Build a Graphical Speed Dial for Seamonkey (and others)

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DaveS
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Build a Graphical Speed Dial for Seamonkey (and others)

#1 Post by DaveS »

Most browsers have a speed dial option these days, Chrome, Opera, Midori etc., but this facility is missing in Seamonkey and Firefox. Firefox has add-ons which will do the job, but as far as I know, so far, Seamonkey does not. This post describes how to build one for yourself.
This is what we are aiming for, each graphic is a clickable link, bookmark if you like, to the site displayed:

Image

As we will see, although building it from scratch is a little more fiddly, the final result is WAY more useful.
So to begin. First, create for yourself a working directory, something simple and easy to find, say, /root/dial.
Next, open Seamonkey Composer menu>document>Seamonkey Composer. You will be presented with a new blank document. Composer works like a word processor. It is not drag and drop. This next step is important: use the spacebar to move the cursor across the page maybe three spaces or so, then from the menu, select 'save'. Composer will present you with a box asking for a page title. Call it whatever you wish (this is what will appear in the tab title when you are using it) I usually opt for Speed-Dial. Select 'ok'. You will then be given another box asking for the file name to save and the location. IMPORTANT: call the file index.html and save it in the directory you created.
Ok, you are now ready to start building. You will find it easiest to switch to another desktop now, leaving Composer open on the first desktop.
On the second desktop, load Seamonkey browser and navigate to the web site you want to use as your first dial. Maybe this forum, or googlemail, whatever. When the page is loaded,
1)Highlight the page address in the location bar and copy to the clip board
2)Take a screenshot. (menu>graphic>mtpaint screen capture)
3)The screenshot should load into Mtpaint automatically.
4)From the Mtpaint menu, select image>scale canvas.
5)From the pop-up box, re-scale your image to something that will allow a number of graphics to be fitted across your screen. I have a 1280x760 screen width, so 200 works pretty well for me.
6)Re-scale and save the image as something recognisable (Puppyforum?) in the working directory you created.
7)Return to desktop 1 and from the Composer menu, choose insert image. From the pop-up, navigate to your screenshot and select it
8)You will see a pop-up window like this:

Image

Fill in the 'alternate text' box, then click on the 'Link' Tab. That will take you here:

Image

Paste in the url you previously copied to the clipboard, and you have created your first graphical bookmark :) I usually opt to add a border in this dialogue as I like the way it looks.

OK out of the dialogue and save your work.

Just repeat this as often as you want for as many dials as you like.

At any time later you can re-load index.html into Composer and edit it as you wish.
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DaveS
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Using Your Speed-Dial

#2 Post by DaveS »

Using it,Simple. Just set it as you home page in your browser preferences. Set your browser to load with the home-page selected, then any time you return to your home page you will have your speed dial bookmarks available. If your browser supports it, select to load it when a new tab is loaded.

So why is this more useful than a built in speed dial?

Again, simple. You can use this with any browser you have on your system. It is not browser specific. If you are using Frugal installations of a number of Pups, shift the working directory to /mnt/home, and you can then access it from all browsers in all pups you have installed. Also, a single speed dial installation means any time you edit it, it will be available in its latest form to all your browsers/pups.
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DaveS
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#3 Post by DaveS »

Further Thoughts

Refer back to the first image in the post. You will see that the top right speed-dial shortcut has a number of small images. This is actually a shortcut to another page of shortcuts, created just like the first one. This way, you can set up categories of bookmarks.

What you have actually done here is create a little web site on your pc. It will load very fast from your hard drive, which built-in speed-dials do not always do. If you are clever with HTML, I guess you could build in all kinds of functionality.
I guess you could also publish it to the web if you have the resources so that your bookmarks would be available to you from any pc on the planet :)

It seems fiddly and lengthy to set this up, but once you get in the swing of it, it is surprisingly quick to do. If you have a drag and drop HTML editor it would be even easier, and dont forget, as this is HTML, it should work cross-platform.
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#4 Post by DaveS »

Finally, if you want to use it, this little .pet will put the directory/root/dial onto your hard drive with the page we made here as a 'get you started'.
Attachments
Speedial.pet
(24.07 KiB) Downloaded 694 times
Last edited by DaveS on Fri 05 Nov 2010, 13:39, edited 1 time in total.
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01micko
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#5 Post by 01micko »

Nice tutorial Dave. :)

Cheers
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John Lewis
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#6 Post by John Lewis »

Nicely done tutorial. I'll be giving it a try.

I don't manage to spend a lot of time on this forum so it's always great to look in and find something new. Id never even heard of speed dial on a browser until now.

John Lewis

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Colonel Panic
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#7 Post by Colonel Panic »

Thanks for this thread. A speed dial facility could save me some time in the mornings (I could load my favourite sites automatically whilst getting ready in the morning, preparing breakfast etc.).

Best,

CP .
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#8 Post by harii4 »

could not get the speed dial.pet to work.
changed the .pet to an .tar and look into the folder and it was empty.
very cool

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DaveS
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#9 Post by DaveS »

harii4 wrote:could not get the speed dial.pet to work.
changed the .pet to an .tar and look into the folder and it was empty.
very cool
Huh. Looks like you are right! No clue what happened to it. Will build it again and upload it tonight.
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Makoto
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#10 Post by Makoto »

Seems to be okay, to me... I even opened it in PeaZip, to be sure.

Remember that a .pet isn't usually a renamed .tar, but a gzipped file (in this case, .tgz or .tar.gz). That's why the archivers probably didn't see anything - it didn't find what it expected to see in a .tar file.
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#11 Post by harii4 »

i should have also stated that i checked .packages folder and open speeddial.files up and it was blank.
then i did the .tar thing
might have been an bad download but i redownload it two days later and it was the same.
if it works now that great.
and it is an cool app. for dillo.

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Makoto
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#12 Post by Makoto »

How did it not work? What is the size of the file you downloaded?

Did the Package Manager claim it installed correctly, or that there were problems with it?
If it 'installed,' did it create the /dial directory, with the files in it?
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#13 Post by DaveS »

OK, re-uploaded, tested, working :)
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tony
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#14 Post by tony »

Thanks very much Daves for the tutorial. It worked well for me and I used it to create my first HTML page.

I would like to extend your method by putting in a link that would execute mozmail and bring up my in-box.

Does anyone know what this link would be.

Regards Tony.

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#15 Post by DaveS »

tony wrote:Thanks very much Daves for the tutorial. It worked well for me and I used it to create my first HTML page.

I would like to extend your method by putting in a link that would execute mozmail and bring up my in-box.

Does anyone know what this link would be.

Regards Tony.
You dont need to Tony. Open Seamonkey and look down on the status bar, bottom left. Click on the little envelope icon to open your mail app.
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#16 Post by tony »

Hi DaveS,

That wasn't exactly what I had in mind.

I want to open my E-mail inbox with one click and increase my Knowledge of HTML linking.

Regards Tony

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#17 Post by DaveS »

tony wrote:Hi DaveS,

That wasn't exactly what I had in mind.

I want to open my E-mail inbox with one click and increase my Knowledge of HTML linking.

Regards Tony
I guess you are not using webmail like Googlemail/Yahoomail?
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#18 Post by trapster »

From the firefox speed dial webpage, right click on the download button and chose "save link as". save the .xpi file somewhere.
Then open seamonkey and drag the .xpi file into the browser window.
You will now have speed dial in the monkey :)
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#19 Post by tony »

Thanks trapster,

But if I did that I would be putting my whole browsing history in the hands of google.

Regards Tony

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#20 Post by trapster »

The history is there using speed dial or not. Of course you can erase your history every time you use it.
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