Add-ons Archives - Siobhan O'Shea

Where oh where is my right click gone? After much furious tapping and clicking I finally asked my digital guru (dg) what was going on. The answer of course is there is no right click. You click on the word and make a two fingered gesture, ahem. It’s called tap-to-click. Simply press on the track pad with both fingers. Even after a week, I find that tapping with the 2 fingers doesn’t always work for me. Sometimes it take me 2, 3 taps or doesn’t work at all. Leaving me look like a maniac pounding away on the keyboard. Never fear, if you are having problems there’s a cheat. Press the alt key and single tap (or physically click) on the trackpad. Words a treat every time to bring up that expected ‘right click’ menu.

My programs have gone. Oops, my start button is gone. Wait, everything is gone. No matter how much you are aware that the Chromebook is just a browser and the dg warned you 10 times that it’s just a browser, it’s still a very different way of using a laptop. I’ve used a PC, windows laptop, ipad, macbook and now a Chromebook during my work life. The fact that your main work/life necessity can now be charged using a phone charger is still a surprise.

I’ve lost all my work aka I accidentally closed a tab. This actually highlights a great feature of the Chromebook. You don’t have Word, but you have Google Docs which opens in a browser tab. So you will be typing away on your latest masterpiece in a BROWSER TAB which you actually get used to very quickly. Best thing is even if you accidentally close the tab, Google Docs automatically saves a document every 2-3 minutes. Very nifty. The menu bar even gently reassures “All Changes Saved in Drive”.
How did I accidentally close the tab anyhow? Back to gestures again. I must be a paddle flailer ie someone who wildly flails their hands around like rubber paddles, because in the first couple of days a new tab would somehow open. Disconcerting. What I had cleverly discovered was another gesture, this time with three fingers. Click on a link with a three fingered tap and the link will open in a new tab. So what, you might say. But if you wanted to open an new interesting link or bookmarked link without closing the page you’re working on, it’s brilliant. Click on the new tab with the three fingers again to close it. Simples.

No Start button, but there’s a strange search button on its usual real estate on the bottom left of the screen. Here you can find “apps” such as Evernote, Gmail, Pixlr Express, Google Play Movies, even Calculator. Except they aren’t apps of course though they work exactly the same. They are Chrome add-ons.

Chrome Play Movies, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides – noticing a trend here? If you think all of my work couldn’t possibly fit into a browser, think about what you do on a laptop. Browse the web? Check. Email? Check. Work on documents, slides or spreadsheets? Check. Share and edit work with colleagues? Check. Edit images? Check. And did I mention that the battery can last up to 8 hours? I will definitely be keeping the Chromebook for another week. For further investigations, of course.