Chrome tips
Search something quickly from a page
Select a word or phrase on the page and right-click it. Choose Search Google for ‘selected word or phrase.’
Use private mode
Open Chrome and press command + shift + N to open a new incognito window. Whatever you browse in this window will not be saved as history, cookies, or site data.
Create website shortcuts in the Launchpad
- Visit the desired site using Chrome and click the three vertical dots icon at the top-right.
- Click More Tools → Create Shortcut → Create. You will see the shortcut for this website in your Mac Launchpad (where all other Mac app icons are). To Delete this shortcut: Press command + spacebar to open Spotlight and search for Chrome Apps. Open the folder and delete the app icon.
Use URL address bar for simple mathematical calculations and conversions
The Chrome Omnibar is a handy place for basic calculations and conversions. You can say it is a tiny version of your Mac’s Spotlight Search. Type 78/3 or 60 feet to inches and things like this in the URL address bar. You will immediately see the answer below.
Search for your emails from the Omnibar
- Click Chrome in the top menu bar and choose Preferences.
- Click Search engine in the left Sidebar.
- Next, Manage search engines.
- Click Add next to Other search engines.
- Give a name and keyword. In URL, copy-paste this https://mail.google.com/mail/ca/u/0/#search/%s and click Add.
- Type the keyword in the address bar and then click Search Gmail. Next, enter your search term to see the results from your Google mail. Nice. Isn’t it!
Run Windows software
As we can now run Linux on Chromebook, we can use the Linux app called wine to run Windows app on the Chromebook. Windows have a great collection of apps than Linux and we can install apps like Photoshop, Brave Browser, etc which are not even available for Linux. As these Windows apps are working on Linux and Linux is working on Chrome OS in a virtual box kind of setup, these apps have few lags and work great only on powerful Chromebooks like Pixelbooks. To install, open the terminal and run the command
sudo apt-get install wine
Wine will only work on the intel based Chromebooks but not on ARM-based Chromebooks. Wine is also available as an Android app, which can be installed on any Chromebook and work perfectly, but it can only install Windows RT apps.
Get app-store for Linux apps
Enabling Linux brings new features and software to Chromebook, but installing Linux apps is a bit hefty process and you need to use the terminal to install any Linux apps. But we can get Gnome Software Center which can act like an app store for Linux. To install, open the terminal and run the command
sudo apt-get install gnome-software gnome-packagekit
If you aren’t seeing any apps on the store, try these 2 commands and then reboot
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist upgrade
Run Linux apps
Some Chromebooks can even run Linux. But it is not supported on all the devices, so it’s a good idea to first, check if your Chromebook supports Linux. If it does, it opens the door for a lot of possibilities and now you can install many professional apps like GIMP, Kdenlive, etc. To Enable, open system settings and click on the ‘turn on’ button beside Linux. You will get a terminal in your app drawer which can be helpful to install Linux apps. Here are some of the best Linux apps you should try on your Chromebook and how to install them.
Resize Text Areas
Click and drag the bottom-right corner of text areas to resize them. For example, if you are submitting a comment on a website and the text area is small, you can resize it. Note: This will be available only on supported fields.
Use the address bar for basic calculations
You might have used Google.com for basic calculations. If you search 4+6 on Google, you will see the answer and also a calculator. You can do similar calculations from Chrome’s address bar. To try this, enter a simple calculation into the address bar. For example, try 10+10. You will immediately see the answer.