gReader 1.4 - 'The my goodness I almost gave up on this one' release

Updating the gReader theme to work with the new Friends Shared Items feature introduced last year, has been, quite frankly, a royal pain the arse. I almost gave up on the theme a few times along the way, but I’m chuffed to be able to say, here’s the updated theme! I don’t doubt that this has introduced new bugs, but let me off the hook for now eh?

Changes for 1.4

• Supports the friends shared items feature – the sidebar reflows when the shared items is toggled on/off
• Removed a fair few lines of redundant code
• New icons! Updated trends, and wee ‘friends’ icons.
• Leopard-ized sidebar, with new, smaller folder icons, and generally a bit tightened up. The Leopard style makes the most sense with the Friends and Show lists
• Page view tabs (‘Expanded view’ & ‘List view’) are now more osx-y.
• Various other bug fixes, like ‘Refresh’ on the status bar being clickable again. Thanks must go to Daniel Haas, Matt Wiebe, Martin Ström, Tomasz ?wik and ChoGGi for all submitting patches! It’s people like you that make me keep on updating this theme.

Download gReader.zip | Update on userstyles.org | How to Install

Tags: google, googlereader, greader, theme

Google Reader and Bloglines themes - it's over to you.

(Last Google Reader theme post, I promise)

Before now, I’ve felt quite protective of my site skins, and have always stated “Feel free to modify the CSS to suit your own tastes, but please don’t redistribute”. This stems from vanity to be truthful – I spend a long time creating these themes, and don’t want other people getting the credit!

That was how I used to think though. As time goes on, I feel like I’m becoming more communist open when it comes to the web. Besides, I have little time to update the themes, and carry out feature/bug requests, and they’re both at a point where I’m happy with them. Sure, there’s so much you could do to them, but the original intention was to create something for myself. Which is where you come in.

These themes are now both “do what you like with them”. Take out the bits you don’t like, put in new bits, whatever. Feel free to re-distribute them anywhere you like, whether slightly tweaked or massively altered. They’re yours to do with as you please! Give them a good home and let me know what do with them (hopefully something better!)

downloads

Google Reader Theme
Bloglines Theme for Webkit & Opera
Bloglines Theme for Mozilla

Finally, to answer a much-asked question I don’t have plans to do a GMail or GCal skin, but you never know.

Tags: google, greader, opensource, themes

Google Reader Theme 0.9

Almost there!

v0.9 ‘The Newbury’

• New: All sidebar selections are styled the same
• New: Current entry is highlighted, in a similar style to the default theme, but lighter and more minimal.
• Fixed: Last rounded corner box bit still poking in from last version
• Fixed: Colour for read feeds looks better
• Fixed: Feeds not in tag folders aren’t indented the same as those that are. (added 13/5)
• Fixed: titles showing up under unread counts (added 13/5)

Installation

Download gReader.zip, or if you use Stylish with Firefox/Flock, you install directly into Stylish from userstyles.org. There are 2 versions, one for Mozilla browsers and one for WebKit & Opera.

Firefox & Flock

Once you have the Stylish extension installed, you need to install 2 styles. OS X Google Reader and OS X Spinner (they had to be split to avoid the 64k file limit on userstyles). You should be able to update via Stylish > Manage Styles > Find Updates.

If you don’t want to use Stylish, follow the Camino method below.

Camino

Add the following @import rule into the top line of your /Library/Application Support/Camino/chrome/userContent.css file, (or create it if it doesn’t exist).

@import url(greader.css);

Place the greader.css file in the same chrome folder. The theme will be applied when you restart Camino.

Safari

Once Safaristand is installed, place the greader.css file in your user/Library/Safari/Stand/UserStyleSheets folder. Then visit Google Reader, go to SafariStand > Settings > Site Alteration. Add the site, enable Site Alteration and choose the greader file from the list. Make sure the matching pattern is just www.google.com. You may have to empty your cache, restart Safari and refresh before seeing any changes!

Omniweb

In Site Preferences > Page Appearance, choose the greader.css file under ‘Style Sheet’. The change should happen instantly!

Opera

Put the greader.css file anywhere you like! Right-click on the Google Reader page, choose "Edit Site Preferences" and select the CSS file through the display tab, under ‘My Style Sheet’. Like Omniweb, the change should apply immediately.

Tags: google, googlereader, greader, theme

Google Reader Theme Fixed Again

OK, gReader theme fixed (I think). Google made some markup changes, for instance, Tag folders and Subscription icons once had classes of ‘icon’ and ‘icon-sub’ respectively, but now are both just ‘icon’. Fortunately there are still hooks in the markup to hack into.

v 0.86 ‘The Windermere’

• Fixes for changes in Google Readers markup :(
• Now available as a One click install into Stylish at Userstyles.org *
• Versions are now named after types of new house builds in the UK.

*In order to do this, I’ve had to remove the big-assed loading graphic from the CSS in order to get in under userstyles file limit. I’ll look at ways of getting that back in later.

Further work on the display of entries still to come…

Installation

Download gReader.zip., or if you use Stylish with Firefox/Flock, install at Userstyles.org. There are 2 versions, one for Mozilla browsers and one for WebKit & Opera.

Firefox & Flock

Once you have the Stylish extension installed, you can do a One click install into Stylish at Userstyles.org. If you don’t want to use Stylish, follow the Camino method below.

Camino

Add the following @import rule into the top line of your /Library/Application Support/Camino/chrome/userContent.css file, (or create it if it doesn’t exist).

@import url(greader.css);

Place the greader.css file in the same chrome folder. The theme will be applied when you restart Camino.

Safari

Once Safaristand is installed, place the greader.css file in your user/Library/Safari/Stand/UserStyleSheets folder. Then visit Google Reader, go to SafariStand > Settings > Site Alteration. Add the site, enable Site Alteration and choose the greader file from the list. Make sure the matching pattern is just www.google.com. You may have to empty your cache, restart Safari and refresh before seeing any changes!

Omniweb

In Site Preferences > Page Appearance, choose the greader.css file under ‘Style Sheet’. The change should happen instantly!

Opera

Put the greader.css file anywhere you like! Right-click on the Google Reader page, choose "Edit Site Preferences" and select the CSS file through the display tab, under ‘My Style Sheet’. Like Omniweb, the change should apply immediately.

Tags: google, googlereader, greader, theme