Smart Ways to Use Gmail in Firefox
I passed along tips the other day from my Firefox buddy and expert, Mike M., from Dripping Springs TX.
Today, two tricks for using Gmail in Firefox.
Did you know you can color Gmail labels? That's perfect for highlighting incoming mail by color. You can also have a "preview bubble" that will show you a floating window when you right-click a piece of incoming mail. I love this because I don't have to "open" the email in another tab or window.
It'll take three short steps to make this work.
First, if you haven't already done it, you've got to install Greasemonkey. It's a Firefox add-on that allows the implementation of user scripts. The installation is quick and easy. Just head for the site, click Install Now to get it, and restart Firefox.
Second, to install the label colors, go to the Google Code site and click on "Label Colors" from the list on the right-hand side of the page under "Links." You'll get a pop-up asking you to confirm the install by clicking the "Install" button when it lights up. The install will happen pretty quickly -- you may not even notice that it occurred. No Firefox restart is required.
Finally, stay on the Google Code's page and in the Links section, click on "Conversation Preview." Follow the same routine as with Label Colors, and it will install quickly.
Mike said that since these scripts were written by Google they're safe. You can read Google's description of the scripts at your leisure, though some of it is pretty technical.
To color the labels, just rename them and add "color" to the name For instance, Michael is renamed Michael red; e-mail from Steve is Steve blue. Read the full description if you want to get fancier colors.
BTW, Mike said that Gmail has recently started a selective roll out a "new" interface, so not everyone has it yet. If you're using the newer version of Gmail, you can now directly color labels by clicking the gray box to the right of the label name and choosing a color. How can you tell if you're using the "new version"? If you are, there will be a link in the top right corner of the screen that says "Older version." Google temporarily left a link to let users go back to the old if they don't like the new.
Talkback
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Gmail's new interface is the first thing I've seen from Google that has obvious bugs. Lately it has been opening odd pages when I click on the inbox link, and it loads with incredible slowness on dialup -- even noticeably slow on the slower DSL connections (not that "regular" Gmail is that fast). The bells and whistles are OK, but I find myself clicking more often than not on the "Older Version" link I've put on my bookmarks toolbar. (Links Bar, for those of you still in the IE dark ages.)
Many of the goodies like Better Gmail and Gmail Skins haven't been upgraded, either. I wish GOOG would make it possible to select the older Gmail as default until they get the bugs worked out of the new one. Even Micro$oft did that with their Hotmail upgrade.
It seems to me that Google are paying a good deal more attention to what they want than to what the customers want, lately. Free is free, but...
Ah, well. More will be revealed.
Happy New Year, Steve!
Bill
Good read - I always enjoy your articles. Your link to the Google code page goes to the Greasemonkey install page, what's the address of the Google code page?