WebUser – 21 August 2019

64 21 Aug - 3 Sept 2019

When you want to read an article on

the web, open Chrome’s menu and click

‘Distill page’ to strip out everything

except the text and images. This only

works on articles, not homepages,

forum pagesand so on.

Manage Chrome

extensions

Managing your Chrome extensions from

the menuis fairly straig htforward, but

you can make it even quicker and easier

by adding a button to the toolba r. Open

chrome://flags, enable Extensions

Toolba r Menu andrelaunch Chrome.

The new toolba r icon looks like a

jigsaw piece and opens a new menu

when you click it. From here you can

enable or disable extensions and goto

the extensions manager.

The Extensions Toolba r Menu button

lists every extension that’s enabled in

your browser, and clicking the thre e

dots beside each one opens a menufor

that extension. One option lets you

unpin the extension from the toolba r.

This removes the toolba r icon but

leaves the extension running , so it’s a

goodway to clean up the browser

interface if it starts getting clut tered.

The new menualso shows

extensions that are running but

hidden, and you can pin them to add

their icon to the toolba r. It’s a good

way to find out if you have any hidden

extensions runningin your browser.

Downloadfiles faster

The ‘Parallel downloading’ flag

accelerates file downloads by opening

multiple connections. It can make a

significant differen ce when you’re

A

ll web browsers ha ve settings

that you can access and config ure

easily. In Chrome, for example,

simply open the menu and click Settings.

These aren’t the browser’s only settings,

though – there are lots more hiddenin

secr et control panels. To access them in

Chrome typechrome://flagsinto the

address ba r and press Enter. In Firefox,

typeabout:config. In bo th cases, the

browser warns you that these are

advanced settings, so bear that in mind

when tinkering with them. For the brave,

however, there are some grea t tweaks that

let you custom ise how the browser works.

These ti ps may work in other browsers,

too, because many are based on the same

two core systems. Opera uses the same

engine as Chrome, for example, so you can

apply many of th e Chrome change s to

Opera fromopera://flags. The new

Edge will also be based on Chrome, so if

you’re testing it, typeedge://flags.

Access hidden browser settings

Cleanupweb pages
Web pagesare often teeming
with distracting elements, such as
adverts, menus, pop-up messagesand
so on. Chrome has a hiddenfeat ure that
removes these distractions to present a
clean, ad-free article that’s easier to
read andprint. Go tochrome://flags
and look for Enable Reader Mode. It’s
disabled by default, but selecting
Enable and relaunchin g Chrome adds a
‘Distill page’ op tion to the menu.

Experiment with advancedbrowser features using Chrome flags

Remove all the clutter from web pages
with Chrome’s Reader mode

If you seewords thatlook like

they’ve been typed in a

typewriter, follow the instructions

and type themexactly as they

appear, paying closeattentionto

spaces and punctuation.

Web User Masterclass

Discover secret features and

settings in Chrome and Firefox