That's actually part of Opera's problem. The Firefox team was clever in that they kept many features where IE users would expect to find them, and then improved on them. First time - and occationally even seasoned - Opera users may get frustrated as the enormous flexibility may feel somewhat alien at first, and thus require a bit more effort.
is there a way so when I hit ctrl+f it does the same thing as when you press '.' The reason is just b/c then it would match up with all other programs.
Not sure if this is what you want but go to:
Tools > Preferences (ALT P)
Choose 'Search' tab from left
At the bottom of panel tick where it says 'Use inline find in page'
You can also edit any shortcut or assign a mouse-gesture to it via Preferences > Shortcuts
Edit: NM, I saw it in your profile. Thanks. I've been using another filter.ini proggie for a while but it had some bugs and was prone to crashing frequently. I'll give yours a spin.
And BTW, I have to say I have tried Opera for a bit before but got frustrated, I will give it a bit more effort.
Anyway, Zaphod, you may be correct, but if so then that is really a smart way for a company to do it. Afterall if 89% of folks used IE then making it painless to transfer would probably be nice