shortcut is Shift+F2.
The Quick Bookmark Access dialog launches the bookmark as soon as the typed keyword has been recognised, i.e. as soon as Otter is certain that it cannot be any other keyword, without confirmation.
For example, if you have a bookmark item for Github.com and you have applied the keyword github to it and it is the only keyword that starts with g, Otter will launch the bookmark as soon as you type g in the Quick Bookmark Access dialog, because it already knows the complete keyword. In contrast, the address field requires the complete and accurate keyword in order to be recognised as a bookmark keyword.
The graphical user interface of Otter browser contains the recognisable elements known from other graphical browsers:
- Menubar with menus
- Tabbar with tabs
- Toolbars with buttons, fields, sliders, and status indicators
- Panels and dialogs
There are additional menus available by right-click in different contexts.
Each of these elements is configurable. The items can be rearranged. The bars can be completely hidden and new bars can be created by selecting Configure in the nested right-click menu.
Hiding the Menubar in View → Toolbars → Menu Bar or File → Show menubar enables the Menu button.
By default, Otter's tabbar is situated under the topmost Menubar. The tabbar contains tabs for opened webpages and the New tab button. Hovering above tabs displays a popup to preview the content of the webpage.
Tabs can be rearranged by dragging. Tabs can be cloned, pinned or detached by selecting the relevant action in the right-click menu on the relevant tab. Pinned and detached tabs are exempt from the Close other tabs action.
Toolbars may contain buttons, fields, sliders and status indicators. It's possible to reposition toolbars by dragging.
For example, let's reposition the Tabbar by dragging. First, make sure in the menus that View → Toolbars → Lock toolbars is unticked. Second, move the mouse pointer to extreme left on the Tabbar. The mouse pointer should take the shape corresponding to Move function. At this stage, it's possible to drag the Tabbar.
By holding down the left mouse button at the left edge of the Tabbar (while Lock toolbars is unticked) it's possible to drag Tabbar from the top to left, right, and bottom positions.
Other toolbars can be configured in the GUI dialog by right-clicking on the toolbar and going → Configure...
By default, Otter browser has no Favorites bar a.k.a. Bookmarks toolbar. It has to be created.
Select View → Toolbars → Add New → Add Bookmarks bar. A dialog pops up where you have to assign the toolbar a name, for example "Bookmarks" and a bookmarks folder to display. If you don't have many bookmarks, then don't change the preselected folder, so everything will be displayed on the Bookmarks bar.
If you later want to change the folder, the easiest way is to first create another Bookmarks toolbar and select the folder of bookmarks for it, and then remove the earlier Bookmarks bar.
User CSS