Bookmarklets for Zapping Annoyances

These bookmarklets help you deal with annoying web pages.

(To keep bookmarklets in order to use them on other web pages, drag them to your Bookmarks Toolbar. Or, install them all at once.)

Bookmarklet	Description	Works in
zap plugins	Removes java, flash, background music, and third-party iframes. Details
zap colors	Makes text black on a white background, and makes links blue and purple. Details
zap cheap effects	Neutralizes <marquee> and <blink>. Details
zap events	Removes event handlers, killing blind links and exit pop-up ads. Details
zap timers	Removes timers that were created with setTimeout or setInterval. Details
zap	Zaps plugins, colors, cheap effects, event handlers, and timers. Details
zap images	Replaces each image with its alternate text. Details
linearize	Linearizes the text of the page and removes most non-text elements. Details
printer friendly	Finds and follows a link to a "print-friendly" version of a page. Details
zap presentational html	Removes most presentational attributes and tags while leaving style sheets intact. Details
zap style sheets	Disables all style sheets. Details
zap cookies	Removes cookies set by the site, including cookies with paths and domains. Details
zap white backgrounds	Changes white and near-white backgrounds to tan. Details
restore context menu	Fixes pages that disable context menus. Details
restore selecting	Fixes pages that disable text selection. Details
remove redirects	Changes redirecting links to go directly to the "real" target. Details
lowercase	Makes body text and text in textareas all-lowercase. Details
deleet	Makes 1337 5p34|{ somewhat more readable. Details
force wrap	Fixes table layouts expanded by very long words. Details
trigger rollovers	Triggers JavaScript rollovers, fixing most mystery meat navigation. Details

Browsers: is Internet Explorer for Windows, is Netscape 7 or Mozilla, is Netscape 4, and is Opera.

Details

zap plugins (, , )

Removes java, flash, background music, and third-party iframes.

This bookmarklet recurses into frames and iframes when it can, but destroys third-party iframes, which it cannot recurse into.

This bookmarklet used to be called "zap embeds".

Based on "Remove Plugins" by Brent Marshall.

zap colors (, , )

Makes text black on a white background, and makes links blue and purple.

zap cheap effects (, )

Neutralizes <marquee> and <blink>.

Replaces marquees with non-scrolling divs and blink tags with non-blinking spans.

Suggested by Michael Hendy.

zap events (, , , )

Removes event handlers, killing blind links and exit pop-up ads.

Based on a Netscape 4 bookmarklet of the same name by Johan Sundström and updated to work in Internet Explorer and Mozilla.

This bookmarklet only zaps event handlers for 4 events: onmouseover, onmouseout, onunload, and onresize. I think these are the events most often used to annoy visitors. It is faster in Netscape 4 and Mozilla, which support "event capturing", than it is in Opera and Internet Explorer.

zap timers (, , , )

Removes timers that were created with setTimeout or setInterval.

zap ()

Zaps plugins, colors, cheap effects, event handlers, and timers.

A good place to test the first three functions is www.shockwave.com.

zap images (, , )

Replaces each image with its alternate text.

This lets you quickly see how a page might look with images turned off. It should also give you rough idea of how a page would look to a blind user or someone using a console (text-only) browser such as Links. For more information about providing text equivalents, see the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines for alternate text.

This bookmarklet only replaces <img> tags; it doesn't do anything to image buttons, background images, or image maps.

linearize (, )

Linearizes the text of the page and removes most non-text elements.

printer friendly (, , )

Finds and follows a link to a "print-friendly" version of a page.

zap presentational html (, , )

Removes most presentational attributes and tags while leaving style sheets intact.

Removes the following attributes: bgcolor, background, color, align, text, alink, vlink.

Removes the following tags (and any attributes on them): FONT, CENTER.

zap style sheets (, )

Disables all style sheets.

zap cookies (, , , )

Removes cookies set by the site, including cookies with paths and domains.

Doesn't work at slashdot.org in Netscape 4. Slashdot is unusual in setting its cookie at the domain "slashdot.org" rather than ".slashdot.org".

zap white backgrounds ()

Changes white and near-white backgrounds to tan.

Suggested by "Kilsis" on #mozillazine.

Bug fixed Oct 22, 2004: didn't work on pages with no background color set. Pointed out by jesus_X.

restore context menu (, , )

Fixes pages that disable context menus.

In Netscape 4 and IE, only works if the context-menu-blocking event is on window, document, or body. Luckily, most of these scripts put their events on one of these elements.

restore selecting (, )

Fixes pages that disable text selection.

In IE, only works if the text-selection-blocking event is on window, document, or body. Luckily, most of these scripts put their events on one of these elements.

Suggested by Jeff Moon.

remove redirects (, , , )

Changes redirecting links to go directly to the "real" target.

This bookmarklet uses two methods to determine the "real" target of a link.

• If the link URL contains another URL, as in http://example.com/redir.cgi?to=http://example.net/, the link becomes a link to http://example.net/.
• If the link has a mouseover effect, and the mouseover effect puts something in the status bar that looks like a full URL, the link gets that URL.

Based on a submission by Michael Roller and a suggestion from Guido Tonini.

lowercase (, )

Makes body text and text in textareas all-lowercase.

For example, it makes "clickwrap" contracts with ALL-CAPS sections easier to read.

deleet (, , )

Makes 1337 5p34|{ somewhat more readable.

Removes leetspeak ("/\/\" becomes "m", "4" becomes "a", etc) from and lowercases body text. Skips some ambiguous translations ("|o" to "b" or "p", "o|" to "d", "|" to "l" or "i") because doing an incorrect translation is worse than leaving it as leetspeak.

Requested by "eazycheeze".

force wrap (, )

Fixes table layouts expanded by very long words.

Works by adding non-standard <WBR> tags in the middle of the long words such as URLs. Test pages (at 800x600): 1 (IE and Mozilla), 2 (Mozilla only).

Mozilla/NS6 bugs: Text doesn't always rewrap immediately (243266). Workaround: use the "clone document" bookmarklet after using this one.

trigger rollovers (, , , )

Triggers JavaScript rollovers, fixing most mystery meat navigation.

© 2000-2007 Jesse Ruderman (jruderman@gmail.com). Feedback is welcome.
Last modified October 22, 2004.