Chrome Download Tips

These features aren't new, but they're pretty useful and they might help you become more productive when you download files in Google Chrome.

1. Do you want to open a file immediately after Chrome downloads it? You don't have to wait, just click the file in the download bar and you should see something like "opening in X minutes".

2. If you always want to open certain files after Chrome downloads them, click the arrow icon and check "always open files of this type". You can use this for .mp4 files or .torrent files, for example.

3. How to move to the desktop a file you've just downloaded? Just drag it from the download bar and drop it onto your desktop.

4. Some files open directly in Chrome: PDF documents, MP4 videos, MP3 songs. How to download them? Use a keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+S or Command-S for Mac. Another option is to right click and select "save as". You can also right click the link to the file and select "save link as".

5. Don't worry about closing the Chrome window accidentally while downloading some files. Chrome shows a warning: "download in progress".

6. Manage your downloads by clicking "Downloads" in the Chrome or pressing Ctrl+J (Command-J for Mac). Use the search box to find a file you've downloaded last month, right-click the URL and you can copy it, click "Show in folder" to locate the file. You can also clear all the downloads.

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Keyboard Shortcuts for Google+ Notifications

The Google+ notifications box has a few keyboard shortcuts you might find helpful. Here are some of them:

* up/down arrow keys help you select a notification from the list. Notice the blue line, which shows the currently selected notification. After opening a notification, use the same arrow keys to scroll.

* Enter (Return for Mac) opens the notification you've selected. You can also use o

* press the down arrow key after the last notification and then press Enter to open the list of previously read notifications

* right/left arrow keys let you go to the next/previous notification. You can also use j/k

* u - go back to the list of notifications or to the main screen

* d - mark as read the notification you've selected

* Esc closes the notifications box.

Unfortunately, there's no shortcut that opens the Google+ Notifications box, so you still need to click the bell icon. How to quickly read your notifications? Press the down arrow key, then press Enter and go to the next notification using the right arrow key.

Sometimes Page Up/Page Down and Space/Shift+Space work, but only after you use the arrow keys. If you find other keyboard shortcuts, please let me know in the comments.

Google+ also has a list of keyboard shortcuts.

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Move Gmail Attachments to Google Drive, Save Space

Mail services are inefficient when it comes to storing files because of the MIME encoding overhead. "This encoded size is the actual size of the message as it travels over the Internet and is always larger than the raw size because of the MIME overhead and because binary attachments are generally encoded using base64 encoding.  Base64-encoded files are usually about 137% the size of the original files," says Erik Kangas.

If you want to use Google's storage more efficiently, you can find some old messages with large attachments, save the attachments to Google Drive and delete the messages. To keep the messages, you can forward them to yourself, remove the attachments, add Google Drive links and remove the original messages.

I've tested this by saving 2 FLAC attachments from 2 messages (about 43 MB) to Google Drive and deleting the associated messages from Gmail, including from the trash. Here's what I got:

* 1.58 GB used before moving files to Google Drive:

* 1.56 GB used after moving files to Google Drive:

To find Gmail messages with large attachments, you can use these operators. For example, search for [larger:5M] to find messages larger than 5 MB (that's the total size of the message).

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Change the Language of a Google Page

This is a very basic trick that's pretty old, but it still works in almost any Google service. If you want to change the interface language of a Google page, just add:

&hl=LANGUAGE_CODE

or

?hl=LANGUAGE_CODE 

to the URL of the page and press Enter. Replace LANGUAGE_CODE with the code of the language: en for English, fr for French, de for German, ru for Russian, es for Spanish. Here's a list of other language codes.

Google usually tries to detect your language, but sometimes it makes mistakes. A few months ago, I visited Gmail's help center and all the text from the page was in Russian. Fortunately, there's a drop-down that lets you change your language at the bottom of the page, but not all Google services offer this feature.

For some reason, the "hl" parameter doesn't change the interface language in Gmail and Google Drive, while YouTube shows a link that lets you change the language.

This trick only changes the language of the Google page you've opened. To permanently change the language used by Google services, check this page. Services like Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Drive let you change the language in the settings.

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Classic Google Maps URL

If you've switched to the new Google Maps desktop interface, you can quickly go back to the classic interface by clicking the gear icon and picking "Classic Maps" or by clicking "Help & Feedback" at the top of the page and picking "Return to classic Google Maps". You'll see a message that asks you if you want to permanently go back to the old interface or temporarily switch.

Another option is to bookmark this URL: Classic Google Maps (https://www.google.com/maps?output=classic). It will always send you to the standard Maps interface and you won't have to open the new interface first.

Why would you switch to the old interface? Maybe you need to use the more advanced directions that let you add more than 2 destinations, maybe you like the terrain/photos/webcam layers or Maps Labs features like the distance measurement tools or the LatLng tooltip, maybe you miss the Pegman icon you could drag and drop to switch to Street View or you want to customize the printing format for directions.

You've probably noticed that the new maps style (with new colors, icons, labels, tooltips) is now also available in the classic Google Maps. If you hide the sidebar, you can make it look more like the new Google Maps.

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Tips for Google Bar's App Launcher

Google's new navigation menu is useful for visiting some of the most popular Google services, but did you know that you can still use it to find search results? This only works when you use your browser's search box. For example, you can search for [bogota], click the grid icon and select "YouTube". Instead of sending you to YouTube's homepage, Google's menu uses your query and sends you to YouTube's search results page.

Here's a list of services that show search results: YouTube, Play, Maps, Translate, Books, Shopping and Finance. You can middle-click or Ctrl-click the icons to open pages in a new tab.

Unfortunately, this feature is buggy: if you try another query, the links from the drop-down menu send you to the search results for the first query. That's because the feature doesn't work in the AJAX interface.

Useful tip: you can quickly open Google's list of "even more" services by middle-clicking the grid icon. You can also right-click it and select "open link in new tab".

Another tip: instead of clicking "more", you can scroll down.

Fun fact: Google's code includes icons for some other Google services. One of them is Google Reader. Other services: Google Groups, Google Video, Google Image Search, Google Contacts.

Speaking of Google service icons, you can find more icons here.

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Restrict Chrome's Omibox Suggestions to Web Searches

What to do if you only want to see web search suggestions in Chrome's omnibox, not suggestions from Google's top results, your bookmarks, your browsing history or previously typed URLs. Type ? in the omnibox and then start typing your query. You can also use these keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl+K or Ctrl+E for Windows and Linux, ⌘-Option-F for Mac.

Chrome will still show suggestions from your previous searches. If you use this trick in the incognito mode, Chrome will only show suggestions from your search history.

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Add a Keyboard Shortcut for Chrome's App Launcher

I'm not sure why Chrome's app launcher doesn't have a keyboard shortcut, but it's pretty easy to add one. For Windows XP, right-click the desktop shortcut for Chrome App Launcher and select "Properties", go to the "Shortcut key" field and enter a keyboard shortcut. If you use Windows 7 or 8, press Shift while right-clicking the colorful grid icon from the taskbar, select "Properties", go to the "Shortcut key" field and enter a keyboard shortcut. I picked Ctrl+Shift+A.

Now I can just press Ctrl+Shift+A and the launcher will show up. I can type a Google query, the first letters from a Chrome app or just use the arrow keys to pick an app.

Google now even shows suggestions from the Chrome Web Store, so you can quickly install apps without visiting the store. I wouldn't recommend doing that, unless you really trust the app. For example, you can search for "gmail" and quickly install Gmail Offline.

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Faster Google Maps Navigation

The new version of the Google Maps app for Android made turn-by-turn navigation more cumbersome. Google removed the navigation icon and integrated the navigation feature in the Maps app, instead of using a separate app. The new interface is more difficult to use because it requires more taps and buttons are really small. There are also many missing navigation features: layers, Street View, alternate routes.

Fortunately, the Google Maps app lets you start the navigation mode a lot faster. "Select a place, then tap and hold on the transportation icon. This will automatically open voice guided turn-by-turn GPS navigation and you'll be ready to go," informs Google.

It's not an obvious feature, but it lets you skip 2 screens. You first had to pick a route, see the list of directions and then tap "Start".

This tip also works in the Google Maps app for iPhone and iPad, so it's not limited to Android.

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Google Keyboard Themes

If you use the stock Android keyboard, which is also available in the Play Store, you can change the look and feel of the keyboard. Google Keyboard has a few themes you can choose, but they're not available in the settings.

Here's a quick way to pick a different theme, assuming your device runs Android 4.0 or later:

1. you first need an application that lets you create shortcuts to app activities. Some apps that let you do that: Nova Launcher and Apex Launcher, probably the best Android launchers. The following instructions assume you've installed Nova Launcher or Apex Launcher, but you can also use simple apps like Activity Getter.

2. long press the homescreen and pick "shortcuts" and then "activities".

3. scroll to the Google Keyboard entry, expand the list of activities and pick "Android keyboard debug settings".

4. you'll create a shortcut for this activity. Tap the new shortcut and you should see this settings page:

5. tap "Keyboard theme" and pick one of the themes: Basic, Basic (High Contrast), Stone (normal), Stone (bold), Gingerbread. IceCreamSandwich is the default theme.

Basic:

Stone (normal):

Gingerbread:

6. use the shortcut you've created to change the theme.

{ via Android Police }

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Use Gmail's New Compose Interface for Replies

When Gmail launched the new compose interface, I wondered why the interface for replying to other messages is different. By default, when you reply to a message or you forward a message, Gmail shows the rich-text editor below the message, just like before.

There are a few ways to make the reply box look like the compose box, so you can open other messages or use Gmail's search feature while replying to a mail.

1. Shift-click the "reply" link or the entire box that includes the message "Click here to Reply or Forward". You can also Shift+click "forward" to open the forwarded message in a pop-out box.

2. Use keyboard shortcuts: Shift+r to reply in a pop-out box, Shift+a to reply to all, Shift+f to forward in a pop-out box.

3. If you've already writing the reply, click the arrow above your reply and pick "Pop out reply".

To go back to the regular interface, minimize the compose box, find this message "You are currently editing your reply in a separate window" and click "Show your draft here."

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Find the Number of Files From a Google Drive Folder

Google Drive lacks many basic features. For example, it's not easy to tell how many files are in a folder. Here's a way to do that:

Method #1: convert and download

1. right-click a folder
2. click "Download"
3. you'll find the number of files after waiting a few seconds. Sometimes, Google doesn't show the number of files and you should try again
4. click "Cancel".

If Google doesn't show the number of files, there's another way:

Method #2: move to

1. open the folder
2. repeatedly scroll down until you reach the end the folder. You can use the End key
3. select all the files using Shift+A
4. click "More" and "Move to"
5. click "Cancel".

"Move to" doesn't count the files from subfolders.

There's another option for folders with less than 500 files:

Method #3: folder view

1. open the parent folder
2. ctrl+click the target folder in the main view
3. you'll see the number of files in the page that opens in a new tab. This only shows the number of files if the folder has 500 files or less. If the folder has more than 500 files, you'll still see "500 items". That's a limitation of the folder sharing feature, which only includes the first 500 files from a folder.

Method #4: the Drive app

Probably the best option is to install the Google Drive app and quickly find the number of files of each Google Drive folder. If you use Windows Explorer, right-click the folder and select "Properties".

{ Thanks, Sushubh. }

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Chrome for Android's Find in Page Icon

Chrome for Android has a "find in page" icon that's easy to miss. When you type some keywords in the omnibox, you can tap the icon highlighted in the screenshot below to find the matches from the currently loaded page. If you tap to the left of the icon, you'll search the web.

When you tap the "find in page" icon, you'll see the same interface that's available when you use the "find in page" feature from the Chrome menu. Use the up/down arrows to see the next/previous match, tap the yellow bars from the scrollbar to go to one of the matches or use the special "find in page" scrollbar.

Even if you close the find bar, you can easily open it again from Chrome's menu. The nice thing is that Chrome remembers your keywords and the current match.

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Mobile Gmail Enhances YouTube Links

Gmail's mobile site has a cool feature that adds video titles to all the YouTube links from a message. They're still links, but you know more about the videos before clicking them.

Here's an example from Gmail's mobile web app in Chrome for Android:

This also works in Gmail's iOS app and Gmail's mobile web app in other Android/iOS browsers. The message from this screenshot only included a link to a YouTube video, with no special anchor text.

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20 Things to Do Using YouTube's Embedded Player

Here are some things you can do from an embedded YouTube player:

1. like/unlike the video: use the thumbs up/down buttons from the top-right corner (you need to be logged in).

2. find the video's URL: right-click the video and click "copy video URL". You can also "copy video URL at current time".

3. find the embedding code: right-click the video and click "copy embed code".

4. share the video: use the share button from the top-right corner and click Facebook, Twitter or Google+.

5. read the video's description: click the "i" button from the top-right corner.

6. subscribe to the video's channel: click the "i" button from the top-right corner and then click the "subscribe" button.

7. find the number of views: click the "i" button from the top-right corner.

8. add the video to the "watch later" playlist: click the "clock" button next to the YouTube logo.

9. turn off annotations: click the conversation icon at the bottom.

10. enable captions: click the "CC" button. To disable them, click the same button and then "turn captions off".

11. move captions: use drag&drop to change their position.

12. change caption size: use + or - keyboard shortcuts. You can also change the caption's foreground/background colors and the font: click the "CC" button and pick "caption settings". Click "background" to enable the caption background (there's also a keyboard shortcut: b). Your settings are saved and YouTube will used them for other videos.

13. translate captions: click the "CC" button, then "translate captions" and pick a language.

14. open the video in full screen mode: click the "full screen" icon next to the YouTube logo.

15. change video quality: click the wheel icon and choose from auto, 144p, 240p, 360p, 480p, 720p, 1080p.

16. change the video's speed (only in the HTML5 player): click the wheel icon and choose from 0.25x, 0.5x, 1x, 1.5x, 2x.

17. check the stats: right-click the video and select "stats for nerds" to see the video's size, the number of frames per second, the number of dropped frames and other useful information.

18. open the video's YouTube page: click the title at the top of the player or the YouTube logo at the bottom.

19. use keyboard shortcuts (most shortcuts only work in the Flash player and they require that the video player has focus):

* k - pause/play the video
* m - mute/unmute the video
* f - full screen mode (Esc to exit)
* j or left arrow - seek backward 3 seconds
* l or right arrow - seek forward 3 seconds
* 0 - jump at the beginning of the video
* 1-9 - seek to the 10% to 90% of the video
* home/end - jump at the beginning/end of the video
* up/down arrows - increase/decrease volume by 5%

20. related videos: at the end of the video, you'll see a list of related videos and you can watch them in the embedded player. Mouse over the thumbnails to find more information about the videos.

Here's a video you can use to test these features:

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Partial YouTube Embeds

Let's say you want to embed a long YouTube video, but you only need a short excerpt from that video. The Nexus 7 & Chromecast Press Event video has 64 minutes, but you only want to embed the part about Android stats from 02:50 to 06:28.

Start with the standard embedding code:

<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/GbXeZ16FoCY" width="560"></iframe>

Then add the start and end parameters. Both use seconds, so you'll need to convert minutes to seconds. For my example:

* 02:50 = 2 minutes and 50 seconds = 2*60+50 seconds = 170 seconds, so start=170
* 06:28 = 6 minutes and 30 seconds = 6*60+28 seconds = 388 seconds, so end=388.

Here's the final code. You only need to add the underlined text in red:

<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/GbXeZ16FoCY?start=170&end=388" width="560"></iframe>

Here's the video embed:

When you click the play button, YouTube will only play the excerpt you've selected. This works for both the Flash player and the HTML5 player. Visitors can always use the seek bar and skip to other part of the video or continue to watch the video.

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Keyboard Shortcut for Google Voice Search

If you use Chrome, you've probably noticed the small microphone icon from Google's search box. It lets you search Google using your voice and it's now just as good as the voice search feature from Google's mobile apps.

There's even a keyboard shortcut for this feature: Ctrl+Shift+. (or ⌘-Shift-. for Mac). Yes, that's a dot, full stop or period.

"Say your question and hear an answer back on your desktop Chrome browser. All you will need is a built-in or attached microphone. Also, be sure to have the volume up on your computer to hear your answer loud and clear. Please note Voice Search with spoken answers back is available for US English only," informs Google.

"Open the Chrome browser and go to http://www.google.com/. You'll see a small gray microphone on the right-hand side of the search box. Click the microphone or press Ctrl+Shift+Period (Mac: ⌘-Shift-Period) with your cursor in the search box to start voice search. When the large red microphone icon appears, begin speaking. You can press ESC or click the red button to cancel. As you speak, Google will interpret your voice input. Afterwards, your results show up just as if you had typed the search term," mentions a help center article.

{ via Mike Downes }

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Find Auto Awesome Google+ Images

Google+ has a feature called Auto Awesome, which automatically creates new photos that use the photos you've uploaded. For example, when you upload similar images at different exposures, Google+ will add an image that simulates HDR. When you upload a series of photos in succession, Google+ will create an animated image. "If you've taken a series of photos with overlapping landscape views, Auto Awesome will stitch these photos together into a panoramic image."

Unfortunately, it's not always easy to find these images. Here's a way to find the animated images created by Google: go to Google+ Photos and search for [motion.gif]. This works because all the animated GIFs created by Google+ include "motion" in the filename. You may also find other images that include "motion" in the filename or caption, but they weren't created by Google+. The nice thing is that Google's thumbnails are also animated GIFs, so it's easy to spot Auto Awesome images.

If you can't find Auto Awesome animated GIFs, click "From your circles" below the search box and you'll certainly find some GIFs if you follow the right people.

This post should have an included an animated screenshot, but I decided to add a YouTube video:

If you'd like to find panoramic images, search for pano.jpg. For HDR images, search for hdr.jpg, but you'll probably get a lot of false positives.

To find Auto Awesome images shared by other Google+ users, you can search for #autoawesome in Google+ and restrict the results to photos. There's also a community for Auto Awesome images.

You can also use Google Image Search and search for [site:plus.google.com inurl:motion.gif] for animated images and [site:plus.google.com inurl:pano.jpg inurl:googleusercontent.com] for panoramas.

{ via Jeremy Milo }

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Change Chrome's Search Engine to Google.com

Two years ago, I wrote a post that explained how to change the domain used by Chrome when performing a Google search from the omnibox. The trick still works (thanks, Peter Kasting!), but there's a much simpler way to change the Google domain used by Chrome's omnibox from google.tld (your local Google domain) to google.com.

This is only useful if you're not in the US and you'd like to use google.com to see the latest Google features. The nice thing is that it works in the desktop Chrome, in Chrome for Android and Chrome for iOS.

1. Type google.com/ncr in the address bar and search for something (use Google's search box, not the browser's omnibox).

2. Close Chrome. If you're using the desktop Chrome, close all Chrome windows or click Exit in the menu. If you're using the mobile Chrome, press the home button and use your operating system's multitasking feature to force close Chrome. Here are the instructions for iOS. Android instructions are different, depending on the device you use: some Android devices have a button that shows a list of recent apps, while others require to press and hold the home button or double-tap it. Swipe Chrome's thumbnail to force close it.

3. Launch Chrome again, open a new tab and search for something using Chrome's omnibox.

4. You should see an infobar that asks you: "would you like to search with google.com instead of [your local Google domain]?". Click or tap "switch to google.com" and that's all.

The screenshot is from a Nexus 7, but this should work in Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Android and iOS. Here's a similar screenshot from Chrome for Windows:

You'll also see google.com instead of your local Google domain in Chrome's settings (this feature is not available in Chrome for iOS).

To go back to your local Google domain, you can use similar instructions. Visit google.tld (replace this with your country's Google domain), search for something, restart the browser, search using Chrome's omnibox and click "switch to google.tld" in the infobar that should show up.

{ Thanks, Sushubh Mittal and Jérôme Flipo. }

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Update the Google+ Notification Counter

Google updates the Google+ notification counter automatically, but there's a simple way to force a refresh: mouse over the bell icon. This works for Google+ and all Google services that show the notification icon in the navigation bar.

You can also click the bell icon to refresh the counter and see the latest notifications, but this should be obvious. Most likely, Google anticipates your actions and assumes that you are about to click the bell icon when you mouse over it and that's why it updates the counter.

Another tip: drag the bell icon to the address bar or right-click it and select "open link in new tab" to read the Google+ notifications in a new page.

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