Chyoo Tips and Tricks

[Zingiber]

I finally figured out how to get a user stylesheet to make the new threads in a story map more prominent.

Here is my user stylesheet (saved as chyoo.css on my machine):

.red p {
  font-size: 18px ! important;
  color: #ff0000 ! important;
  }

New thread lines are big (18px vs 12px) and the non-link text is red (vs. black).

Maybe next I'll change the faint blue shading for new stories to something that's easier for me to see.

I titled the thread Chyoo Tips and Tricks in case anyone else wanted to chime in about their favorite ways to make the site easier or more pleasant to use.

Anyone else have favorite ways to make Chyoo easier?

[moonblack]

Hmm, I wonder if I should tell people how to add a thread even if the allowed maximum number of threads is already reached, i.e. how to add a fifth option to a thread that already has four options? Or is that not suited for this topic?

[Gunde]

It's a tips, and a trick. So I'd say that it's perfectly suitable

[Torg]

Originally Posted by Zingiber

I finally figured out how to get a user stylesheet to make the new threads in a story map more prominent.

I never thought to make a stylesheet for someone else's website. Got a clue where to put that css in Firefox?

[Zingiber]

Originally Posted by Torg

I never thought to make a stylesheet for someone else's website. Got a clue where to put that css in Firefox?

http://www.google.com/search?q=firefox+user+stylesheet

http://webdesign.about.com/od/css/ht...userfirefo.htm

How To Write a User Style Sheet for Firefox
From Jennifer Kyrnin,
Your Guide to Web Design / HTML.

User style sheets allow you to have more control over the Web pages you are visiting. They allow you to define styles for usability as well as for your own comfort. This how to explains how to use a user style sheet in Firefox.
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: 5 minutes

Here's How:

1. Create a style sheet with the styles you want to use, and save it to your hard drive.
2. Find your Firefox profile.
   It is usually located in the "application data" folder on Windows, or the "application support" folder on Macintosh.
3. Rename your user style sheet from step 1 to userContent.css and place it in the chrome directory of your Firefox profile.
4. Close your browser and re-open it. Your styles will be applied to all pages you visit after that.

Tips:

1. If you change your style sheet, you may have to close your browser and re-open it for the styles to take effect.
2. If you can't find your Profiles directory, you can search for userContent-example.css on your hard drive. That is usually in the same folder.

Note that the Opera browser allows you to set different user style sheets for different domains.

According to W3C, the user stylesheet is applied on top of (rather than instead of) the author stylesheet, and the author wins in case of a tie of priorities. Thus the "! important" decoration to cause an override. Though for Chyoo, the fact that I'm looking at "a paragraph within an element tagged with class=red" should be enough.

-Z.

[moonblack]

http://www.chyoo.com/index.php/membe...ddedit/0/79899

Notice the number at the end? That is the number of the thread you're adding to. So you just need to change ti to the number you want. For example, to add a new thread to the first Tharros thread you use http://www.chyoo.com/index.php/membe...ddedit/0/68165
To find the number of any thread first see the story map, then just click on the thread you desire. In the adress bar you will see something like this:
http://www.chyoo.com/index.php/main....ge/68165/79899
The first number is the current thread, the second number (if present) is the previous one.

This works with Open stories. I have not tried it with Closed ones.

[Torg]

Originally Posted by moonblack

This works with Open stories. I have not tried it with Closed ones.

This indeed works on Closed stories.

Mwa-ha-ha.

[TwiztedClown]

Well thats interesting to know

[TJChurch]

I'm a troll.

[Torg]

Just reading the thread gives you the thread # in the URL bar. If that story is closed or if that thread already has the maximum threads added, no Add Thread button will show. If you go to another thread that has the button and click it, you get the URL for adding threads, and then you add the thread #, so you can add to the full or closed thread.

Or alternatively, just put the URL without the thread # on your Bookmark toolbar, and add the thread # you've cut and pasted from the thread.

[Zingiber]

I really like my new custom CSS stylesheet effect making the new threads in the story map jump out. If the story is marked new there's no need to squint and look for the little red circle next to the new thread.

-Z.

[Torg]

Originally Posted by Zingiber

I really like my new custom CSS stylesheet effect making the new threads in the story map jump out. If the story is marked new there's no need to squint and look for the little red circle next to the new thread.

-Z.

Something's weird with my Firefox. I added the .css in the directory with the example css, but I still get the old formatting.

The directory is:
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\defaults\profile\chrome

It didn't work on my laptop. I'm going to try it now on my work machine.

[Zingiber]

Originally Posted by Torg

Something's weird with my Firefox. I added the .css in the directory with the example css, but I still get the old formatting.

The directory is:
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\defaults\profile\chrome

It didn't work on my laptop. I'm going to try it now on my work machine.

Hm, I'm running Opera (which has a CSS twiddler console available as a "developer tools" download). I'll have to try it in FF.

[gizmoo69]

Originally Posted by moonblack

http://www.chyoo.com/index.php/membe...ddedit/0/79899

Notice the number at the end? That is the number of the thread you're adding to. So you just need to change ti to the number you want. For example, to add a new thread to the first Tharros thread you use http://www.chyoo.com/index.php/membe...ddedit/0/68165
To find the number of any thread first see the story map, then just click on the thread you desire. In the adress bar you will see something like this:
http://www.chyoo.com/index.php/main....ge/68165/79899
The first number is the current thread, the second number (if present) is the previous one.

I always wondered how people did this!

[TJChurch]

I'm a troll.

[Zingiber]

Originally Posted by Torg

Something's weird with my Firefox. I added the .css in the directory with the example css, but I still get the old formatting.

The directory is:
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\defaults\profile\chrome

It didn't work on my laptop. I'm going to try it now on my work machine.

I think you have to find your real actual profile directory rather than the defaults used as a template to create new profiles.

http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/...d_your_profile

Operating System

Profile Folder Path

Windows Vista/XP/2000

%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default\

Where %APPDATA% is shorthand for the C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\ folder (Windows Vista) or the C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\ folder (Windows XP/2000)

[Torg]

Aha! The problem is that the Application Data directory (XP) is Hidden. I looked and looked for this. I finally found it by putting the whole path in the Windows Explorer. And Unhid it.

[TJChurch]

I'm a troll.

[moonblack]

Could you tell us, step-by-step, what did you do, exactly?

[Zingiber]

Originally Posted by moonblack

Could you tell us, step-by-step, what did you do, exactly?

Moonblack: who's that question to?

-Z

[moonblack]

It's for TJChurch - since his post is right above mine I did not deem it necessary to quote it (though I may have been wrong on that).

[TJChurch]

I'm a troll.

[Zingiber]

I wanted to post a sample of my "restyled" story map and see if anyone else had gotten one working.

The main reading pages also have a fixed pixel width, which is not so great a choice, but that might take Greasemonkey rather than a custom user CSS. Not sure.

-Z.

[Torg]

Originally Posted by Zingiber

I wanted to post a sample of my "restyled" story map and see if anyone else had gotten one working.

The main reading pages also have a fixed pixel width, which is not so great a choice, but that might take Greasemonkey rather than a custom user CSS. Not sure.

-Z.

I got mine working once I put things in the right directory. I love it.

[whizzper]

Yay...it worked...the css thing. woohoo...no more squinting no more squinting no more squinting