Better Gmail with Greasemonkey
Gmail is undoubtedly one of the best email clients available. Google’s free email service comes with built-in search technology and over 2.6 GB of storage. Other features include instant messaging, excellent Spam protection, labels for your emails, and so much more.
However, have you ever wanted to add even more features to Gmail? Well, now you can with a Firefox extension known as Greasemonkey. (Firefox Browser Required) Once you have the Firefox extension installed, you can start downloading scripts to enhance and customize your favorite sites.
“Greasemonkey is a Mozilla Firefox extension that allows users to install scripts that make on-the-fly changes to specific web pages. As the Greasemonkey scripts are persistent, the changes made to the web pages are executed every time the page is opened, making them effectively permanent for the user running the script.”
With Greasemonkey, you can customize Gmail just the way you like. Add additional Gmail macros, change the look and feel, and integrate Gmail with Google Reader and Google Calendar. Learn how to do all of this and more below.
But first, if you’re new to Greasemonkey, you must first install the Greasemonkey Firefox Extension. Once you have done this, you can start installing all of the great scripts below and begin customizing your Gmail interface.
Gmail Macros - Adds extra keyboard shortcuts to Gmail. This scripts adds a serious dose of productivity to your email adventures. Once you have the script installed, simply press “h” to display an overlay of all available shortcuts.
Being the productivity junkie that I am, I can never get enough shortcuts. Some of my favorites include:
p: marks an email as read and archives it in a single click
t: move an email to the trash
r: mark as read
l: allows you to label a conversation with the label of your choosing.
If you really want to get techie, you can edit the Gmail Macros greasemonkey script and create your own customized Gmail macros. All of the macros are contained in the HANDLERS_TABLE constant.
Gmail Super Clean - Pimp out your Gmail with this slick script. Just like the name says, this greasemonkey script makes your Gmail interface super clean.
This script also allows you to turn off ads, choose your font face, customize the Gmail logo, and turn off the Google links that run across the top of the page. All of the customizations can be made under Tools –> Greasemonkey –> UserScript Commands
Gmail + Google Calendar - Embeds Google Calendar into Gmail by adding a “Calendar” link into the left-hand side navigation.
Gmail Label Colors - Allows you to color menu labels for easy identification.
Gmail Conversation Preview - This is a very handy script that allows you to quickly preview the body of a message from the main inbox window. This script can quickly increase your productivity by helping you to quickly identify trash from what needs to be read.
Gmail Date Search - adds a Search by Date button to Gmail’s search form.
Gmail Customize - This script allows you to customize the Gmail interface.
With this script, you can:
- hide ads
- hide labels
- hide bookmarks (at the top of the page)
- hide footer information (Copyrights, etc…)
- modify button style (choose between flat and black)
- make your email body wider
- show storage use in left menu
Modifying these variables is simply a matter of choosing between 1 and 0. Set 1 for yes and 0 for no.
GMail GTD Tickler - If you’re a fan of GTD, then this script is definitely for you. It is a very simple tickler for GMail using GCal (Google Calendar).
The script places a button on the right side of your messages labeled, “Remind me with GCal”. Click on this button and a GCal template will fire up with a link the Email. All you have to do is set the date, add a description or subject and Google Calender will send you a reminder to the email.
Gmail Filter Assistant - To improve your productivity, you may want to add filters that automatically process certain emails in a specified way. For example, you might want all emails from your boss to be given a certain label. This script allows you to do just that.
Once you have installed the script, your email messages will contain a link on the top right-hand corner that says, “Filter Assistant”.
Click on that link to define your criteria and create a predefined action for all related email. You can process all related email by:
archiving it starring it applying a label forwarded it to someone deleting it
This sript will help you to process routine email that you receive without processing it one by one.
Gmail + Reader Integrator - Integrates Google Reader into Gmail.
Sending SMS From Gmail- This script allows you to send free SMS using the Callwave provider directly from your GMail contact page. It really doesn’t get much cooler than this. Simply click on the small SMS link, enter the text and your SMS will be delivered.
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