New: custom style sheets

**Jeremy Howard** · 4th December 2001, 08:53 AM

I've added a new style sheet option to Preferences: "Custom". If you create a style sheet called "c:\custom.css" (on Windows) or "/custom.css" (on Linux/Unix) then FastMail.FM will use it. This is really handy when designing your own style-sheet. If you do create a style-sheet that you like please send it to us, even although you can now use it without contributing to us. When you contribute your style-sheet to us, not only do you get the enormous kudos associated with having you name in lights, but other users may improve on you style-sheet so that you benefit too.

To make a start on your own style sheet, click here and save the link as "c:\custom.css". Then, in Preferences change your Style to "Custom". Now, try changing fonts, colors, borders, button edges, margins, etc and save your style sheet. Refresh your browser window, and you'll see your changes! Send your finished work of art to webmasterATfastmailDOTfm. Note that although so far all style sheets really only just change colors, you can create a style sheet that changes fonts, font sizes, effect when you hover your mouse over a link, button edges, margins, border sizes and colors, margin widths, and so forth. CSS can customise pretty much every aspect of the visual representation.

Also, I've fixed up (I think) the font problems with the "Soothing Blues" style sheet.

luan · 4th December 2001, 12:04 PM

may i add? ^^ :

if ur os happens to run on a different drive letter, save custom.css under where ever your os root is. e.g. d\custom.css

**Shelded** · 5th December 2001, 04:10 PM

This will give you immense leverage with so many people enabled to work on it now.

**Shelded** · 5th December 2001, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Jeremy Howard

To make a start on your own style sheet, click here and save the link as "c:\custom.css".

Shouldn't we RIGHT click there to save the link rather than trying to open it?

I note this is the place to get that link, it is not on the '?' help system yet.

The saved file will be your then-current 'preference' so if you are thinking of modifying one you are not using switch to it first.

pobelly · 5th December 2001, 04:36 PM

a good idea, yes... now if i could only get it to work in something besides exploder...

exactly what browser functionality is this thinger dependent upon?

**Jeremy Howard** · 5th December 2001, 04:46 PM

It depends on CSS support. Because NS 4.x doesn't support CSS properly, we disable CSS on those browsers.

If you have a browser that you believe supports a reasonable subset of CSS (check here) and we are gobbling up CSS for that browser, please let us know the browser name, version, and OS.

pobelly · 5th December 2001, 05:08 PM

Quote:

It depends on CSS support. Because NS 4.x doesn't support CSS properly, we disable CSS on those browsers.

ask a silly question...

let me re-ask that:

what specific sub-set of css support is used for pointing the browser to the CUSTOM sheet on the local root directory? most of the time i'm using k-meleon <kmeleon.sourceforge.net> which supports CSS as well as anything i've ever seen, but doesn't have a USER stylesheet option... perhaps this is why i can't get it to work? i'm not suggesting that this is your problem... i'm just looking for clues to get it to work, if i can.

**Jeremy Howard** · 5th December 2001, 05:29 PM

It's our problem. We check the browser string to decide whether to send the CSS. We have to do this because NS 4.x is so broken. Tell me k-Meleon's browser string and we'll make sure we deal with it. I know it'll work fine because it uses Gecko--we just have to add it to our "non-broken browsers" list.

pobelly · 5th December 2001, 06:02 PM

Quote:

Tell me k-Meleon's browser string and we'll make sure we deal with it.

well, a current typical default k-meleon user agent string would be something like:

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:0.9.5) Gecko/20011011

i'll try changing it to mimic IE and see if that makes the custom option work, in the meantime.

pobelly · 5th December 2001, 06:28 PM

it looks like it is, indeed, a browser issue; the "<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="file:///custom.css">" shows up in the source for the pages, but k-meleon doesn't seem to want to use a local stylesheet. if i set the style preference to anything other than 'custom' it works just fine, though, so i don't think it's because your sniffer is being picky. it's just a browser thang.

still, it's a great idea, even if i can't use it the way i want to at the moment...

DippyTwitty · 6th December 2001, 12:52 AM

I'm not sure if its just me, but I've tried this on several browsers for Win32, and IE6 (don't have IE55 any more sorry) is the only one that works.

I've noticed that you use href="file:///custom.css" even for win32; I've seen the notation file:C|/custom.css or maybe more appropriately file://localhost/c|/custom.css/ used before, and I know works in all the browsers I've tried (NS6,IE,Opera,Mozilla).

Is there a way to add a couple more 'custom' selection options in the dropdown, like "Custom: c:/custom.css" and "Custom: d:/custom.css" (to make even luan happy) ??

Thanks,
Dip

kirill · 6th December 2001, 01:51 AM

Come on, who would pollute / with stylesheets?

Is it possible to use ~/.fmstyle.css or something like that?

--
Kirill

**Jeremy Howard** · 6th December 2001, 12:05 PM

I've changed the Preferences to give the option of c:\custom.css or ~/custom.css .

Kirill: Windows doesn't have the same concept of '~' as a home directory, so ~/custom.css doesn't work for Windows users.

pobelly · 6th December 2001, 12:47 PM

Quote:

Come on, who would pollute / with stylesheets?

windows doesn't have the same concept of 'pollution', either.

Quote:

I've noticed that you use href="file:///custom.css" even for win32; I've seen the notation file:C|/custom.css or maybe more appropriately file://localhost/c|/custom.css/ used before, and I know works in all the browsers I've tried (NS6,IE,Opera,Mozilla).

this might be worth considering... file:///custom.css only works on my li'l windoze gecko browser as a style sheet path when the page itself is a local file, for instance if i save a page from a fastmail session. otherwise it's ignored... i'm told by the browser devs that this is a mozilla security issue: served pages can't reference local files (i guess that's what cookies are for...). maybe some of the other paths suggested by dippytwitty would work, though... has anyone gotten the current configuration to work with a non-IE browser?

--- po

**Jeremy Howard** · 6th December 2001, 01:19 PM

I changed it to file://C|/custom.css when I made the last change. Does that not work in Gecko either? What does? file://localhost/c|/custom.css ? Does that work on IE as well?

4th December 2001, 08:53 AM	#1
Jeremy Howard Moderator Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Australia Posts: 11,434 Representative of: Fastmail.FM	New: custom style sheets I've added a new style sheet option to Preferences: "Custom". If you create a style sheet called "c:\custom.css" (on Windows) or "/custom.css" (on Linux/Unix) then FastMail.FM will use it. This is really handy when designing your own style-sheet. If you do create a style-sheet that you like please send it to us, even although you can now use it without contributing to us. When you contribute your style-sheet to us, not only do you get the enormous kudos associated with having you name in lights, but other users may improve on you style-sheet so that you benefit too. To make a start on your own style sheet, click here and save the link as "c:\custom.css". Then, in Preferences change your Style to "Custom". Now, try changing fonts, colors, borders, button edges, margins, etc and save your style sheet. Refresh your browser window, and you'll see your changes! Send your finished work of art to webmasterATfastmailDOTfm. Note that although so far all style sheets really only just change colors, you can create a style sheet that changes fonts, font sizes, effect when you hover your mouse over a link, button edges, margins, border sizes and colors, margin widths, and so forth. CSS can customise pretty much every aspect of the visual representation. Also, I've fixed up (I think) the font problems with the "Soothing Blues" style sheet.

5th December 2001, 04:10 PM	#3
Shelded Moderator Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: USA Northwest Posts: 3,125	Darn good idea, why didn't I think of that? This will give you immense leverage with so many people enabled to work on it now.

5th December 2001, 06:28 PM	#10
pobelly Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 586	...moving right along... it looks like it is, indeed, a browser issue; the "<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="file:///custom.css">" shows up in the source for the pages, but k-meleon doesn't seem to want to use a local stylesheet. if i set the style preference to anything other than 'custom' it works just fine, though, so i don't think it's because your sniffer is being picky. it's just a browser thang. still, it's a great idea, even if i can't use it the way i want to at the moment...

6th December 2001, 12:52 AM	#11
DippyTwitty Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 107	Win32 platform I'm not sure if its just me, but I've tried this on several browsers for Win32, and IE6 (don't have IE55 any more sorry) is the only one that works. I've noticed that you use href="file:///custom.css" even for win32; I've seen the notation file:C\|/custom.css or maybe more appropriately file://localhost/c\|/custom.css/ used before, and I know works in all the browsers I've tried (NS6,IE,Opera,Mozilla). Is there a way to add a couple more 'custom' selection options in the dropdown, like "Custom: c:/custom.css" and "Custom: d:/custom.css" (to make even luan happy) ?? Thanks, Dip

6th December 2001, 01:51 AM	#12
kirill Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Jun 2001 Posts: 843	pollution Come on, who would pollute / with stylesheets? Is it possible to use ~/.fmstyle.css or something like that? -- Kirill

4th December 2001, 12:04 PM	#2
luan Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Posts: 12	may i add? ^^ : if ur os happens to run on a different drive letter, save custom.css under where ever your os root is. e.g. d\custom.css

5th December 2001, 04:36 PM	#5
pobelly Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 586	a good idea, yes... now if i could only get it to work in something besides exploder... exactly what browser functionality is this thinger dependent upon?

5th December 2001, 04:46 PM	#6
Jeremy Howard Moderator Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Australia Posts: 11,434 Representative of: Fastmail.FM	It depends on CSS support. Because NS 4.x doesn't support CSS properly, we disable CSS on those browsers. If you have a browser that you believe supports a reasonable subset of CSS (check here) and we are gobbling up CSS for that browser, please let us know the browser name, version, and OS.

5th December 2001, 05:29 PM	#8
Jeremy Howard Moderator Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Australia Posts: 11,434 Representative of: Fastmail.FM	It's our problem. We check the browser string to decide whether to send the CSS. We have to do this because NS 4.x is so broken. Tell me k-Meleon's browser string and we'll make sure we deal with it. I know it'll work fine because it uses Gecko--we just have to add it to our "non-broken browsers" list.

6th December 2001, 12:05 PM	#13
Jeremy Howard Moderator Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Australia Posts: 11,434 Representative of: Fastmail.FM	I've changed the Preferences to give the option of c:\custom.css or ~/custom.css . Kirill: Windows doesn't have the same concept of '~' as a home directory, so ~/custom.css doesn't work for Windows users.

6th December 2001, 01:19 PM	#15
Jeremy Howard Moderator Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Australia Posts: 11,434 Representative of: Fastmail.FM	I changed it to file://C\|/custom.css when I made the last change. Does that not work in Gecko either? What does? file://localhost/c\|/custom.css ? Does that work on IE as well?