Skip to main content

User style: Gmail Tabs by cloudHQ

Topics:

CloudHQ is the champion of Gmail add-ons. In the past years they created a bunch of smart little browser extensions in rapid succession. Have you always wanted to be able to rename an email subject? Scribble down a note on an e-mail (short of printing it and writing your note on paper)? Forward multiple emails in one go, instead of forwarding them one by one? Well, CloudHQ has got you covered. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. They have loads of browser extensions that turn Gmail into your daily email power house.

Gmail Tabs is another one of CloudHQ's little diamonds that is brilliant and elegant in its simplicity. Suppose you have a list of projects you are working on. You want to have each of those projects' emails just a click away. Still, you like your screen estate to be uncluttered by Gmail's label list. That's were Gmail Tabs comes in:

Screenshot: Gmail Tabs by CloudHQ.Screenshot: Gmail Tabs with its default look

Gmail Tabs before Stylus

Remember Quick Links?

If you've been using Gmail as long as I have, you will certainly remember a feature called Quick Links. With Quick Links you could capture one single search command under a link. Clicking the link would perform the search. I used to have dozens of those, so you can imagine my dismay when Google decided to pull the plug on Quick Links.

You can imagine my dismay when Google decided to pull the plug on Quick Links. With Gmail Tabs they're back!

With Gmail Tabs they're back!

So, you can quickly add your existing labels to a tab and you can also add your own searches to a tab. Here's an example of a search that I've always found useful:

label:inbox is:unread -in:chats -category:social -category:promotions -older_than:7d

This search finds all unread emails in my inbox that are not older than seven days and that are not part of a chat or one of the categories Social and Promotions. It keeps me on top of my new mails without any distractions. It's sheer impossible to miss out on an important new mail anymore.

Add, Edit and Delete tabs

This post is not meant to be a manual for Gmail Tabs. However, it is good to mention that you can add a currently active search or label to tabs, you can change the search or name of tabs and you can delete tabs. You will find a small edit icon on the right-hand side just above the Gmail settings icon. It will present you with a simple but sufficient interface to edit the tabs bar to your liking. You can also move tabs around by grabbing one with your mouse and moving it to a different position.

Design

You've guessed it: there's just one thing I am a little less enthusiastic about and that is Gmail Tabs' design. I'm probably being a little nitpicky about this, as I am known to be at times, but still. Although I'm not a designer by any means, I am perky enough to think I can do better. There, I've said it!

Although I'm not a designer by any means, I am perky enough to think I can do better.

What I do know about design is that less is more. In software design, a rule of thumb is that it's about the product, not about the design. Therefore, I tried to create a style that made Gmail Tabs just a little more pleasant to use.

Screenshot: Gmail Tabs after the user style was applied.

Gmail Tabs after Stylus

So, this is what was changed:

  • the inbox tab is there by default. It's blue underlined, which was changed to red,
  • the default Gmail inbox icon was added to the inbox tab,
  • to get some visual feedback on what you are clicking on, the background of the tabs now changes into light grey on mouse hover,
  • also, you can click anywhere on a tab to activate it, but the cursor didn't change to indicate that; now it does,
  • all tabs now have a darker grey bottom border,
  • there's an annoying line under the edit icon, which is now removed,
  • when hovering the edit icon, the background hover is a grey rectangular; this was changed to the Gmail default grey circle,
  • in edit mode, the colour of the delete icon was changed to red.

The screenshot shows a different font as well (Roboto Condensed), which is not part of the downloadable style for Gmail Tabs. Please let me know if you think I should add it or not.

So there you have it: a simple user style for Gmail Tabs. Since I am so enamoured with CloudHQ's extensions, you can be sure that more CloudHQ-related user styles will follow!

Make sure you check out CloudHQ's great collection of very useful Gmail add-ons and have fun with Gmail Tabs and its user style.

I hope you will check out this style. It can be downloaded by clicking on the image link below. Have fun using Gmail Tabs and Stylus!

And please let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

User style for Gmail Tabs:

Labels

Popular posts from this blog

It's here, it's great and it's Not Over Yet!

A funky organ, a funky brass section, a steaming rhythm section, easily the best guitar player this part of the western hemisphere (okay, not counting Jan Akkerman) and the most soulful smokey singer you have ever heard. All of that and gorgeously crafted songs, a lot of soul and passion. That's the new album Not Over Yet by fusion veterans Back to Basic. It was released yesterday, June 25th. For me this is no doubt the best album Back to Basic has ever released. And that's saying a lot. I suggest you install Equalizer APO , plug in your earphones and have a listen: The album is available on many music platforms, including YouTube (see above) and Spotify and can be purchased via Amazon , among others. For me this is no doubt the best album Back to Basic has ever released. And that's saying a lot. Review Honestly, what's not to like? Admittedly, to some young folks out there the band's members may look like old rockers. And I guess they are that too...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen to Jumbo from Monterrey, Mexico

I'm sure you recognize the joy of discovering fantastic music that you've never heard before. At least I hope you do! And if not, you will... let me explain. There's a fair chance you have heard of Jumbo: there's Jumbo as in the elephant, Jumbo as in the chain of grocery shops, Jumbo the famous games creator, it's a single by the Dizzy Man's Band, it's even the name of a guitar shape. ...language is irrelevant... I bet you didn't know though that Jumbo is also the name of an alternative rock band from Monterrey, Mexico that was founded in May of 1997. Why Jumbo the band never reached even the smallest form of fame outside of Latin America is beyond me. I just discovered them today, when all I wanted to do was to see if Jumbo the supermarket sells a certain beer brand that was recommended to me by a friend. True story. The result in the side bar that Qwant (my default search engine) showed was a Wikipedia page, ' Jumbo (band) '. Never...
Post a Comment
Read more

Food Colour Graph for Food Bloggers

In a side project I have been working on a WordPress website for a health and food blogger. There is a huge amount of food themes available for WordPress. Although this may seem like a big advantage, this large choice of themes also gives me stress. Another source of stress is me being picky about the choice of fonts and colours. Although I was given free reign, which I like, the responsibility to make the correct choices weighs heavily. Choosing colours How do you choose colours for a website? Often a client has a logo or house style, which makes the choice a little easier. Sometimes even there is no choice at all, but preconceived ideas and designs. Color circle by Ellywa at Dutch Wikipedia - downsized from 600 x 600 to 400 x 400 However, more often than not a client has not really given any serious thought to design elements. So, where to start when choosing colours? In this case I came up with the idea to work with colours linked to different food i...
Post a Comment
Read more