Everyone needs to open their eyes to the world of extensions, and no we’re not talking about the kind that you attach to your head or stick on the side of your house to give you that beautiful open plan kitchen you’ve always dreamt of. We’re talking about extensions in the digital world, they are small software programmes that can modify and enhance the functionality of your browser. Josh, our Web Admin has summed up his top 10 favourite extensions for us.
Grammarly
(link: https://www.grammarly.com/ text: Grammarly) is probably one of my favourite extension, in a nutshell, Grammarly is your personal proof-reader embedded directly into your browser. “Why can’t I just write it in Microsoft word and have that spell check my work?” I hear you cry! Well, unlike word Grammarly finds errors and confused words within text making it a much more comprehensive tool. Did I also mention it’s embedded directly into the browser!?!
Awesome screenshot
Have you ever needed to screenshot a website but had half the text cut off or your ticket sliced down the middle? Or taken several screenshots and tried pasting them together in Photoshop (or heaven forbid in Microsoft paint!) like some strange, unnecessary 21st century jigsaw puzzle? That’s where (link: https://www.awesomescreenshot.com/ text: Awesome Screenshot) comes in, a small button at the top of the browser that lets you capture the entire page pastes them together for you. It even let’s you preview the screenshot, make annotations and crop before allowing you to save. A must have tool for anyone.
ColorZilla
“What was the hex value for that blue that was on your website?” Instead of trawling through lines of code to find the exact blue, or just finding something that’s ‘close’ by eye, (link: http://www.colorzilla.com/ text: ColorZilla) lets you find the exact Hex value (and RGB values) directly within the browser, no hard work necessary. Now isn’t that neat?
Pushbullet
(link: https://www.pushbullet.com/ text: Pushbullet) is like the marriage counsellor for your phone and your computer, letting both entities seamlessly share information between one another. The free mobile app is available on both IOS and Android. Have a photo on your phone that you want to use in a document? Simply push it through the extension… it’s that easy. There are many other features for Pushbullet, including reading and responding to texts on your PC. I love Pushbullet and it’s normally the first extension that I install.
(image: https://www.superdream.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/pushbullet-1024×576.jpg alt: pushbullet)
OneTab
Now all of these extensions are primarily for Google Chrome, which in my opinion is the best browser. However its biggest asset is also its biggest flaw. It’s so heavy on the ram, especially if you’re anything like me who when writing this has, in total, 37 chrome tabs open across 3 windows. Now believe me when I tell you, this is putting some load on my CPU. (link: https://www.one-tab.com/ text: OneTab) saves the URL of each tab and closes all of the windows, allowing you to open each tab back up as you need them, vastly speeding up the PC’s performance.
Momentum
Now I really don’t want to offend chromes feelings here, but the new tab window is a little boring! (link: https://momentumdash.com/ text: Momentum) changes this by bring a personalised message, beautiful photos straight to your tab, a to-do list, weather information, a drop-down menu for useful links and more! The whole experience is very polished and feels very inviting.
(image: https://www.superdream.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Momentum-1024×708.png alt: Momentum)
Tag Assistant
If you hang out in the Superdream office for long enough you will hear someone babble on about google analytics and tracking codes. (link: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tag-assistant-by-google/kejbdjndbnbjgmefkgdddjlbokphdefk?hl=en text: Tag Assistant) lets us see if a website is being tracked correctly, definitely something you should look into if you like google analytics and don’t like headaches.
Bitly
For some reason the internet likes to make URL’s really long. Like really really long. This makes sharing links on social media impossible, email links just ugly and useful web-pages hard to remember. What (link: https://bitly.com/ text: Bitly) does is cleverly shorten the URL into something easy to remember, e.g. http://bit.ly/theshare this link can be tracked through their website and your account to see how many times it’s been opened and where the user opened it. Very good if you want to know if someone actually opened that link you sent them!
(image: https://www.superdream.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Bitly-1024×322.png alt: Bitly)
1Password
Internet security is something we all go on and on about doing but in reality, having a different password for every single account that consists of 32 characters, 6 symbols, 4 numbers, 3 star constellations and 2 unicorn horns can sometimes be hard to remember. (link: https://agilebits.com/ text: 1Password) does the legwork for you, all you have to do is remember your one master password. It will then randomly generate a secure password for every account to make sure your internet security is up to scratch. A must have for anyone in this digital era. There is also a mobile app for both IOS and Android that syncs to your account.
(link: https://getpocket.com/ text: Pocket) lets you save items you find during the day on your internet travels to read and watch when the time is right for you. For example, every day I have a 2 hour commute on the trains to and from work, so for 4 hours a day I find myself sat phone in hand with a reasonable 4g connection. It’s at these times that I turn to pocket. A beautiful chrome extension that pairs up to a mobile app (both on IOS and Android) neatly displaying the articles and videos without any of the flashy adverts and distracting formatting.