How to Open Links in Background Tabs in Opera?

Many of our readers have complained over time that we have not been covering Opera, and like always we do listen to you, in the previous Opera tip we had covered how you can get a StumbleUpon toolbar for Opera.

In this tip we will talk about a usability experience which irks many users (including us) where Opera always opens a tab in the foreground, where Opera .

There are basically two ways in which you can open a new tab in the background, without stealing focus from the current tab.

Key Combinations: Ctrl + Shift + Mouse click combination opens a link in a new background tab. You can also Shift + Mouse click combination to open the link in a new foreground tab.

Mouse Right Click: Another way to open a link in the background is by right clicking on the link and selecting Open in Background Tab.

opear-mouse-open-in-background-tab

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  1. Pallab on August 26th, 2008 at 3:49 am #

    Another way is to use middle click (middle click behaviour can be set from Tools–>Pref–>Advanced–>Shortcuts.
    I rarely use the key combo. Most of the time its middle click or the rt click context menu.
    Btw, fix this :

    where Opera always opens a tab in the foreground, where Opera
    .

  2. markviduk on August 26th, 2008 at 7:22 am #

    thanks for your info

  3. Mr. M on December 6th, 2008 at 3:21 am #

    I use Opera and the fact that tabs always open in front of the page you are viewing is really annoying.

    I have to use the keyboard shortcut for two reasons, (which amount to the same – I use a MacBookPro, OSX occasionally with the wireless mouse). The middle button is set for showing all windows. Or, I use the trackpad, which doesn’t have a middle button.

  4. Fletch on March 20th, 2009 at 6:53 am #

    Just trying Opera for the first time in years and I really like it, but this is a serious usability problem. Ctrl-click should open in background tab like on FF and IE. Obviously users are going to be coming from those browsers and used to this behaviour. Why have shift-click and ctrl-click do exactly the same thing, and have to press both buttons for the most logical/best behaviour?

    I tried to reassign the keys in the menu described above but it was too complicated for me.

  5. Arwin on May 7th, 2009 at 7:28 am #

    Right-click current tab, and choose create follower-tab. This opens a background tab. Any links you click in the current tab will open in the follower tab.

  6. Adventure Season on January 15th, 2010 at 1:56 am #

    hmm was wondering if there is a way to change the default "open in foreground" behaviour to "open in background"m but will try the combinations too. Thanks

  7. Pyxi on February 18th, 2010 at 3:35 pm #

    In Opera 10, when I right clicked a link and selected "Open in Background Tab", it opened the tab and went to it. I wanted to stay on my original page and open the new tab in the background so I could view it at my leisure.

    The stop it from actually going to the new tab:

    1. Shift + Click mouse middle scroll button/roller

    2. Select: Do not open link

    Now I stay on my original page and have true background tabs open to the right.

  8. PlastBox on March 2nd, 2010 at 3:12 am #

    You people are all ignoring or forgetting one of the greatest features of Opera: Mouse Gestures!

    Press down right mouse button on a link, move the mouse down an inch or so, then move it up again, then release the right mouse button.

    Voila! Takes much less time than choosing "Open in background tab" from the right click context menu, and does the same thing. =)

    • Abhishek Wadurkar on March 19th, 2010 at 7:57 am #

      Hey awsum man.. I wud lik 2add 1 mor thg I obsd while tryin ur trick… Jst dnt bring d ptr up again n opera wil open d link instead of tekin it in bakground. :) Asta la vista!

    • leorolim on April 16th, 2010 at 9:17 am #

      Oh the time I wasted on google trying to find out how to open all tabs in background. You sir win an Internet and bacon ;)

  9. Abhishek Wadurkar on March 6th, 2010 at 1:28 am #

    thnx man.. bt thg is my middle click dsnt open a new tab at all… 4get abt in background o 4ground… Do u kno hw 2 resolv this..?

  10. hugme on December 11th, 2010 at 8:09 am #

    Why can’t they use the standard ctrl+left click?

  11. aparente001 on March 10th, 2011 at 7:50 am #

    The following solved the control-click problem for me in almost all sites:

    http://tough-to-find.blogspot.com/2008/06/opera-ctrl-click-to-open-in-new-pagetab.html

  12. nipun on September 3rd, 2011 at 2:09 pm #

    thank u so much for the help. found it working just perfectly. thanks again