Testing Tricks: CSS Bookmarklets

Post from December 29, 2010 (↻ June 1, 2020), filed under Web Development.

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A quick tip: If you’re working in a complex development environment that does not allow you to fully test the impact of upcoming style sheet changes, a simple CSS bookmarklet containing all the changes or the new style sheet in its entirety can be a nice way to give other developers a chance to review changes in action before they’re actually live. (That was one sentence.)

Using CSS bookmarklets can be a particularly useful testing complement if you have not thought of or did not yet get to setting up a prototype for your site or framework, and if you can actually ask developers rather than less tech-savvy users to test in order to quickly get to qualified feedback or them to eventually prepare for adjustments on their own end.

Side note: Be cautious around style rules you are about to remove as they will still be in effect on pages to be tested. With a simple CSS bookmarklet you would need to “neutralize” such rules within the bookmarklet, eventually by explicitly setting initial values.

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I’m Jens Oliver Meiert, and I’m a web developer and author. I love trying things (sometimes involving philosophy, art, or adventure). Here on meiert.com I share some of my views and experiences.

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Comments (Closed)

On December 29, 2010, 8:06 CET, Greg said:
Jens,

Having no familiarity with CSS Bookmarklets, it sounds like this isn’t something I need if I run a development version of my work…

Or is this a tool that can compliment development environment?
On January 3, 2011, 21:37 CET, Brian said:
Wouldn’t Greasemonkey be a little more modern way to achieve this?

Have a look at the most popular posts, possibly including:

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