Monospace Fonts and new Google Groups

[Michael Petch]

While I was working on a non Backgammon project this evening, I needed a
way to change the styles of some web pages that I don't host. I
discovered a small little addon that is available for Firefox and Chrome
(Don't believe there is one for IE). I realized that this utility may
work for the new Google Newsgroups. I believe Tim Chow mentioned this
issue previously. There is no way to set Monospace font when reading posts.

This plugin and a bit of CSS seemed to work for me.

The plugin home page can be found here: http://userstyles.org/ . In the
middle of the page there are links "Stylish for Firefox" or "Stylish
for Chrome". Click on the one that is appropriate for you and then
install it.

The Chrome and Firefox addons do the same job but the interface to add
styles is a bit different between browsers (but not difficult to figure
out).

========
CHROME
========

If you are using Chrome there should be a stylized(and colorful) icon
with an "S" on the toolbar (likely to the right of the URL Bar).
Navigate to http://groups.google.com in the browser as you normally
would. Click the S on the tool bar. There should be an menu item "manage
installed styles". Click it. A page should appear in the browser. On the
left hand side click the "Write New Style" button. In the name field you
can put anything but "Google Groups - Monospace" would be a reasonable
name. Underneath that enable the "Enabled" checkbox. In the code text
entry box enter:

#inbdy, #cmp_body, .GGC-W4ACF3, .GGC-W4ACG1 {
font-family: monospace !important;
font-size: 90% !important;
/* font-size: 12pt !important; */
}

Under code there is likely a button called "Specify". Click it. If there
is no "Specify" button there is likely a drop down list, and a remove
and add button. In the drop down box select "URL" and in the text entry
box to the right of that enter:

groups.google.com

Now on the left hand side of the page click the "Save" button. Now go to
groups.google.com, and view rec.games.backgammon. If everything works
the text of a message should be monospaced.

=========
Firefox
=========

After installation there should be a grey "S" in the status bar in the
bottom left hand corner of the web browser. Click on "Write new Style",
click on "Blank Style". A window should appear. In the "Name" field
enter anything you wish as a description "Google Groups - Monospace"
will suffice. Leave "Tags" field blank. In the large text entry box
enter this:

@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);

@-moz-document domain("groups.google.com") {

#inbdy, #cmp_body, .GGC-W4ACF3, .GGC-W4ACG1 {
font-family: monospace !important;
font-size: 90% !important;
/* font-size: 12pt !important; */
}

}

Click the "save" button. Now navigate to http://groups.google.com in the
browser and then go to rec.games.backgammon. When reviewing messages,
diagrams should now appear in a monospaced font.


======================

Anyone who understand Cascading Style Sheets, classes and attributes can
actually change other attributes to customize viewing. You can change
the color, font size, the font etc.

If you go to http://userstyles.org/styles/browse/ you can find a
variety of styles that people have made for a variety of webpages. They
can give you ideas on creating your own themes, styles, etc.

[Michael Petch]

On 2012-09-01 22:44, Michael Petch wrote:
> Under code there is likely a button called "Specify". Click it. If there
> is no "Specify" button there is likely a drop down list, and a remove
> and add button. In the drop down box select "URL" and in the text entry
> box to the right of that enter:
>
> groups.google.com

Ooops just noticed a significant error for the Chrome instructions. "In
the drop down box select "URL" " should have been:

In the drop down box select "URLs on the domain"

The instructions I originally gave would not have resulted in any change.

[Tim Chow]

Thanks, Michael! I'm still hoping that Google Groups will bring back
the monospaced option...

---
Tim Chow

[Michael Petch]

On 2012-09-04 17:38, Tim Chow wrote:
> Thanks, Michael! I'm still hoping that Google Groups will bring back
> the monospaced option...
>

There have been requests to Google about this feature for some time for
the New Google Groups. I had noticed that alt.ascii-art has been vocal
about it. You'd think that this would be a no-brainer to implement. They
probably have a lot more pressing issues to deal with and low priority
items get done when there is time. Hopefully it will be sooner than never.

[Chris Alvino]

This thread was useful for me. For me, the code needed to change to something more like:

#inbdy, #cmp_body, #tm-tl {

font-family: monospace !important;
font-size: 90% !important;
/* font-size: 12pt !important; */
}

Note the addition of the #tm-tl. Otherwise, Michael's instructions were great. Just thought I'd update the group in case others run into the same issue.

[Tim Chow]

On Saturday, October 10, 2015 at 12:23:35 PM UTC-4, Chris Alvino wrote:
> This thread was useful for me. For me, the code needed to change to
> something more like:
>
> #inbdy, #cmp_body, #tm-tl {
> font-family: monospace !important;
> font-size: 90% !important;
> /* font-size: 12pt !important; */
> }
>
> Note the addition of the #tm-tl. Otherwise, Michael's instructions were
> great. Just thought I'd update the group in case others run into the
> same issue.

It may be worth noting that there is another workaround in Firefox, mentioned by michael (the other michael who posts here regularly). Under Options -> Content -> Fonts&Colors -> Advanced, choose a fixed-width font and then *uncheck* the box that says, "Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of my selections above."

---
Tim Chow