KnowHow
Easywhenyou
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[email protected]19 January–1February2022•Issu e623TabMaker
lets you
design
your own
newtab
extensions
forChrome,
but Robert
needsto
tryharderthen‘Publishand linkyoursheet ’and –
as instructed –clicked theFilemenuand
chose ‘Publishtoweb’. Iselected‘Add
contenttothissheet ’fromthe Entire
Documentmenuand ‘Comma-separated
values’inthe ‘Web page’menu, then
clickedPublish.
Fortunately‘publ ish’ didn ’t mean
publ icly share, butinstead gave me alink
to thespreadsheet to copyand paste into
TabMaker.Iclicked Next andmyextension
opened inan editor,where Iwas able to
tweakthe size, position,colou rand font
of theblocks (see screensh ot above). I
thenclickedNexttodownload my
extension as aZIPfile.
The final step wastoi mportthe new
tabpageextension into Chrome. To do
this,Iextracted the‘extension’folder
fromthe‘tab-maker’ ZIP, typedchrome://
extensionsinto thebrowser’s addressbar
andpressed Enter. Iturnedon‘Developer
mode’int he top-rightcorner,clicked
‘Load unpacked’ andselect ed the
extensionfolder. Amazingly, it worked
andchanged my newtab page to my own
design.However,Iwon’tbeuploadingmy
extensionto theChromeWeb Store,
because submission costs$5and my poor
effortisc ertaintoberejected. Maybe
somethingsarebetter left to thekids.T
hough I’ve beenwriti ng fortech
magazinesfor 24 years,Idon’t
know much aboutcoding.Kids
todayapparently start programmingfrom
theage of se ven, wherea sIneverlearned
to do more than type 10 PRINT“Hello”.
20 GOTO 10.WhenIwatchnews stories
about wunderkindswho have designed
thei rown mobile apps,I’m invariably
both enviousand impressed, as Imutter
“shutup, youlittleshow-off”under my
bitter breath.
So Iwas intrigued to read about
Google’s newTab Makertool(www.
snipca.com/40400), whichlets youcreate
your ownextension sfor its Chrome
browser“with no codingrequi red”.
Considering my fondness forextension s,
my lack of de velopmentexperience and
my desi re to beat precociouschild renat
thei rown game,thissounded greatand,
because it’s also fr ee,Idecidedtogive
TabMaker awhirl.The ideaistodesign an extensionthat
changesthe page shownonnew tabs in
theveinofpopularadd-onssuch as
Momentum (https://momentumdash.
com). TabMaker worksentirelywithin
Chrome,soall Ineededto do to launch it
wasclick Make Your Ownonits
homepage andchooseGet Started. This
offered me achoiceof11c olourfultemplates, fromwhichIselect ed
Template 2thenclicked Next. Clicking
‘Add your owncontent’openedaGoogle
Sheetspreadsheet in anew tab, whereI
wastoldtoclick theFilemenuand make
acopyofthe sheet. Iclicked Next again
andchose ‘Step2:Add contenttot his
sheet’.
Nowthings gotinteresti ng,asT ab
Makerprovide dasummary oftheblocks
that made up my template andinvited me
to customisethem with text andimages.
It suggestedIfind images Iliked online
andcopyand pastetheir URLsinto the
spreadsheet.
Thissounded likeasurefire way to
breach someone’scopyright, butIplayed
it safe by usingthe ‘Usa ge rights ’filter in
Google Images to findaCreative
Commons-licensed photo of awintry
landscape.Iright-clickedthis, chose
‘Copyimage address’ andpastedthe URL
into theBackgroundImage column. I
then enteredsometextint he Block 1
column, andcustomise dthe otherblocks
with addition al copyright-free pictures.
Thatwas onepageofmynew extension
completed, butbecause theideaisf or the
page to refres heachtimeyou open anew
tab, Irepeatedthe processfor afurther
fivepages.Ieven includedananimated
GIFin oneofmyblocks –everyon eloves
GIFs,right? Once finis hed, Iclicked Next,Crea teaChromeextension
With no coding knowledgebut adesiretobe
creative,Robert Irvinetriesto...
Copyingand
pastingimage URLs
isasurefire wayto
breachsomeone’s
copyright