Helvetwitter Screenshot

If you have any comments or encounter any problem, please leave a comment under related blogpost or contact me directly at josef.richter@me.com

Please see also my portfolio at www.josefrichter.com

Known issues:

  • The userscript, reloads page every 5 minutes. If it reloads at the moment you are writting a tweet, it will get lost unfortunately. I may write some javascript test for the automatic reload to prevent it. Userscript is now updated. Thanks Ad Taylor for submitting the solution!
  • During reload, you may see the original ugly Twitter css for a second.
  • Twitter's css files are far from being clean and easy to understand. Thus my css based on them are far from perfect too. Although I have not encountered problems during 1 month of using it, there may be some.
  • I have not tested anything but the very basic Twitter functionality.

If you like Jon Hicks' Helvetireader and Ad Taylor's Helvetical, this is another attempt to build upon these designs.

Twitter success is based on the simplicity of the service. However, the website, as well as various standalone Twitter clients are becoming more and more cluttered with useless features and other junk. Therefore, I stripped it to the basics and now it's the first twitter client I am happy with.

The ideal way is to use Fluid to build a simple standalone Helvetwitter client.

Here is how to:

  • Fluid (mac only): If you don't have fluid, please get it here: Fluid.
    • Download my Helvetwitter 512px dock icon (right click and save - it's 512px icon, just displayed smaller here)
      Helvetwitter Icon
    • Donwload helvetwitter.user.js
    • Lauch Fluid.app. Set URL to http://www.twitter.com, Name to Helvetwitter, select the icon downloaded in previous step and click "Create"
    • Launch Helvetwitter.app. Press Ctrl-Cmd-N to create new userscript and call it Helvetwitter.
    • In newly opened window with some basic code, locate line with '// da yer thing'. Copy-paste everything from helvetwitter.user.js under this line.
    • Save, close, reload Helvetwitter.app and you should be done!
  • Mozilla Prism: I haven't tested it, but if you have Prism running with Grasemonkey, the installation should be pretty much the same as with Firefox
  • Firefox: If you have Greasemonky installed, just click this link: helvetwitter.user.js. If you don't have Greasemonkey yet, please get it here: Greasemonkey
  • Safari: Again, not tested yet. Basically you need Greasekit and then it should work the same as in Firefox
  • Chrome: I think some nightly builds now support userscripts, but haven't tried. If you are capable of running nightly builds, you would probably be able to implement Helvetwitter userscript anyway :-)
  • Opera: no idea to be honest. Anyone? Download helvetwitter.user.js, open Opera preferences and go to advanced-content-javascript options. Select the folder where your helvetwitter.user.js is located and you are done! Thanks Arve Bersvendsen, Christoph Boecken & Remco Lanting for submitting the solution!
  • Internet Explorer: guys, get a decent browser. I mean it.

Oh, one more thing...

..sitting in my computer. Anyone interested?
Please leave a comment under related blogpost ...

GOOD news: Helvetimail CSS is now complete and works like charm when added thru Web Developer Toolbar!

BAD news: I cannot make it work using userscript. Could someone help, please? Get in touch at josef.richter@me.com

Helvetimail is finally available at josefrichter.com/helvetimail

How my work for Studio Tomato in Olomouc still remains unpaid. - It's in Czech, so please use Google Translate