Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Greasemonkey

I am all for keeping things simple but at the same time making things work easier or better.  An American airline has as its logo, Don’t work harder, work smarter!  Now that makes sense especially in this day and age of modern technology.  After all, far better to make the tools work for you rather than you become a slave to the tools!

You may have noticed the title of this post?  Greasemonkey – what a lovely image that conjures up for the reader!  Greasemonkey is a Firefox extension that allows you to customize the way webpages look and function.  If you are not familiar with Firefox you will note it is a very good alternative to Internet Explorer in that it is faster and more secure. 

Now, comes the really fun part about which I would like to tell you more!  That is, if you don’t already know about Etsyhacks or need to know a little more before taking the final step.

Actually, Etsyhacks is an especially clever program add on that was thought of by a tech savvy husband of another Etsy seller.  Whilst Etsy is fairly user friendly there are always ways to improve or make the whole selling/buying process more fluid.

For example, one of the latest downloads offered goes like this.  You know when you are listing an item and come to the page on which to input your tags?  You have to type one tag at a time, click Add, before you can move on to the next tag.  Well with this hack it will add a box to the tagging screen of the create and edit listing pages in which you can enter all your tags, and then press a button to add them all at once. Here below is the sequence of events when you install this hack.

  • Install Firefox and Greasemonkey if you haven't already got them. You'll need to restart Firefox after installing Greasemonkey.
  • Once Greasemonkey is installed and running, click on the orange "install" button above on the Etsyhack page).
  • The "fast tagger" script will be downloaded, and Greasemonkey will ask if you want to install it. Assuming ‘you trust me’, click "Install".
  • Create a new listing and go to the tags page, or edit the tags of an existing listing.
  • Enter tags in the box, separated by commas, then click "add tags" to add the tags to the listing, or "replace tags" to remove any existing tags and replace them with your current ones. You can click "delete tags" to remove any existing tags.

See the example on the download page for clarification.

Another example is a hack that adds a 'reply' link next to each message in the main convo listing screen. Clicking the link takes you to the message with the reply box open, and the cursor set in the text box ready to type your reply.

Useful if you've already read the message (in an email, for example) and just want to reply without the extra clicks.

It also hides the "reply" button when you're replying to a convo, so you don't try to click on it instead of the "send" button.  How many times have I done that?

Simple?  It makes life easier and smoother!

You can sign up to regular news about new hacks all of which create a new exciting extension to your Etsy experience!  However, it would be remiss of me if I did not pass on this message:

“Disclaimer notice - This site (Etsyhack, is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, Etsy. Anything provided on these pages is done so free of charge, and with no warranty. Use at your own risk.”

Before I go, check out some of these products by some very talented members of the BBEST team.  Well, you have been such a good and attentive audience you deserved a treat!

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Beautiful Modern Czech Glass Cat Button

by ButtonHole


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Stoneware Blue Mug Teacup

by Fehustoneware

 

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Scallops and Fans Scarflette in Cream

by Jnoriginals

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Amber and Sterling Necklace

by Annas Jewelry

Loads more where they came from!  Just put BBEST Team in your search tag and see what treasures appear!

9 comments:

AltheaP said...

Kudos to Greasemonkey. I love being able to copy an entire listing and just change the description and photos!

Anonymous said...

Great info Pat.

Zuda Gay Pease said...

Yay! for Etsyhacks!! I love his downloads, so helpful and really make running my etsy shop more enjoyable! Beautiful items!!

joon said...

Thanks, Pat. Great feature. I do hope this works on Macs just the same. I use firefox already so I'm good there. Looking forward to trying these out. Lovely featured items as well.

Unknown said...

Love the featured items - and the great tips and tricks! Thanks Pat!

Dena said...

Thanks so much for the tips Pat. I will get that greasemonkey installed in a bit. Am all for making things simpler... :) Thanks also for featuring my kitty button.

Chauncey said...

wow PQ, thanks for all that great info. And your featured items are fabby!

Judy Nolan said...

Pat, I'm glad you highlighted Greasemonkey. I just downloaded it yesterday, and am asking myself why I didn't do so earlier! Thanks also for including my scarflette in your post.

Pam said...

Pat, thanks for all your tekkie help. Just wish I knew a thimblefull of what you know! Thanks for sharing with all of us.