Secret settings and the best extensions
43BEST EXTENSION FOR... Converting currency
Currency Conversion Widget
Chromium
http://www.snipca.com/41643
Whether you need to know how much
foreign cash you’ll get for your holiday
money, or you just want to check the
current exchange rate, a currency
converter is a useful tool. Currency
Conversion Widget performs instant
conversions between all the main
currencies, as well as Bitcoin. Enter the
amount you want to convert, then select
the currencies in the dropdown menus- the defaults are USD (US dollars) and
EUR (euros),
but once you’ve
selected GBP
(British pounds),
the extension will
remember your
preference. You
can also convert
an amount
to several
currencies at once by clicking the Multi-
converter tab (see screenshot) and selecting
your desired options. You can even specify
how many decimal places to include.If you don’t like that, try
Universal Automatic Currency
Converter
Chromium
http://www.snipca.com/41642
Firefox
http://www.snipca.com/41644
This handy extension automatically
converts prices on websites to your
preferred currency, as well as letting
you perform conversions on the fly.
You can go into its settings to
change the default currency from
US dollars.EDGE
Copy formatted content
from web pages
Although it’s easy to copy small
sections of text from a web page to
paste into an email, document or
social-media message, copying a table,
image or stylised text is trickier and can
result in a pasted mess. To solve this
problem, Edge 100 (released 31 March)
added an option called ‘Web select’,
which lets you grab formatted content
from sites and paste it elsewhere in a
couple of clicks. The feature carries over
the original formatting when you copy
text and images, so you don’t have to
waste time reformatting them to tidy up
the pasted content. This includes whole
tables or just specific rows and columns.
To use ‘Web select’, either right-click a
web page and choose that option or press
Ctrl+Shift+X on your keyboard. Drag your
cursor to select the content you want to
copy, then click the Copy button that
appears (see screenshot above). You can
then paste the text and image from your
clipboard, either by right-clicking and
choosing Paste or by pressing Ctrl+V,
with all the formatting kept intact.
Edge 100 also improved the browser’s
Sleeping Tabs feature. See our Workshop
below opposite to find out how to use it.CHROMIUM
Search the web privately
with Bing
All browsers
now have
their own private modes, which prevent
details of your searches from being
stored, but that hasn’t stopped Microsoft
releasing an extension that brings Edge’s
InPrivate mode to other browsers.
Available to install from the Chrome Web
Store, Microsoft Bing InPrivate (www.
snipca.com/41636) lets you search the
web privately in Chrome and other
Chromium browsers. It switches your
default search engine to Bing and lets you
search the web anonymously withoutyour history being recorded.
Presumably, the add-on is aimed at
Chrome users who don’t trust Google not
to spy on them in incognito mode, and
those who prefer Bing’s search results.
Another benefit is that you can click the
cog, top-right (see screenshot below left),
to access Chrome’s privacy settings, so
you can delete browsing data, block
cookies and send do-not-track requests.VIVALDI
Search the web privately
with Qwant
Vivaldi users may prefer to avoid
installing Microsoft Bing InPrivate
(see previous tip) and search the web
privately with Qwant (www.qwant.com)
instead. Version 5.2 of the browser
restores Qwant to its choice of search
engines, alongside other privacy-focused
options such as DuckDuckGo and
Startpage.com. Qwant is a European
search engine that doesn’t track or collect
users’ data, or display targeted ads. You
can set it as both your default search
engine (see screenshot below) and your
preferred provider in private mode, or
just use it when you need it by typing q
followed by your search term.Issue 631 • 11 – 24 May 2022