Excerpt from Web Geek's Guide to Google Chrome
When Chrome first became available, it was heralded as being “different.” And indeed, it is different. As you’ve already seen, Chrome was designed from the ground up to be something more than other web browsers. But is there more than just what’s under the hood?
In this chapter
- If It Is Everything, You Should Use It for Everything
- And Then There Are Page Controls
More Customization and Controls
When Chrome first became available, it was heralded as being “different.” And indeed, it is different. As you’ve already seen, Chrome was designed from the ground up to be something more than other web browsers. But is there more than just what’s under the hood?
Of course there is. You’ve already seen how the interface is different in some ways, for example, keeping your most accessed websites a single click away. But there’s more. Remember in Chapter 3, “Getting Started with Google Chrome,” when we talked about the Omnibox? Well, let’s take a closer look at that little piece of programming ingenuity.
If It Is Everything, You Should Use It for Everything
In other web browsers, you find an address bar that runs across the top of the browser. You can type any web address there, and the browser loads that website. Chrome has that same address bar, but it has some additional functionality.
The Usual Address Bar Duties
In Chrome, the address bar is called the Omnibox. And in addition to its “usual” duties, the Omnibox doubles as a search box (for the Google search engine by default, of course). It even performs much like the Google search engine interface you’re accustomed to by suggesting search terms, as shown in Figure 4.1.
Figure 4.1
The Omnibox finds a site for you if you’re having difficulties.
Instead of entering a website address, you can enter search criteria, and Chrome displays the search engine results for that particular item. For example, if you want to find the Washington Post online and really have no idea what on earth the website could possibly be, just type “Washington Post” in the Omnibox, and it points you in the right direction.
Now, if Google isn’t your preferred search engine, you’re not stuck using it. To search using a different search engine just begin typing the name of that search engine into the Omnibox. As soon as it recognizes search functionality on a site, a Tab icon appears in the Omnibox as shown in Figure 4.2. That means to access that search engine, just press the Tab key. A command opens in the Omnibox for a search of that search engine. Just enter your search phrase and press Enter. The search is performed in your preferred search engine, and the results are returned in Chrome.
Figure 4.2
A Tab icon appears in the Omnibox when a website has search capabilities.
Security Indicators
Improved search functionality is not where the power of the Omnibox ends, however. It’s also a tool to help you know that you’re surfing on safe websites. For example, if you enter a website that is secured using SSL security, you’ll notice that the “https” that indicates a secure website appears in green. If there’s a problem with the security, you’ll see the “https” in red with a slash through it, as shown in Figure 4.3.
Chrome’s Omnibox alerts you when secure websites are not performing properly.
NOTE
?SSL Security stands for secure socket layer security which is a type of encryption that uses secure certificates for authenticating both the person sending the information and the person receiving it. SSL uses an encryption method that includes both public and private keys. Public keys are the method by which the data is encrypted and private keys are the method by which it is decoded. Public keys are more widely available and private keys are available only to the person who is intended to access the protected data.
Because it might be easy for you to miss the shading of the https portion of the web address for the site that you’re visiting, Google also includes an icon at the far right side of the Omnibox to alert you to the status of the web page. A lock icon indicates that security is in place and active for the site. The color of the Omnibox also changes to a yellow-gold if security is in place. If there’s a problem with the site’s security, a caution icon appears in that spot and the Omnibox maintains a white background color.
A Few Other Functions
Another neat feature of the Omnibox is its capability to remember web addresses. This is especially handy if you want to move to a favorite site without opening a new tab to click one of your top nine sites. As you begin typing a web address for a site that you access regularly, the site address will auto-fill.
You don’t even have to type in the “www” part of the address. Just type the first few letters of what follows the “www,” and as soon as the address is highlighted in the auto-fill you can press Enter on your keyboard to load the website.
Chrome loads web pages with lightning speed, and sometimes that makes it hard to stop a page from loading. But if you find yourself in a situation where you want to stop a page before it loads completely, you have that option. While a page is loading, the arrow on the right end of the Omnibox turns to an X. Just click the X to stop the page from loading. You can always restart (or refresh) the page by clicking the Refresh button, shown in Figure 4.4.
Figure 4.4
Control how your web page loads using the buttons on either end of the Omnibox.
When you first start using Chrome, the Omnibox is going to feel a little strange. It will take a few uses for you to become accustomed to the way the Omnibox works, and it might even take a little longer than that for you to change your habits to take full advantage of it.
Once you are used to it and use all the features of the Omnibox, however, you’ll find that going back to some other browser is just…uncomfortable.
And Then There Are Page Controls
As good as the Omnibox is, there are still a few more controls that you might want to know how to access. These controls—the page controls—let you use the browser more efficiently. The Page menu on the right end of the Omnibox looks like a page with one corner turned down.
The Page menu is where you find most of the basic controls that you can use on a page, plus a couple of extras. You also find some keyboard shortcuts in this menu. Table 4.1 shows you all the commands available through this menu, what the command does, and what the keyboard shortcut is, if there is one.
Table 4.1 Chrome Page Controls
Command | Purpose | Keyboard Shortcut |
Create Application Shortcuts | Opens a dialog box that allows you to create a shortcut to the current page from your desktop, Start menu, or Quick Start bar. | None |
Cut | Cut (or copy) highlighted text. | Ctrl+X |
Copy | Copies highlighted text. | Ctrl+C |
Paste | Pastes copied (or cut) text into the spot where the cursor is located in a document. | Ctrl+V |
Find in Page | Opens a search bar specific to the page that you’re on (shown in Figure 4.5). | Ctrl+F |
Save Page As | Opens a dialog box to save the current web page to your hard drive. | Ctrl+S |
Prints the current web page. | Ctrl+P | |
Zoom | Zooms in to the text on a page. | Ctrl++ (Zoom in), Ctrl+- (Zoom out), Ctrl+0 (Return to Normal View) |
Encoding | Opens a list of available encoding types (shown in Figure 4.6). | None |
Developer | Opens the Developer menu | None |
Report Bug or Broken Web Site | Opens a dialog box (shown in Figure 4.7) that allows you to report a bug or broken web page. Fill in the requested information and click Send to report issues. | None |
Figure 4.5
Chrome includes a search bar that’s specific to the web page you’re surfing.
Figure 4.6
If your page doesn’t render properly, you can select a different type of page encoding to see if that might improve the rendering.
Figure 4.7
Report broken web pages or functions on pages that don’t work properly so the team at Chrome can continually improve the browser.
Page controls are only one part of the controls available in Chrome. Another menu, discussed in the next section, gives you control over the behavior of the browser and access to additional tools that help you more easily navigate the Web.
More Customization and Controls
The other menu available in the Chrome interface, the Tools menu, is found under the wrench icon. This customization and controls menu is much like the Page menu; you have access to point-and-click controls as well as keyboard shortcuts that make navigation much faster. Table 4.2 outlines the capabilities found in this menu.
Table 4.2 Chrome Customization Controls
Command | Purpose | Keyboard Shortcut |
New Tab | Opens a new tab within the browser window | Ctrl+T |
New Window | Opens a new browsing window | Ctrl+N |
New Incognito Window | Opens a new incognito window | Ctrl+Shift+N |
Always Show Bookmark Bar | Enables the Bookmark bar directly below the Omnibox | Ctrl+B |
History | Shows your surfing history | Ctrl+H |
Bookmark Manager | Opens the Bookmark Manager | Ctrl+Shift+B |
Downloads | Opens the Download folder | Ctrl+J |
Clear Browsing Data | Clears the history and other stored data from your browser’s cache | None |
Import Bookmarks and Settings | Imports bookmarks and settings saved in another browser | None |
Options | Opens a new window that provides many options (shown in Figure 4.8). These options are discussed in the following sections. | None |
About Google Chrome | Opens a dialog box with information about Google Chrome (including version number) | None |
Help | Opens Google’s help pages | F1 |
Exit | Closes the browser, including all open tabs | Alt+F4 |
The Options command opens an additional window of customization options for Chrome.
The Basics Tab
When the Options window opens, it should automatically open to the Basics tab. Four sections on this tab give you options for how Chrome behaves:
On Startup—This section of the menu gives you options for how Chrome should behave when it’s opened. You can choose to have it start on the home page, to restore tabs that were open when the browser was last closed, or to open a list of specified websites. This list includes any websites that are important to you. Just select Open the Following Pages and then click Add. A new window like the one in Figure 4.9 appears. Select the website you want to have opened, or type the address of the desired website into the text box provided. You can enter as many websites as you want.
Figure 4.9
Add specific websites to open automatically each time you open the Chrome browser.
Home Page—This option allows you to set how you want your browser home page to appear. You can choose the new tab that opens your nine most visited websites, or you can set a specific page to open as your home page. The other option that you find here is the option to show the Home Page button on the toolbar.
Default Search—Google is the search engine for Chrome by default, but you do have other options, and this is where you set those options. You can choose from Google, Yahoo!, Live Search, AOL, and Ask. And if you click the Manage button, a Search Engines window opens that you can use to add additional search engines to your options, as shown in Figure 4.10.
Default Browser—This is where you make Chrome your default browser. If Chrome is already your default browser, a green notification appears in this section. If there is no notification, click the Make Google Chrome My Default Browser button and Chrome replaces whatever browser you currently have set as default.
Figure 4.10
Even though Google is the default search engine, you can choose the search engines that you’re most comfortable using.
The Minor Tweaks Tab
The next tab in the Chrome Options window is the Minor Tweaks tab. This tab provides options that let you set three of the ways in which Chrome behaves. These include
Download Location—This is where you set your download location. By default, Chrome downloads go into a Downloads folder on your hard drive, but you can choose to be asked where files should go each time a new download starts.
Passwords—Here is where you choose whether Chrome should offer to save website passwords for you. You can also view the websites and usernames for which the passwords are saved (shown in Figure 4.11) when you click the Show Saved Passwords option.
Fonts and Languages—Use the button in this section to open the Fonts and Languages dialog box, where you can manage the fonts and languages that appear in Chrome.
Figure 4.11Show Saved Passwords in the Passwords section of the Minor Tweaks tab to see a list of the websites for which you have saved usernames and passwords.
Click
The Under the Hood Tab
The final tab in the Options window is a bit different from the first two. This tab contains multiple check boxes and additional buttons that allow you to set your privacy preferences, network proxy settings, web content settings, and security settings.
Most of these settings should be left at the default level unless you have a specific need to change them. For example, phishing and malware protection is enabled by default. You can disable it, but then you won’t get the phishing and malware notifications and protection that are automatically enabled in Chrome.
Still, if you need to change these settings, you can return to defaults at any time by clicking the Reset to Default button at the bottom of the screen. This resets all the option settings that you have changed.
Closing the Door
By now, you’ve figured out that Chrome is very different from any other browser available today. The Omnibox is one of the most useful and most interesting differences from an interface standpoint. And while the customization and controls are similar to other web browsers, there are a few interesting new features there, as well.
Some other features of Chrome aren’t quite as obvious, too. One of those features is unparalleled stability. Since stability has been a major issue with other browsers, you’ll be interested to know that the Chrome designers put a lot of thought into creating a browser that’s stable under even the worst conditions. Keep reading, because it’s covered in all the detail you need in Chapter 5, “Stability on the Net.”
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