With the move of everything back to jimmitchell.org, I decided to use the Google Apps Standard Edition (free) to manage my email, calendaring, et al. The one thing that bugged me the most was the extra ads and other fluff in Gmail that was visually distracting. Because of that, I resorted to using Firefox with the Better Gmail add-on, or Google Chrome with the Better Gmail extension. While they were great, I still wanted my email in a separate app, mostly because I have a habit of quitting my browser when I’m done using it (this goes back to my System 6 days probably).

I’ve been a long time user of the very awesome Mailplane by Ruben Bakker, but was always a little bugged by the afore mentioned ads and other fluff. Because of it, I’d flop back and forth between browser and Mailplane use.

I’m happy to say that I’ve finally solved this dilemma by releasing my very own Mailplane Clean CSS style sheet. This is basically a rework of some styles that are part of the Google Chrome Better Gmail (Unofficial) extension, with the addition of others that I wanted (like making the bottom button bar go away).

The best way to see what it does is download the stylesheet archive, and set Mailplane to use the custom stylesheet in “Preferences > Tweak UI > Custom Stylesheet.” Then restart Mailplane and bask in the awesome goodness. I promise, if you’re a Mailplane user, you’ll like this stylesheet. It makes everything about the Gmail UI so much cleaner.

I will probably add the file to the “mailplaneapp” Google Group in the near future, so keep an eye out for it there if you prefer. If you have any questions or comments about the stylesheet, drop me a line through my contact page.