Greasemonkey: Customize the Web

Filed Under Firefox, add-ons, episode, greasemonkey, how-to, screencast, tutorial, userscripts

Episode 7 -

Part 1

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Part 2

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Most websites are built to accommodate the “masses”. Yes, we are just a face in the crowd to most web designers! It’s time to take things back into our own hands and customize the web for ourselves!

Greasemonkey is a local Javascript plugin for Firefox (and some other browsers like Opera, Safari, and Flock) that allows the user to edit the websites they are viewing through the use of scripts.

Say what? You don’t know how to write scripts (code that changes part of the website you are viewing)?

Well that’s not a problem with the active Greasemonkey community. There are already thousands of free scripts you can download at will . You can do everything from removing ads and changing the look ‘n feel of a site to adding functionality or speed to another (like ebay!).

First things first.

Installation:

You can install the Greasemonkey Extension here.

If you are running another browser, you may have to do more work to find a way to install it. Here are a few popular browsers that can run Greasemonkey Scripts (not officially supported):

Opera (already compatible!)

Safari

Flock

Getting Scripts:

Once you have installed Greasemonkey in Firefox, you can start installing scripts to your heart’s content.

A couple great resources are:
UserScripts.org
LifeHacker.com

You will probably see user scripts all over the place though, now that you are looking for them. They are more widespread than you might think.

Managing Scripts:

You can turn Greasemonkey on and off by clicking the little monkey face on the bottom-right of your browser.

Turn individual scripts on and off (or add/remove) by right-clicking the monkey and clicking “Manage User Scripts”.

Recommended Scripts:

I highly recommend the Better Gmail add-on for Firefox for Gmail users, which is actually just a collection of user scripts. (Firefox only)

As for individual scripts… there are just SO many! Here are a few though that I really find helpful day-to-day:

Profanity Filter – Substitutes swear words for sillier words (ie: “pile of poo!”). Actually very fun to have!
Ebay Ad/Iframe Remover – eBay just got a major slow down by adding many larger and animated ads. This blocker will ensure eBay.com performs well in Firefox again.
Mailto: Compose in Gmail – Puts a little gmail icon near email addresses on the web you can click to automatically begin composing in Gmail (rather than a default email program).

Besides these though, head over to userscripts.org and run searches on your favorite sites. Most popular sites will have scripts written for them that improve them in some way. Google and Yahoo! sites get particular attention. Once you start using Greasemonkey, I’m sure you will find it to be essential to your browsing experience.

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