This Article Will Make You A Smart Chrome User

Using Google Chrome ? Hey, that’s cool buddy !

See, using Google Chrome is lot different from using Internet Explorer, because you get a truck load of features !!

If we were to use Chrome and do not know about its cool features, we were better off with IE or any other browser. But since you have made the decision to use Google Chrome, let us take the most out of it,

you are about to become a  Google Chrome Power User.

But wait, What is the Deal About “Power User”

A power user is a user of a personal computer who has the ability to use advanced features of programs which are beyond the abilities of “normal” users, but is not necessarily capable of programming and system administration, says wikiepedia.

Yes, the deal is about to be more than a “normal” user of Google Chrome. Let us learn few simple tricks to be a power user.

Pin Tabs – For your most, most visited websites ~

Imagine this, you have 10 tabs open. Out of this, first three are gmail, google reader and twitter. Now, you need this tabs open whenever you are online. You will open this when you start your browsing, and keep it open till you finish your session.

All of us have few websites like this we need open when we open our browser, stay there without consuming lots of space …. silent and doing their job well.

Pinned tabs can help you ! Right click on a tab, select “Pin Tab” and you will have this page open whenever you open google chrome.

Sync Everything ~

Google Chrome can sync your Bookmarks, Autofil, themes, preferences, Applications, Extensions and History on multiple computers. You just need to enable this on settings page by entering your google login ID and password.

This will help you have the same set of extensions, preferences etc on multiple systems. One of my personal favorites because I use windows, linux and google chrome os on multiple machines. This feature saved by life when I had to re-install chrome on a computer once. Set up sync again, and I am back in business !!

Bonus Tip : Use a passphrase to save your sync data more securely.

Bookmarks Toolbar Hack to Have More Links ~

Bookmarks toolbar is where we usually keep our favorite links. But for many of you, the space will be over by the time you put 4 or 5 links. Now, think about this – for some websites, do you really need the name on the bookmarks bar to identify them ?  their favicon is enough right ? ( the little icon that you see on the address bar for most websites. ) Here, have a look how I have arranged them

Here is how to do this.

Paste and Search  & Paste and Go – Quick and Smart ~

1. Paste and Search

When you copy a word or a sentence from a webpage, and right click on the omnibar ( address bar ) after it, you will see “Paste and Search”. If you select this option, google chrome will automatically start a search using that word or sentence, saving you a mouse click, or a key stroke. So, next time, do not copy > paste > search, instead, copy > Paste and Search !

2. Paste and Go

This is similar to Paste and Search. Here, when you copy a URL from a webpage, and then right click on the omnibar or the addressbar, you can choose “Paste and Go”, to save a mouse click or a key stroke, making google chrome to load that page faster.

Copy A Website Name and Click “GO”

On Google Chrome when you select text and right click, if it is a website’s name, it will automatically give you an option “Go” on right click. Select this to open the website in a new tab, ands you can save the time of copying and pasting it on a new tab.

Ctrl + Shift + V Pastes Plain Text

Alongside the common Ctrl-V keyboard shortcut for “paste”, Google Chrome supports a similar shortcut, Ctrl-Shift-V, for “paste as plain text”. (And it’s Command-Shift-Option-V on a Mac.)

You can use this shortcut in any rich text editor (like Gmail’s compose window, or when writing in Google Docs) to strip out all the presentation from the original source and just paste in a block of text.

Move Tabs To Left

Interesting right ? Tabs on the left side of the screen ? This feature is coming to Chrome very soon. You will just right click and select “Side Tabs”

Cool Chrome Trick : Open New Tab from Addressbar

It works like this, suppose you have google.com open on a tab, and you want to open yahoo.com on another tab, what you usually do is, open a new tab by clicking the ‘+’icon,  and type in the address, and hit enter.  Right ?

Instead of this, what if you could type in yahoo.com on the current tab ( where you have google.com open ) hit ALT and Enter key together, and open it on a different tab ? In other words, you are on a tab, you enter a different address or a search keyword on the addressbar, and you get it open in a new tab.

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ps: this page is a work in progress . please let me know if you have any suggestions !!

image from livingos