The only problems I ran into were small visual quirks. For example, in-box media manager Xoopit (review) works just fine, but retains its old-school Google look and thus sticks out like a sore thumb. I’m assuming any other Gmail add-ons that haven’t been integrated into the makeshift style sheet will experience the same thing until special bits of CSS are included to skin them too.
[via Google Blogoscoped]
Gmail Redesigned lets you skin Gmail to look dark and mysterious while retaining all of its speed and menus. (Click to enlarge)
Besides your in-box, the add-on skins the compose page, the Google Talk side bar, and entire conversation strings. This is one thing actually improved in the translation, as the color-coding of the conversations (which go from colorless windows to having colored headers) makes it easier to parse through multicontact communications.
Stylish, a
Firefox extension that lets you make big changes to other people’s Web sites with minimal effort, enables one of the cooler Gmail re-skin jobs I’ve seen. For people who like drumsticks, instead of Gmail’s boring, yet supple thigh meat, installing a Stylish plug-in named simply “Gmail Redesigned” lets you turn Gmail’s exterior into a gradient and plastic button-filled playground. The best part is that it retains its speed, button placement, and all around “Gmailness” you’re grown to love.
(Credit:
CNET Networks)
To get going just install the Stylish plug-in here, then restart Firefox. Once you’re back up and running, click the download button on this page and enable the new look from the plug-in options menu under Tools –> Add-ons. When you return to Gmail it will be dark and mysterious.