Top 15 Stylish Google Scripts

Written by on February 18, 2010 in Firefox Scripts - 1 Comment

Recently, I wrote about Greasemonkey user scripts. Today, I am writing about Stylish, which is another Firefox add-on for finding and using scripts to restyle your favorite websites.
To install Stylish, go to add-ons for Firefox and search for Stylish. Once the results are displayed, click the ‘Add to Firefox’ button.
Once you restart Firefox, you will see a ‘S’ box in your status bar. From this box, you can Manage styles,  Turn all styles off, Find styles for this site (which directs you to a new tab using userstyles.org, and displays styles available for the site you were on), Write new styles, and a list of the styles that are being used for the site you are on (once you install scripts for your favorite sites).
There are a couple of differences between Greasemonkey (which scripts JavaScript) and Stylish (which styles CSS). One is, once you install a userscript from Stylish, it immediately takes effect (no need to refresh your screen). Second, you manage your scripts from the same display as your Firefox extensions, plugins, and themes window. Third, you can edit your downloaded scripts from the Stylish window and preview your changes before saving (unlike Greasemonkey, which uses an external editor).
The following list is for the top Google scripts used in Stylish.

IGOOGLE SCRIPTS

iGoogle: Compact & Transparent top bar

This style removes a TON of padding and margins, allowing for more feeds and gadgets on your iGoogle homepage without scrolling. It reduces all headers and RSS links to be single-line only. It also removes the header and footer spacing. As a bonus, this style removes some of the header image, and makes the white bar at the top transparent. Because the text is white, it works best on dark themes.
http://userstyles.org/styles/8037

New iGoogle – Hide The Sidebar, etc.

This style hides the side bar and a couple other annoying things in the new iGoogle.
http://userstyles.org/styles/11373

GMAIL SCRIPTS

Gmail – Simple Header

Removes the header and footer and leaves the search box at the top so that you can focus on using the keyboard shortcut.
http://userstyles.org/styles/19999

Gmail Ads-block and Full-width

This style removes ads and widens the message area of Gmail.
http://userstyles.org/styles/22317

Minimize Labels in Gmail

This style minimizes all labels in gmail to look only like a box. If you mouseover each box, it will expand to show you the name of the label. This greatly increases the amount of space for text in your inbox, especially for emails with many tags on them. The ad sidebar is shrunk down to save space, hovering over it will give you access to the options such as print, new document, and new window.
http://userstyles.org/styles/19588

GOOGLE CALENDAR SCRIPT

Helvetical – Google Calendar User Style

A user style based on Helvetireader by Jon Hicks
Has coloured ‘Other Calendars’ and support for https:// hosted calendars.
Color coded events in the ‘Months’ section, along with RSVP coloring and line-throughs.
http://userstyles.org/styles/20669

GOOGLE DOCS SCRIPT

Google Docs – Mac OS X Leopard Theme

Transform Google Docs into a Mac OS X Leopard app. The buttons are modeled after the leopard Finder toolbar buttons, as are the toolbars. All menus and contextual (right-click) menus are themed to look like the native Mac OS X menus. This theme also styles Google Docs’ DHTML windows to match the actual window chrome from OS X, adding shadows, status bars, lighting and cursor modifications to complete the effect – the two types of windows should look identical after enabling this theme.
http://userstyles.org/styles/22994

GOOGLE MAPS SCRIPT

Google Maps – Minimal

This is a full screen view of Google Maps. To view the sidebar, move your mouse to left side to show sidebar
.
http://userstyles.org/styles/3520

YOUTUBE SCRIPTS

YouTube – Clean

This style removes all the “crap” on youtube for a more user friendly experience.
http://userstyles.org/styles/23215

YouTube Cleaned Up

Gets right of the footer, copyright, google ads, big frontpage ad, side announcement box, “may not be suitable for minors” warning, and other annoyances.
http://userstyles.org/styles/12702

GOOGLE BOOKMARKS AND HISTORY SCRIPT

Google Bookmarks & History – Simple Header

Simplify Google Bookmarks and Google Web History.
http://userstyles.org/styles/20001

GOOGLE GROUPS SCRIPT

Usable Google Groups ! Ads & Footer

Great font, remove Ads and Footer
http://userstyles.org/styles/3724

GOOGLE NEWS SCRIPT

Helvetinews – Google News

Inspired by Jon Hicks’s Helvetireader (http://helvetireader.com/) and Ad Taylor’s Helvetical (http://www.iamadtaylor.com/helvetical/), this is a Google News user style in the same vein.
*note that this doesn’t restyle Google News Archive pages, because the html for the archive is oddly not marked-up with any ids or classes.
http://userstyles.org/styles/20830

GOOGLE NOTEBOOK SCRIPTS

Google Notebook

This style simplifies the Google Notebook interface to a more minimalistic one removing a lot of the unnecessary bars and other content.
http://userstyles.org/styles/17400

Google Notebook full width

The public view of the Google Notebook is 800px width. This style removes the limitation.
http://userstyles.org/styles/7383

I like many things about the add-on Stylish and think you will too. It’s easy to use and adapt to. If you use Stylish and have add-ons you’d like to share, leave a comment and share the wealth with our fellow readers. If you liked this article, please leave a comment.

About the Author

I am currently working on an Associates in Art for Web Design. My interests include finding various apps for Mac OS and iPhone/iPad and tweaking the system. I also like finding ways to tweak my internet experience on Firefox, Safari, and Google Chrome. I also enjoy learning new things from others along with course work.

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