Gmail Skinning - A Quick Guide via CSS :D

[Inspiron 0]

Will you guys who managed to make it work post a screenshot of it as well? Make screenshots of one in Firefox and one in Internet Explorer..

[michaelper22 0]

Unfortunately for us, this only works in Firefox as far as I know. I tried it in Netscape 7.2, and it didn't work. I wouldn't think that it would work in IE anyway, just because of the way IE works, ie. its different architecture.
Also, I think that doing this may be against the Gmail TOS. Let me find the text for you....

- Modify, adapt, translate, or reverse engineer any portion of the Gmail Service- Remove any copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights notices contained in or on the Gmail Service
- Reformat or frame any portion of the web pages that are part of the Gmail Service
https://www.google.com/gmail/about/policy/

So that would lead me to think that you can't do that. Sorry folks.

[Inspiron 0]

Unfortunately for us, this only works in Firefox as far as I know. I tried it in Netscape 7.2, and it didn't work. I wouldn't think that it would work in IE anyway, just because of the way IE works, ie. its different architecture.Also, I think that doing this may be against the Gmail TOS. Let me find the text for you....

So that would lead me to think that you can't do that. Sorry folks.

Yes that's what I've though of from the beginning. It's just now firefox renders the graphics to you, hence other browsers will not be able to view your new gmail skin. And it's only the firefox browser on your computer displays it to you. You can even try to login to your skinned gmail account on another firefox browser on another computer, I bet you cannot see any skin changes. Basically, your gmail account did not change at all, or rather in short, you've not exactly skinned your gmail. You've actually skinned your firefox instead when a url goes to gmail domain. I guess any gmail users log in through the skinned gmail firefox will see the same skin for every gmail account inbox.

[Dooga 0]

Woah that's wierd. Although it's interesting that you could do that...!

[michaelper22 0]

Yes that's what I've though of from the beginning. It's just now firefox renders the graphics to you, hence other browsers will not be able to view your new gmail skin. And it's only the firefox browser on your computer displays it to you. You can even try to login to your skinned gmail account on another firefox browser on another computer, I bet you cannot see any skin changes. Basically, your gmail account did not change at all, or rather in short, you've not exactly skinned your gmail. You've actually skinned your firefox instead when a url goes to gmail domain. I guess any gmail users log in through the skinned gmail firefox will see the same skin for every gmail account inbox.

I don't what google meant by putting that clause in the Program Policies, but I woudn't think that it matters whether it's on your own computer or throughout the Google service. I say this because thet prohibit framing of the Gmail site, which would be available to any Gmail user. don't count on me 100%, but even if I used Firefox as my main browser, I wouldn't do this. for all you know Google could come after you someday. If you want the real scoop on this I would suggest emailing or calling (if possible) google.

[mtvoyagers 0]

I don't what google meant by putting that clause in the Program Policies, but I woudn't think that it matters whether it's on your own computer or throughout the Google service. I say this because thet prohibit framing of the Gmail site, which would be available to any Gmail user. don't count on me 100%, but even if I used Firefox as my main browser, I wouldn't do this. for all you know Google could come after you someday. If you want the real scoop on this I would suggest emailing or calling (if possible) google.

The only problem with your thought is that google won't know if you are using firefox to display a site differently, its not like your computer is sending a request to google along with the css, its just applying it, so even if they are against it they will never know that you did it unless you install google software special designed to look at what you are looking at and report it to google, which obviously isn't happening at the moment and I doubt ever will happen.

Also there is a problem with using that extension and the newest version of firefox, as the newest version of firefox and anything above 1.0 do not work with this extesion, looks great but to bad.
Edited July 25, 2006 by mtvoyagers (see edit history)

[antu 0]

cool....nice pos...i will ry this.....

[Supremo 0]

For me skins is not uteis

[possible123 0]

That tutorial isn't the only way to skin gmail. I know of a few other ways. All require the download of Firefox extensions.

 

First up is gmailskins.mozdev.org/

 

It is an extension designed specifically for skinning gmail, but it contains a few other things.

You can't make your own skins yet.

 

You can also use greasespot.net/

It is the home of the very popular Greasemonkey extension for Firefox. They have a lot of skins for

gmail and other things that add functionality to Gmail. You can find greasemonkey user scripts at

 

userscripts.org/

 

If you want to cut to the chase and find gmail related scripts, you can find them at

this search result page

 

Greasemonkey and Gmail Skins aren't the only way to skin Gmail. There is also Stylish at

 

userstyles.org/

 

They have both the styles and the download link there. Again, if you want to get to the gmail

styles fast, you can find them at

This other results page.

 

 

As for people saying that it is against the TOS to do this, I disagree. Like many posters

before me said, it is just how the browser views the content. No change is being made on the server.

Except for Gmail Skins. The Gmail Skins extension makes a "hidden label" in Gmail. You know

how labels work in Gmail, right? Gmail Skins basically makes a label that is hidden in some views.

That label contains your preferences. If your friend's computer has Gmail Skins on Firefox, and you log onto that computer, your settings will come into effect.

 

Not that any harmful changes are happening to the server though, just a little label.

[Zlash 0]

godd tutorial. I use Mozilla Firebird for my mail so I don't really care about the Gmail skin

[heavensounds 0]

Hehe..this is a good one, but it is not useable for me since I use Opera and as far as i know, opera doesn't support personal css styles...maybe in the future. I really like the idea and the way you thought about it...I acctually didn't know that gmail uses CSS - I am happy to hear that, because it is by far the best system for web-site building! Best whishes

[mahirharoon 0]

we can skin ie 6 or 7 whith ie7 pro - ie7pro.com

[safe.as.haz 0]

I think its only a temporary skin. You won't be able to see your skin on another computer without firefox installed with that skin mod for gmail. It's like cheating Firefox to believe and change the skin when you logon to gmail. So its a local computer thing. Nothing is changed on gmail I suppose. It's just how Firefox display it to you.

nice. more to the point when are gmail gonna have there own feature like this so it will be a different skin worldwide?