This isn’t the typical stumble button that shows/hides the StumbleUpon toolbar. This is the actual stumble button which loads random pages.
StumbleUpon is an excellent way to browse the web by randomly ’stumbling’ upon websites you probably have never heard of, based on your taste. Most modern browsers have plugins or extensions to facilitate the task of ’stumbling’, usually in the form of a clunky toolbar, such as StumbleUpon’s Official FireFox Extension. This toolbar works fine but might seem like overkill for many, adding what many think is an unnecessary toolbar full of many features one might not even use. It’s possible to disable/hide many of these features, but the toolbar remains, taking up vertical screen real-estate. After much dabbling around, I managed to hack up an easy way to make it so that it only shows the stumble button. Then you can move this button around to wherever you like. Here is the end result:
Stumble Button
To achieve this, you will need to of course have the StumbleUpon Official FireFox Extension installed, make a simple edit to about:config, and then add a userchrome style using the Stylish Extension.
First, install the StumbleUpon extension and go to its settings, which can be found by going to your add ons window and clicking on StumbleUpon, then Options. Now, make sure that it looks exactly like this:
StumbleUpon Settings
Once you have it like that, you should only have the stumble button and the thumbs up/down icons on the toolbar. Next, you will want to install Stylish. Once installed, go to the Stumble Button UserStyle Page and click the Load Into Stylish button, and confirm the action.
Finally, you will have to head over to about:config by copying and pasting that into the address bar, then hitting enter. Once there, type stumble.right-justify-width into the filter box, and you should get one result. Double click on it and set it to 0, then restart FireFox.
Upon restarting, you should now be able to move the button around to wherever you like, by right clicking anywhere on the menu bar (Like on the file menu) and hitting customize. Now you can click the stumble button to land on a random page based on your StumbleUpon settings (If you chose you like technology stuff, it’ll give you technology pages, or a combination of all your favorite categories, etc.).
If you would still like to be able to rate sites without having the thumbs up and down buttons, you can go to the StumbleUpon Extension settings and go to the Shortcuts tab. Enable the stumbling shortcuts and configure to your taste.
Or, you could right click the StumbleUpon toolbar, click customize, scroll to the bottom of the list of icons, drag the StumbleUpon button wherever you want, and then right click the toolbar again and click StumbleUpon toolbar to hide the toolbar. The button will remain. But hey, if you like messing around with about:config when it’s completely unnecessary, be my guest.
I’ve done this. I keep the toolbar in my file bar. I have the rating buttons and a couple others since there is room for them, and I like to support sites that are good.
Moving it around is simple and easy. Thanks to alerting people.
@Obvious Man: For a second I thought you outright pwned me, which I wouldn’t mind admitting, but you’re wrong. That only allows you to click the stumble button to be able to show/hide the stumbleupon toolbar. What I’ve done is made it so it only shows the STUMBLE button, meaning everytime I click that button, it loads a random stumble upon page. Unless I’m missing something?
Great post man!
@Obvious Man: next time you might wanna test your theory before you go public on the internet…. or you might just find yourself pwned! What you suggest only brings the Stumble Toolbar back. It does not do what the article suggests. Way to make yourself look like an idiot!
Or, since both these solutions seem a bit silly…
I have simply the Stumble Button, and the Thumbs Up/Down buttons. No text, no other buttons. I did this using the Stumbleupon Toolbar Options, making it match the image you have posted here. Then, with no changes to the config, or any additional extensions, I stuck that on my Menu bar, in roughly the position shown in your other picture (top-most bar, far right edge). Not sure why you’d need to make any other changes. The ability to position Stumble is built-in, and I’ve been able from Day One to stick it wherever I want.
haha, good post! I might try this, but for now i\’m happy with my Status Bar SU.
Kavar wrote:
Yeah, I’m not claiming to allow the ability to position the button, hah, that of course is built-in, as is with any other toolbar extension. Yours is fine if you have the space, but you’re also showing the thumbs up/down buttons, this is specifically for those who only want the stumble button.
Honestly, I can have every icon and text up there. The bar is nearly empty. I have space left over with all of the stuff.
Oh, and I managed to get that screwed up in the first place ’cause I misread your last paragraph about the feedback shortcuts.
Yeah, to each their own. Like I said, the reason I made this post is for those are obsessive about browsing space. For example, my FireFox is setup with only toolbars. It combines the reload/stop buttons, and only shows the back and forth buttons if they’re needed. The search box resizes as I type into it, saving space when it’s inactive. My menu is condensed into one button except for the menu’s I use a lot. Here’s a screenshot of what I’m talking about. This gives me a lot of browsing space, and everything is set up how I like it, it’s not like I’m compromising usability for space, this is actually more usable to me than the default setup.
Eh, I just hide the toolbar and use the keyboard shortcuts, much faster
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk175/onydag/cooltweak.jpg
I am showing just the stumble button and the thumbs-up & thumbs-down. That’s the way I wanted it. I achieved this by following the instructions above, moving my stumble button where I wanted it, and THEN disabling the Stylish Extension.
Maybe everybody does this, but I was happy to figure it out. Thanks for making a tweak.
-ony
@onyonydag@gmail.com: Cool! Glad you were able to make use of it