Below is a collection of some useful Chrome tips to help enhance your productivity while browsing the web. I particularly compiled the tips with teachers and educators in mind but these can work for anyone keen on tapping into the hidden potential of Chrome browser. I curated these tips from Google Chrome Help and Google Chrome Tips.
Some of the things you will get to do using these chrome tips include:
- Bookmark all your opened tabs at once
- Fill out and save PDFs without losing your edits
- Sync Chrome across your laptop and phone
- Create Chrome shortcuts to your favorite sites
- Create tab groups
- Clear browsing data
- Search your open tabs in Chrome
- Share pages with a QR Code
- Create a shareable link to specific highlighted text on a page
- Download web pages to read offline
1- Bookmark all your tabs at once
Chrome allows you to bookmark all your open tabs by simply using the Bookmarks button. Here is how to do it:
- "At the top right, click More .
- Click Bookmarks.
- Click Bookmark All Tabs."
2- Fill out and save PDFs without losing your edits
You can easily fill out a PDF form and save your input so that when you reopen the same PDF you will be able to pick up where you left off. Here is how it works:
- "Fill out the PDF in your browser.
- Click Download .
- Select either the “Original” or “Edited” version".
3- Sync Chrome across your laptop and phone
Syncing enables you to access your Chrome bookmarks, history, passwords, usernames..etc across different devices. Syncing requires you to have a Google account. Here is how to use syncing:
- "Sign in to Chrome with your Google account.
- At the top right, click More .
- Click Settings.
- Under "You and Google," click Sync and Google services."
4- Create Chrome shortcuts to your favorite sites
This allows you to save time accessing the sites you frequently visit. Here is how to use this feature:
- "Open a new tab.
- At the bottom right, click Customize.
- Click Shortcuts."
5- Create tab groups
This is one of my favourite Chrome features. If you are like me having dozens of tabs opened at the same time, creating a tab group will help you keep relevant content and websites in one workspace. Here is how to create a tab group:
- "Right-click a tab.
- Click Add Tab to new group.
- Click New Group or click the name of an existing tab group."
6- Clear browsing data
If for whatever reason you do not want Chrome to keep a record of you browsing history, you can use this shortcut to remove it:
- "Windows, Chrome OS & Linux: Ctrl + Shift + Delete
- Mac: Command + Shift + Delete."
7- Search your open tabs in Chrome
This feature lets you quickly find a specific tab within all the tabs opened on your Chrome.
- Open Chrome Chrome.
- "Next to the address bar, select Tab search .
- Enter the name of a site or a related word.
- To go to the open tab or close the tab, select the name of the site."
8- Share pages with a QR Code
You can share web pages in the form of QR codes. Here is how to generate QR Codes for pages you want to share:
- "On your computer, open Chrome.
- Go to the page you want to share.
- At the top, select the address bar.
- Select QR Code .
- You can either copy the QR link or scan the QR Code with another device’s camera."
9- Create a shareable link to specific highlighted text on a page
Chrome lets you highlight a portion of text on any web page and right click it to generate a shareable link. Clicking on the generated link will take you right to the highlighted text on that page. Certain websites do not support this functionality though. Here is how it works:
- "On your computer, open Chrome.
- Go to a page with text you want to share.
- To highlight the text you want to share, click and hold, then drag your mouse.
- To open the context menu, right-click on the highlighted text.
- Select Copy link to highlight.
- Paste the link anywhere, like an email or message thread."
10- Download web pages to read offline
You can download web pages from Chrome right to your computer and read them later offline. This is especially helpful when you plan to go somewhere where there is no Internet connection or when you are in a plane. To download a web page you need to be online. Here is how it works:
- "On your computer, open Chrome.
- Go to a page you want to save.
- At the top right, click More ➔ More and then More Tools and then Save page as.
- Choose where you want to save the page.
- Click Save."
