Exploring Google Chrome features

Accessibility

Google Chrome supports the Windows Accessibility API (MSAA) to display accessibility information and events for its features and web content. Many of its features and tasks have relevant keyboard shortcuts and navigation. Some important shortcuts include the following:

• Shift+Alt+T: Set keyboard focus on the Google Chrome toolbar. Use your right and left arrow keys to navigate to different buttons on the toolbar.
• F6 or Ctrl+L: Highlight the content in the web address area on the address bar.

Application windows

Many websites, such as email services, operate like actual programs, similar to those on your computer desktop. Google Chrome supports these web applications by providing a special window designed specifically for web applications.

When you double-click an application shortcut, the website opens in a special Google Chrome window that gives you as much working room as possible. It shows up on your computer taskbar like another program that’s open. Application windows don’t display tabs, buttons, address bar, or menus. If you click on a link that takes you to a different website, the link opens in a standard Google Chrome window instead, so that you don’t lose track of your web application.

A discreet drop-down menu in the header next to the website logo provides many of the navigation and webpage functions you may need:

• Back, Forward, and Reload: Options to navigate between webpages.
• Duplicate: Open the same web application in a new application window.
• Copy URL: Copy the web address of the webpage you’re on.
• Open browser window: Open a normal Google Chrome window.
• Cut, Copy, and Paste
• Find in page: Search text on the webpage. (You can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F.)
• Save page as: Save a copy of the webpage as a HTML file on your computer.
• Print
• Text zoom: Change the size of the font used on the webpage.
• Encoding: Override the webpage’s encoding if necessary.
• Close

Incognito mode

For times when you want to browse in stealth mode, for example, to plan surprises like gifts or birthdays, Google Chrome offers the incognito browsing mode. Webpages that you open and files downloaded while you are incognito won’t be logged in your browsing and download histories; all new cookies are deleted after you close the incognito window. You can browse normally and in incognito mode at the same time by using separate windows.

Example: If you sign into your Google Account on http://www.google.com while in incognito mode, your subsequent web searches are recorded in your Google Web History. In this case, if you want to make sure your searches are not stored in your Google Account, you’ll need to pause your Google Web History tracking.

• You can also right-click any link and select Open link in incognito window.
• If you’re familiar with command lines, you can append an –incognito switch to the end of your command to launch Google Chrome in incognito mode.

New Tab page

See useful links when you open a new tab

When you open a new tab, Google Chrome preloads it with links to websites you visit the most, recently saved websites, recently closed tabs, and recently used search engines.

• Most visited: Up to nine image thumbnails of the websites you visit most are displayed. Click a website’s thumbnail to open it, or right-click it to see options to open it in a new tab or in a new window.
• Recent bookmarks: Up to nine recently created browser bookmarks are listed for easy access.
• Recently closed: Up to three tabs closed within the past five minutes are listed in case you accidentally closed a tab.
• Searches: Search boxes for the search engines you use the most are available so you can use them directly from this page.

Remove thumbnails from the Most Visited section

1. Click the Remove thumbnails link below the thumbnails.
2. Click the X icon to remove a site’s thumbnail.
3. Click Done.

If you accidentally remove a site, you can always click Restore all removed thumbnails before clicking Done.

Click + to open the New Tab page

To open a New Tab page, click the + icon next to the last tab. You can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+T to quickly open the page.

 Address bar

In Google Chrome, you can get anywhere on the Web with one box. The address bar that sits at the top of the normal Google Chrome window simplifies your Internet experience by doubling as a search box. You can also use it to bookmark websites and stay aware about the security of a website.

Search

Type your search query in the address bar, and it automatically suggests related queries and popular websites, based on your input. (Google Suggest is the default service that provides auto-suggestions unless your default search engine uses an alternate service.)

Visit a webpage

If you know the specific web address you’re trying to access, type it directly in the address bar. Press Enter on the keyboard or click the arrow icon to load the webpage. As you type, Google Chrome also automatically searches your browsing history and shows you the number of matches at the bottom of its drop-down menu.

It may be hard to stop a webpage from loading because of the browser’s speediness. When loading a webpage, the arrow icon at the end of the address bar turns into an ‘x.’ Click the icon to stop the loading process.

Create a bookmark

If you come across an interesting webpage that you’d like to access again in the future, click the star icon on the browser toolbar to create a bookmark. A bubble confirming the addition of the bookmark appears.

• To tweak the bookmark’s name, edit the text in the ‘Name’ field.
• Use the ‘Folder’ drop-down menu to choose where you want to store the bookmark. Learn more about organizing bookmarks.
• To tweak the bookmark’s URL, click the Edit button.
• If you accidentally clicked the star icon, you can quickly revert your action by clicking the Remove link. Learn more about deleting bookmarks.

 Website security

If Google Chrome detects that the website you’re trying to access will securely transmit data using SSL, you’ll see the following:

• The background color of the address bar changes to gold.
• The ‘https’ in the URL appears in green for websites with SSL-secured connections established.
• A lock icon appears at the end of the address bar.

If a SSL-secured connection cannot be established, then you’ll see an alert icon at the end of the address bar, among other possible browser warnings. You can click the icon to open the ‘Security information’ dialog box and see more information.

Pop-ups

Don’t let pop-up windows get in the way of your browsing. Adjust your settings for pop-up blocking:

1. Click the Tools menu.
2. Select Options.
3. Click the Under the Hood tab.
4. If you want to see pop-ups, select the ‘Notify me when a pop-up is blocked’ checkbox.
5. Click the Close button.

If you allow pop-ups, you’ll be able to see the number of pop-ups for a given webpage at the bottom right-hand corner of the browser window. Click the pop-up alert to expand any of the pop-ups. To dismiss the pop-up, click the ‘X.’

If you don’t want pop-ups to display at all, deselect the ‘Notify me when a pop-up is blocked’ option in any pop-up alert or in the ‘Options’ menu. At this time, it’s not possible to choose specific websites where pop-ups should be blocked.

Recovering from a browser crash

1. Open Google Chrome.
2. Find the message at the top of your first tab window.
3. Click the Restore button.

Password setting

Google Chrome can save usernames and passwords for websites where you need to sign in. The browser can then fill in the sign-in fields for you automatically when you next visit these websites.

1. Click the Tools menu.
2. Select Options.
3. Click the Minor Tweaks tab.
4. In the ‘Passwords’ section, select one of the following options:
   • ‘Offer to save passwords’: Every time you sign into a new website, Google Chrome will display a message at the top of the page, asking whether you’d like to save the password you just typed.
   • ‘Never save passwords’: Select this option if you don’t want Google Chrome to offer to save your passwords.
5. Click Close.

If you allow Google Chrome to store your passwords, you’ll see the following message every time you sign into a new website.

Click Save password if you’d like Google Chrome to save you the trouble of retyping your username and password every time you go to the website.

Alternatively, click Never for this site if you don’t want Google Chrome to store the password you just used for the website.

Source:google.com