Sidebar you can access anywhere
You probably spend much of your day here within your web browser, but what if I told you that there was a free Chrome extension that could make your life a lot easier and a whole lot more productive?
Well in today's video, we're taking a look at Manganum, a free Chrome extension which just might change the way you work within your browser.
Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and to enjoy less stress. And if I go back here to my Drive account,
I really do appreciate the Google side panel. Here on the right-hand side, I can access things such as my calendar, my notes, and my tasks, but the problem is, is that if I go to any other website, if I'm not within Drive, Gmail, or Google Calendar,
I don't have access to that information. Maybe I want to take some notes on the webpage that I'm on, maybe I want to access my calendar, I have to keep switching back and forth or going back to other tabs.
Well with Manganum, no more, because if I slide my cursor just to the left, guess what is revealed? A whole slew of wonderful tools which I can use to make my life that much more productive.
So let me give you a quick tour, here on the left-hand side as you can see, if I just drag my cursor to the left, it will automatically expand, and if I'd like to keep it permanently there, I can come down here and detach the sidebar so it's always available to me.
Don't like it here on the left-hand side, no problem, I can click and drag it, and really put it anywhere that I like. So what are the different features of Manganum? I thought you'd never ask. Let's go through each one of them one by one.
Launchpad for your favorite sites and apps
Starting at the top, we have our launch pad, and remember, all of these features will be available to you on every single page or every single tab that you access.
Here within the launch pad, we start with a Google search, and if we don't like Google search, no problem, we can also change our default to something else such as DuckDuckGo.
Down below, we have our favorites, where we can add the websites that we access most frequently or that we want to have access to, we can quickly just add a website here by entering in the URL and giving it a custom name.
Down below, we have websites that have been most visited, so these are the places that I've been to recently, and if I want to jump back in it, is quick and easy for me to do.
If I want to remove something, I can do that here as well by selecting the trashcan icon. And below that we have Google services, now, I've customized mine to show Gmail, Maps, and Docs, because maybe that's what I access most frequently, but if I go show more, you'll see the other options available to us as well.
If I want to bump up photos, no problem, let me just drag that up over here, I can say show less, and now I am just a single click away from getting to my favorite Google services as well.
But here within the launch pad, perhaps the most helpful tool I believe are the Chrome tools down below where I have one click access to some of the most frequently used or maybe things that you don't use that often but you forget how to get to them, such as clear browsing.
Let me just remind you, if we go the traditional way, I have to click once up here, then I have to click again for more tools, and then I have to click again for clear browsing data, so that's a total of three clicks to get to this screen.
Alternatively, with Manganum, all I have to do is select clear browsing,
and I'm brought immediately to where I want to be, so this is very, very helpful as you quickly get to the places that you would like, quickly get to the places that you want to access.
Add and view calendar events anytime
Next up, within the Manganum toolbar, we have our calendar, and even before I click on it or expose it, I can see that I've got something coming up in 36 minutes, so I can even see that at a glance to make sure that I don't forget any upcoming event.
If I click on that, that's going to expand my calendar, and here I have access to my complete Google Calendar, so I don't have to go switching back and forth or always keeping my Google Calendar tab open, I can have access to all of my events here
and even scroll through to look at a glance as well. If I want to create a new appointment, I can add an event here as well, and I find this especially helpful
when it comes to maybe jumping into a meeting, rather than digging into my email
or going back to my Google calendar tab, I can access that video conferencing link or phone number directly here by clicking within Manganum. The other feature that I particularly like with the Manganum calendar is that beyond just telling me when my next meeting is coming up, it will actually give me a pulsing warning.
Here under settings, you can turn this feature on or off, but if something is coming up within three minutes, you'll see a gentle glowing, a gentle pulse here on the left-hand side of your screen.
Let me show you how that works in real time, here you can see with the Manganum toolbar completely minimized, I've got this soft little amber glowing flash
in the left-hand side of the screen, notifying me that I've got an upcoming meeting. And the great thing is, is that it doesn't matter where I go, if I go to another website,
I'm still going to see that flashing] in the left-hand corner. I can come over here and be reminded, oh, that's right, I've got that meeting coming up in just two minutes time.
Translate language on or off screen
Now below the calendar option, we have a translator, so if we want to quickly type in something and translate it into another language, we can do so here with just a click of a button.
But Manganum makes it even that much easier, here I've come across a website where I'm not exactly sure what the language is and what it's all about, so what I'm going to do is I'm just going to select this text here, and automatically without even clicking anything, it's going to put it into this box, identify that it's Italian,
and translate it for me automatically.
I don't have to do a single thing, all I had to do was select the text that I want translated and it will do the rest for me. And if I need to copy that, it gives me a helpful copy link as well, if I need to paste that somewhere else. It even has audio if I want to listen to it in its original language, or in the language which I've chosen.
Easy access to your task list
Below the translator, we have our tasks, and yes, these are our Google Tasks,
so regardless of where you create the task, it will remain perfectly in sync. In fact, in some ways, I almost like the layout of Manganum's tasks better than the original Google Tasks.
I can still rearrange anything here, I can create a new task here, let me just add a quick new task here. I can add further details, I can go ahead and add a due date, and if I want, I can add sub-tasks as well. Even the sub-task feature seems almost a little more intuitive, a little bit easier to use than the original Google Task.
But have no fear, regardless of where you create these tasks, either here within the Manganum side panel or within Google Tasks themselves,
Quick notes on any page
it will stay perfectly in sync. Now below our tasks, we have our notes section, now unlike the calendar option and tasks, notes are not synced with the familiar Google product, Keep notes.
These notes are only available and attached to the Manganum sidebar, but I still think it can be a great asset as you're wanting to take some very quick sticky notes or other pieces of information, depending on the website that you're visiting.
And just like Google Keep, you can make additional edits such as changing the background color, and of course, we can drag and move these notes
in any order that we like. I find that the notes area is ideal for daily quick notes, maybe things that you're going to remove or declutter once a week or once a day,
but it's so much easier to grab them here rather than having to go to another tab
and find them somewhere else.
Read text messages
Now, the final option available to us within the Manganum taskbar is brand new,
just release this month, and that is SMS, yes, if you would like to access all of your text messages, you can do so right here on the sidebar as well. Now as of this recording,
you cannot respond to your messages, but you can link it directly to your phone
and also receive the same type of pulse that we saw earlier with the calendar if you want to be notified of a new message. So you can view your contacts and view all of your SMS incoming messages directly here from within your browser.
New tab to stay focused
But wait, there's even more than the options here on the left-hand side of our panel.
When you open up a new tab with the Manganum extension installed, you'll be brought to this screen here where you can customize your background and the other options available to you. Here you can see I've got a nice pleasing video background here, I also have the local weather and my local time in the top right-hand corner,
but I can also help myself to be a little more focused and productive by putting in the next task that I want to accomplish, right here at the bottom of the screen, so maybe for me, it's recording this YouTube video, and when I'm complete, I can check it off,
and then add a new one to focus on for the rest of the day. Manganum also gives us an option if we want to view a motivational quote, if we want to have an affirmation,
or in this case, a life timer, which tells me that I have an estimate of about 35 years left, so I better keep on keeping on. Now if you'd like to start using Manganum for yourself, you can go to the Chrome Web Store and install it for free, or you can also go to manganum.app to learn more and install it from the official website as well.
And if you'd like to learn the seven most valuable Chrome browser shortcut keys,
be sure to watch this video next. Thank you so much for watching, and remember,
being productive does not need to be difficult, in fact, it's very simple.
