Lens Workshop Addon for Firefox
Ranked #26 in Squidoo Community, #2,288 overall
Enhance Your Squidoo Experience!
This addon for Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome incorporates extra features into the Lens Workshop and a few other pages on Squidoo. The most significant improvements are: Lensrank updates, colored tags, detailed stats, integrated ping, and more...
Updated 7th March, 2012 - Version 2.53
Jump to installation instructions for Firefox and Chrome
Got IE or Safari? Get the Squidoo Toolbar instead...
Ping Lens After Publishing

Whenever you publish a lens, an extra link is added to the box at the top of page: "Ping lens". This will notify a variety of search engines and blog aggregation services that your lens has been updated. The best time to click on this is just after publishing a lens for the first time, or after doing some major rewriting of it. If you've only made a really small change to the lens, then it's probably not worth doing a ping.
Color Coded Tag Editor

When editing the tags for a lens, each one is color-coded depending on it's popularity.
100+ - lots lenses use this tag
21 - 99 - some lenses use this tag
5 - 20 - a few lenses use this tag
2 - 5 - not many lenses use this tag
zero or 1 - no other lenses use this tag
New in version 1.8: underneath the tags will be a list of suggested tags, based on what other similar lenses use for theirs.
It is best to pick tags that are popular, as it increases the number of lenses that your lens will appear on via the Discovery Tool. Make sure that any keywords you pick are directly related to your lens. Avoid using 'long tail keywords' as these will add no value.
For more tips on tags, read Making the Most of Squidoo Tags.
Access to Tools in the Sidebar

One new box is added to the sidebar on the right of the workshop. The box is titled "SquidUtils.com", and it is opened by default. This box contains links to some of the tools on SquidUtils, and will open in a new tab or window.
Edit Dashboard Labels

Dashboard Labels are a great way to organise your lenses in to groups so they are easier to manage. Now, you can assign your lenses to labels within the Workshop itself.
Link to Any Module...

At the top of every module there two extra links: [#link] and [Top]. 'Top' takes you to the top of the workshop, while '#link' to that module when it is published, so that you can provide a link to it from elsewhere on your lens. Simply right-click on the #link, and select 'Copy Link Location' from the menu.
Main Dashboard
At the top of the main dashboard, above the list of lenses, a small graphic will notify you when Lensrank has been updated:In the sidebar, you will find a bunch of links:
Login to SquidUtils - automatically login to SquidUtils
Advanced Dashboard - jump directly to your list of lenses
Lensmaster RSS Feed - get all your lenses in a RSS feed
Check For New Script - get the latest version of the addon
More Detailed Lens Stats
Summary of Lensrank and Traffic

Click-through Stats

When you view the stats for one of your lenses, you'll see some extra links a features:
- just below the lens title, there's a new 'Edit' link that goes directly to the workshop.
- below the graphs is a table showing the actual traffic and Lensrank from the charts.
- the Traffic tab will show the total click-throughs, and calculate the CTR.
How To Install The Addon
Step by step instructions
for Firefox and Chrome
Get The Workshop Addon for Firefox
in 2 easy steps...
- Install the Greasemonkey plugin and then restart Firefox.
(Skip this step if you've already done this before, and are just upgrading)

When successfully installed, you will see a monkey face on your status bar.

- Click on this link to install the script. You should see this popup window:
(if you get a screen full of text instead, check step 1 again)

Click on the Install button, and you're done!
No need to restart - just go to your Dashboard to see the improvements...
You can also use the Cleaner SquidU script for an improved interface on the forum.
Get The Workshop Addon for Google Chrome
If you prefer to use Google Chrome instead of Firefox, then here's how to install it:
- Click on this link and then click the 'Continue' button that appears at the bottom of the window.

- Next, confirm that you do want to install this addon:

- That's it! You should see the new features on your Dashboard and Workshop.
Tested in Chrome version 7.0
You can also use the Cleaner SquidU script for an improved interface on the forum.
More Great Tools for Lensmasters
Love This Lens?
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Lensmaster Feedback
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kaazoom
May 23, 2012 @ 4:09 am | delete
- This looks really cool. Thank you for developing these tools
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CCGAL May 7, 2012 @ 7:49 pm | delete
- Had to start usin' Chrome - so I'm super happy to see you've included it. Thanks!
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DarleneN
Apr 3, 2012 @ 5:12 pm | delete
- I've used this to update two of my lenses so far. This is an amazing tool! Hope to see more traffic after optimizing my lenses. Thanks!
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notimetoulouse
Apr 2, 2012 @ 9:51 am | delete
- works like a charm on FF for Mac too
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VinceErrichiello
Mar 27, 2012 @ 8:27 pm | delete
- That was a very persuasive lens. I just downloaded the Chrome version of Lensmaster Tools and Utilities and it is really useful. Thanks for the information!
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Tipi
Mar 20, 2012 @ 6:29 pm | delete
- Thanks again Fluff. Just had to reinstall, for FireFox.
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mediawizard
Mar 11, 2012 @ 7:51 am | delete
- Great lens I use the workshop add-on always to add tags
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ilike2create
Mar 6, 2012 @ 11:35 am | delete
- Wow thank you, I never knew something like this existed. I am using firefox right now so it could be really useful.
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lovegrowth
Mar 1, 2012 @ 3:10 pm | delete
- Ever since I updated my tags are not color coding or suggesting tags. This was my favorite feature. I am using chrome
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thefluffanutta Mar 8, 2012 @ 10:27 am | delete
- There is a new version of the addon for you.
Visit http://www.squidoo.com/lens-workshop-addon to upgrade.
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AcornHaven
Feb 29, 2012 @ 2:34 pm | delete
- Great I did not know this existed I will be using it regularly
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JEMArtistry
Feb 28, 2012 @ 2:35 pm | delete
- This looks like a great addon! I am definately trying this! Thanks for providing all this information (and building them!)!
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curious0927
Feb 13, 2012 @ 12:48 pm | delete
- I love the Lens Workshop Addon!!!! However, I updated to version 5.1 and I show 2 Lensmaster Tools and Utilties on the right side of of my editing lens. Is this normal?
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thefluffanutta Feb 20, 2012 @ 6:18 am | delete
- Sounds like you may have both the Chrome and Firefox versions installed. Check your Extensions page, and uninstall the old one.
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kievan
Feb 13, 2012 @ 7:51 am | delete
- I've looked at the source code of the workshop script and it is an amazing effort on your part!! Also the bonus script for the squidu forum is a great addition. Thanx!
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About thefluffanutta
by thefluffanutta
I write about what I know, and I build tools for Lensmasters at SquidUtils.com. Read more about me on my Lensography, and follow me on twitter. more »
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