If you use Google Chrome as your primary web browser, I hope that you're familiar with Chrome extensions. What are Chrome extensions?
Well, they are additional add-ons which give your browser some superpower, some additional functionality which the browser can't perform on its own. Now if you already have a few extensions installed, you will most likely see their icon here in the top right-hand corner of your browser.
But here I'm in the Chrome Web Store, which I encourage you to visit, and you can browse the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Chrome extensions. Now some extensions may be related to tools or apps that you already use, and some you may have never heard of before.
But in today's video, I want to share with you five of my favorite Chrome extensions. We're gonna get things started with Panda.
Panda
Panda is a fantastic way to browse the websites or the blog websites that you frequent most often. There's an awful lot of new articles, a number of things that you may want to browse on a daily basis, but Panda makes it so much easier for you to do so in just a single page.
So let me give you a lay of the land. On the left-hand side, you will see a column where I have a number of websites including things like Medium, Fast Company, and I've got Seth Godin's blog here.
Then I've got some additional blogs that I've added down below. I've got Trello, I've got Lifehacker, things like that.
Now in the middle part of your screen, you can see I've got a bit of a summary of what's going on in one of those pages. So for example, if I click on Medium here, I can see some of the most popular articles on Medium right now.
I see the title and a little bit of additional information on the top six or so popular articles. Well, if I scroll down here, I see, "Oh, how to fall asleep quickly and wake up ready to be productive."
That sounds interesting. I'm going to click on it, and instead of just going to that site, on the right-hand side of my screen, I actually go directly to that article.
I can read it right here. I don't have to go anywhere else, and I can quickly jump back to something else here on the left-hand side of the screen.
Maybe I want to quickly browse what's going on on the Trello blog. Well, I can do so.
Here are the latest articles. I can see how many hours or days ago they were published, and I can select any one of them and go directly to that article.
So this can be a very efficient way for you to review all of those websites. These could be news websites; they could just be some of your favorite websites that you would like to browse all in one central place.
Mercury Reader
Now the next extension I want to share with you is called Mercury Reader, and it does something that's also gonna help you improve the way that you read and consume articles on the web. So here I've pulled up a recent article here, and you'll notice something that is very familiar in our online world.
There's a lot of stuff going on. I mean, here's the article, which is only taking up about 60% of my screen, but I've got advertisements and I've got invitations to sign up.
A lot of colorful things; it can be really, really distracting. Well, with the Mercury Reader Chrome extension installed, I'm going to go up here to the top right-hand corner, and I'm gonna select Mercury Reader.
In just a moment, what does it do? It streamlines everything.
In fact, it removes everything else on the page except for the article itself. So now I can focus on this article.
I can perhaps enjoy reading this article a little bit more as I scan, as I go through this item. Now if I want to go back to the original page, all I have to do is click anywhere outside here in the grey area, and then it will return me to the original view.
I'm back to the website. I can browse as I was before.
But Mercury Reader can be a great way for you to focus in on that article if you don't want additional popups, if you don't want all the additional noise which is thrown at you. You can try out Mercury Reader.
Full Page Screen Capture
Now the third one in our list has to do with capturing images and especially if you want to capture more than just what you see. I know for myself, once in a while, when I am trying to either redesign my website or try to get a bit of a bigger picture of what someone's homepage or a particular web page looks like, I'd like to get a snapshot of the entire thing.
So here I've come across a website that I'd like to get a snapshot of the entire page, not just bit by bit. So what I've installed is a Chrome extension called Full Page Screen Capture.
It's actually this little camera icon that you see here. Whenever you're on a website or a web page in which you would like to take a snapshot of the entire thing, simply click this icon.
In just a few seconds, it's gonna take a screen grab of everything. I want to note the little Pacman status icon there.
I really like that. That's very entertaining.
But in just a few seconds now, I have a PNG image here of the entire website. Now I can review the entire thing here.
This would basically look just like the normal website, but you can see it's actually captured the entire thing. At this stage, I can download it as a PDF, or I can download it as a PNG image.
I can reference it later; maybe I want to mock up some things. I want to add some text or add some things as I'm collaborating with others on my team.
So a very simple add-on, a very simple extension. It may not be applicable to everyone, but whenever you are wanting to capture an entire webpage, very easily put it in a PDF or create an image out of it, you can use the Full Page Screen Capture.
Grammarly
Now moving on, the next two extensions in my list have to do with writing. We've looked at reading; we've looked at capturing images; let's see how we can improve our writing.
Now in this example, I've opened up an email. I start to write or craft an email to someone else, but you will notice that there's a few underlined words in red.
Now we're probably used to seeing this in a number of word processing applications. It usually means that you have a spelling mistake.
Yes, indeed, I do have a spelling mistake in this particular example. What I am using right now is an extension called Grammarly.
Now Grammarly has been heavily marketed over the last two years or so. I'll admit, I was a little hesitant to install Grammarly and try it out.
But you know what? After I started using it after a couple of days, I really couldn't see myself going on without it because it's a very simple user interface.
It's helped me to write better whether it's an email, whether it's an article, or even if I'm just in social media. What Grammarly has done here, it's highlighted a few words that it thinks I may have spelt incorrectly or perhaps I am using poor or incorrect grammar.
So let's go through it one by one. The first one, "follow-up," it's suggesting that, you know what, there really should be a space.
There's no such thing as a word "follow-up" without the space. But what I really like about it is that I didn't even have to click on this.
I didn't have to right-click on it, which we were used to when it comes to spelling mistakes and other applications. I just need to hover over it; it gives me the suggestion, and I can say, "Oh yeah, yeah, 'follow-up,' please, that's what I meant."
So let's move on. What else happened over here?
It actually, for a second there, it seemed to have ignored my "together" there for a moment. So there, I meant to say "together," but in this case, I put an "i," and here I can select the correct format there.
Lastly, I have the incorrect form of "to." There should be "to" with two "o"s, so I'm going to hover over that.
Remember, this happens once in a while, probably doesn't happen too often to me, but whether it's "to" or whether it's "your" or "you're," you know, those things do creep up as we're trying to be efficient with our writing. So here I'm going to select the proper or the correct form of "to."
The other nice thing about Grammarly is that you can actually add your own words. So for example, I have added the word "Simpletivity" to my dictionary.
Most applications are gonna look at this word and say that it's incorrect because it's my business name; it's an original name. But you can add that, so as I'm adding this to my social media posts, as I'm adding it elsewhere, it's not going to flag this as incorrect.
Now the last one, the fifth and final extension I want to share with you today, is also gonna help you be a better or at least a much quicker writer or responder. That is Auto Text Expander.
Now I've mentioned Auto Text Expander before when it comes to email, but this actually applies to almost anywhere that you are adding text online. So how does it work?
Auto Text Expander allows you to save some preformatted responses. This could be just a couple of words; it could be an email address; it might even be a full paragraph.
What you do is that you create some shortcuts, usually a string of just a few letters, so that you can type these letters, and then the entire sentence or paragraph, whatever you have saved here, will be populated. So let me give you an example.
Here I've got one that is "hbd stories," standing for a happy birthday
, and I've got a very quick happy birthday message here. So if I go into my email and I'm gonna write "HBD," look what happens.
As soon as I finish typing the letter "D," that entire sentence expands. "Hey, just wanted to wish you a happy birthday, hope you had a good one."
Think about the common responses that you write in an email. Think about some of the things that you need to either sign off on or the way that you address certain people again and again.
How much additional time could this save you? I'll give you another example.
Here at the bottom, I've created one, and the shortcut is "TBNI," and that stands for "Thanks, but not interested." This is something that I'll often give to emails when people are reaching out to me, and it just doesn't look like the right fit, or I'm not wanting to hear further communication from them.
Instead of writing that out in two or three sentences, all I need to do is come back here. I'm gonna say "TBNI," and look at that.
The entire sentence is brought in for me. I can hit Send and get on with the rest of my day.
So whether it's just a couple of words, or a few sentences, or even a full paragraph, Auto Text Expander can be a great shortcut for you to add as a part of your Chrome browsing experience. So I'd love to hear from you.
Which of these five did you find either most impressive or most helpful? In addition, I would love to hear what is your favorite Chrome extension.
I'm sure a number of you are already using Chrome extensions which help you to be more productive. Thanks so much for watching.
I would encourage you to subscribe right here to the Simpletivity YouTube channel. Give this video a like and be sure to leave me a comment down below.
Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.
