Minimize Navigation in Google Webapps

By jetxee — Last update Feb 12, 2013 — Installed 991 times.

Script Summary: Hide search and navigation bar in popular Google webapps: Gmail, Calendar, Reader, Groups, Translate, and Google+. Reclaim vertical screen space. Toggle button allows to bring back Google bars with just one click.



Version: 1.1

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Why you need this

Today most screens are wide or ultra-wide. Vertical screen space is precious. Every extra toolbar or navigation menu reduces the available screen space. Google design is particularly bad: in addition to OS-level and browser-level horisontal user-interface elements (task bar, window title, tabs, address bar), Google adds at least three more bars in most of its products (+You menu, search bar, and context-sensitive tool bar). The first two are rarely used, but occupy as much as 9% of a typical modern screen. Install this script, and enjoy Gmail and other Google webapps as if you had a bigger screen.

Description

Minimize Navigation in Google Webapps script hides +You menu and search bar in

  • Gmail
  • Google Calendar
  • Google Reader
  • Google Groups
  • Google Translate
  • Google+

It creates a new narrow button which allows to show hidden tool bars when you need them (like if you want to search in Gmail). When you don't need them, the same button allows to collapse Google tool bars again.

screenshot

Similar scripts

This script duplicates functionality of the other scripts which target separate webapps:

Known problems

I don't know how to make this script work on Google Drive. Google Drive uses a different design, and intercepts all mouse clicks, so the toggle button doesn't work. This script is not enabled by default on Google Drive. Please let me know if you resolve this problem.

<strike>Content panels in Reader are not expanded vertically when Google bars are hidden. My workaround is to press f twice (toggle full-screen mode).</strike> -- It should be fixed in 1.1.

Version history

Version 1.1:

  • adjust height of of some elements in Reader and Gmail.

Version 1.0:

  • initial release.