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GreaseMonkey How-To Guide!

Note: This guide is written for beginners and only thing you are expected to know is how to install firefox extension. So read this post first if you are new to firefox and its extensions.

# Introduction

Greasemonkey is a Firefox extension for altering the web pages you visit. Greasemonkey performs these alterations using specially written javascript files called userscripts.

As a user, you need not worry about writing userscripts. There are plenty of places on internet where you can find millions of userscripts which alters the website you want, in a way you like! A list of such websites is provided at the end of this guide.

Now as a beginner you need to know few basics things first like…

• Installing GreaseMonkey Extension
• Installing GreaseMonkey Userscripts
• Managing GreaseMonkey Userscripts (e.g. Uninstalling)

# Installing GreaseMonkey Extension

Requirement: Greasemonkey is firefox extension, so it can run on every platform on which firefox runs (that includes Windows, Linux, Mac, etc). So all you need is firefox. There are Greasemonkey alternative for Internet Explorer and Opera but they performs very poorly and thus not recommended.

Now if you are in firefox then click here to install Greasemonkey extension! (You can also visit GreaseMonkey Addon Page)

Like other firefox extensions clicking on above should prompt a install now dialog as shown below…

Click on Install Now link. You need to restart you browser for installation to complete!

>> On successful installation (after restart), you should see Greasemonkey icon in lower-right corner of firefox browser

You must see Greasemonkey icon as shown above before proceeding!

# Installing GreaseMonkey Userscripts

Next comes important part of installing userscripts. Without userscripts Greasemonkey can’t do anything!

There are many place on internet where you can find userscripts. Normally a link to userscript ends with user.js extension.

Clicking on any such link will open a dialog like below. Just click Install button. Thats it!

You can also read this document describing this part in more detail as well as watch a slightly old video tutorial.

# Managing GreaseMonkey Userscripts (e.g. Uninstalling)

In three ways you can mange a userscript from Greasemonkey management console: disable, uninstall & reconfigure.

To bring Greasemonkey management console,

• either right click on Greasemonkey icon in lower-right corner and select Manage User Scripts option from context menu.
• or Go to firefox main menu and select Tools >> Greasemonkey >> Manage User Scripts option.

It will look like below…

Now carefully look at above screenshot. From one place you can control everything related to userscripts on your system…

The left sidebar shows list of all scripts installed. Note some names are faint. That indicated a disabled script.

To perform certain operation on a userscript first select that userscript from left sidebar. Once selected its name get highlighted as shown in above screenshot.

You can perform following operations on a userscript…

1. Disable - Disabling a userscript will make it inactive. It will remain on your PC but will not alter pages anymore. (Video Tutorial)
2. Uninstall - It will remove userscript completely from system. (Video Tutorial)
3. Reconfigure - It includes editing list of pages which a userscript supposed to alter. You will rarely need to use to this option. (Video Tutorial)

This covers most of the things from user perspective!

# Finally Some Greasemonkey Repositories…

• Userscripts.org
• Old Greasemonkey script repository
• List of userscripts developed by me

Credits: Part of this article and all video tutorials are by Dive Into Greasemonkey!

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