Chrome OS and Chromebook Tricks

Welcome

Your Chromebook can do more than you think! So let's have some fun and make your Chromebook your own! We know plenty of tips and tricks that will help you personalize your Chromebook to the maximum! You might not think that your Chromebook is not very customizable, but I will prove you wrong!
Navigate some recent and featured articles by using the top bar! This is the quickest way to view content and other things. Remember to keep an eye on it so you can find the newest articles quickly. To browse the rest of the articles and see what's new, use the bar on the side of the screen. You can also use it to see who has contributed to helping our site and see a random tip. All of the random tips can be browsed in the tip archive,
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Please only edit our site if you would like to add some tips. You will lose access if you mess up our site and we can undo changes made with a couple of clicks. Griefers, you have been warned...

!Public Tip Center!

This is where you can see tips, information, ideas, and questions that other people have, all in one place. You can post here, too! Just click on that new post button and write down what you want! And don't forget to be apart of the rest of the discussion, too!

What Features do you Wish Were Added to Chromebooks?

I would like to know what different features that you would like added to your Chromebook.

About/Milestones

This is where you can see information about us, our milestones, statistics, website updates, and much more, all from one place! Whenever we make a change to this website, we will try and post it here. That's all there is to say about this tab...

Top Bar Removed

We removed the bar that was at the top of the screen. It would allow you to quickly see the recent posts and more, but we have removed it. We removed it because it was starting to cause a lot of problems. On some pages it would not even show up. So for right now, we are just going to get rid of it. It may come back soon, but I don't know. Anyways, thanks for reading this and I hope that I will see you guys soon...

Effects

This is where you see some cool effects and customization things for your Chromebook. These are things that you will usually have to create yourself, so these might be harder for you if you are a lazy type of person. Have fun customizing your Chromebook with unique and cool effects!

No-Label Bookmark Bar

Have you ever wanted a bookmarks bar that has no labels? There are plenty of reasons why you might want to have this. More space, more visual, spell out a message, etc.

It's actually really easy to do this! All you have to do is edit the bookmark and remove the bookmark name(not url).

And that's it! I hope you learned something new!

Rainbow Shelf

The Chrome OS shelf is where all of your pinned apps are stored, but it's not that customizable. All you can do is pin apps, enable accessibility stuff, auto-hide it, change where it is on the screen, and change the color depending on your wallpaper. And that's about it. But have you ever wanted an animated rainbow shelf that changes color automatically? Well, I can get that for you!

The first step is to disable the autohide shelf setting. This is really easy to do. If you don't have this done already and you want to know how to do it, here you go:
1. Right click on the taskbar. A menu like this should pop up.

If it shows the option to enable autohide shelf than you are good. If it says always show shelf, then turn that on.
2. Make sure that your shelf is at the bottom of your screen. Right click on your shelf and go to shelf position and select bottom.

Your shelf is now ready. The next step is to go to this website: https://www.gradient-animator.com/
Once you are there, click on the three dots menu.

Go to more tools, and select create shortcut.

Once this is selected, check the open as a window box and then hit create.

Now this should be on your shelf. Resize it so that there is some space between the area off the shelf and the shelf, and make it so it goes all the way from the left to the right of the screen.

Now you can set the speed, colors, and angle that you want. Click on preview to start the gradient. After you do that you have to click on the option so your window is not fullscreen. This way you can put the gradient under the shelf.

Click on the square in the middle. Now you should be able to resize it so it fits the whole screen. Now you can put the gradient window under the shelf!
There you go!

Hidden Settings

Your Chromebook has a lot of different hidden settings that will allow you to do a lot of different things when it comes to customization and features. Here we will show you hwo to get some of those features, and then you can enjoy them, too!

Blur Effect

If you would like a blur effect under things such as the shelf, app launcher, volume slider, and many more things then you should check this out.
To enable the blur effect, first go to chrome://flags.
Next search up blur and enable the one that says Enable Background Blur.

Hit the restart now button at the bottom of the screen and enjoy!

Check For Updates

I created this for anybody who would like to know how to check for updates on their Chromebook. It is not like a normal computer and is kind of hidden. So I am going to show you step by step how to check for updates on your Chromebook so you can be the first to get new features.

The first step is to open up the settings app. This can be done by clicking on the area where the number of notifications you have and the time are located.

Next up click on the three bars right by the word settings at the top of the screen.

A bar should come up on the side of the screen. At the very bottom there is text that says about Chrome OS. Click on that.

You should be brought to a screen like this. Now all you have to do is click on the check for updates button! Thanks for reading!

Compact List Mode

Do you like having more things on your screen at a time? If yes, we have something that you might like for Google Drive! Keep in mind that so far this only works in list mode. This will allow you to have things on your screen more compact.

This is how Google Docs list view looks by default. However, there are different density options that I am going to go over. That is compact by the way.
Changing the density of items in your Google Drive is actually really simple and easy! The first step is to go to your Google Drive settings.

Now all you have to do is select the density option dropdown and select the one that you like. If you don't know what one to use, don't worry! We will attach an image of what each option looks like!

This is what the cozy option looks like:

And this is what the compact option looks like:

Pick one that you think best suits you! Remember that these do not affect it when in tile mode! Thank you for reading and I hope that you learned something new!

Enable Google Assistant Beta

The Google assistant is now on our Chromebooks! If you would like to test it out, then we will tell you! Keep in mind that it is still a work in progress, so everything might not work or work as expected. Although not required, a phone is recommended for some of the setup.
First type into the url bar(not the search bar) the following: chrome://flags
Once you are there, type into the search bar assistant. 3 options should come up. Use the dropdowns and set all 3 of them to enabled.

Now at the bottom of your screen there should be a button that says restart now. Hit that button. Your Chromebook will restart, but you will still be signed in.
Once your Chromebook has restarted, you know that you did this right because your launcher icon will have a filled in circle.

Now go to your settings. Scroll down to search and assistant. The last setting in that category should be the Google Assistant. Click on it.

Now, make sure that it is on. These are the settings that I recommend using for it:

Related info - On
Ok Google - Off (Using your voice will not work yet)
Notifications - On
Preferred Input - Off

Once you have it on, you can use it by clicking on the launcher icon and then hitting the 4 different colored dots or pressing search+a. Anyways, have fun playing with your new assistant!

Save Storage

Are you running low on storage on your Chromebook? Well, lucky for you I know how you can free some up! There are plenty of different methods that can get you lots of storage back for whatever you need it for!
First, let's try clearing the cache. Hold down ctrl, shift, and then hit the backspace key. A screen should pop-up that looks like this:

Select cached images and files and then hit clear data. Some storage will be saved! Do this often to save the most storage that you can. You would be surprised how quickly the cache fills up.
Next, you can move all of your downloaded files to your Google Drive.
Open up the files app. Hit Ctrl and then hit the A key. All of the files should be selected. Move all of them to your Google Drive. Once they are all done being copied, delete them from your download folder. If there are some that you would still need to use that is in your drive, right click on them in the file app and then hit the available offline button.

And there you go! I hope you have some more space free! Thanks for reading and I will see you soon.

Set as Wallpaper

Here's a quick tip for setting your wallpaper! If you right click on an image in the files app (not on the Google Drive website) then there should be a set as wallpaper option. Click on that and it will instantly set that image as your wallpaper.

Anyways, that all that I have to say! Thank you for reading this and I will see you again soon!

This Tip Could Save Your Chromebook

THIS IS IMPORTANT!!! This tip may save you from a lot of problems if you mess something up with your Chromebook. I'm not just saying that so you will spend more time on our site. This is serious!!! I have already had to fix a bunch of different people's Chromebooks because of this issue.
Let's say that for some reason your Chromebook enters tablet mode. Our Chromebooks are not a touchscreen, so that should not happen. But it does sometimes. So, what's the big deal? Just disable it or restart your Chromebook? Well, tablet mode disables both the keyboard and the mouse. So, how are you going to be able to escape? Well, I can help you. The first step is to get a mouse that you plug into your Chromebook. If it has a USB at all then it will be okay. If you don't have one then try to get one from somebody else.
Next, click on the area where the time is with the mouse. You can move the plugged in mouse, but not the trackpad. Go to accessibility, and go down to the on-screen keyboard. Next, open up a new tab and type into the omnibox (box at the top of the screen) "chrome://flags". Once you type that in, hit the arrow button on the on-screen keyboard. Now, look for one that says Force Enable UI Mode or something along the lines of that. Select the clamshell option from the dropdown.

Now, click on the restart now button on the bottom of the screen. That will restart your Chromebook. That's all that there is to say! I hope you enjoyed and I will see you guys soon...

Other

This is where all of the non-categorized stuff is. Here you can find some random information, useful stuff, or really anything that we don't have a category for. Anyways, I hope you like the extra stuff that we are going to put here! There is not much else to say about this. It's an extra tab.

All Blocked Webistes

Disclaimer: None of the websites that are blocked by iBoss are listed here. Only the ones that our school has chosen to block manually.

Here is a list of all of the manually blocked websites.
This list was last updated on 3/12/2019.

• https://sites.google.com/site/millseagles
• https://sites.google.com/site/newstudyhall
• https://hangouts.google.com
• https://www.fanfiction.net
• https://www.wattpad.com
• https://aminoapps.com
• https://soundcloud.com
• https://secure.imvu.com
• https://instachatrooms.com

There you go! Those are all of the manually blocked websites! Tell me if you find any more! You can tell if the website is manually blocked because it will show a screen like this(when connected to school Wi-Fi, will show default iBoss screen if not):

Anonymous Secret

When you view a document in Google Docs, sheets, slides, or anything that was made by someone outside of your organization, you appear as a random animal. Did you know that there is a secret animal that is really hard to get? It is the Nyan Cat, and I don't like it, but you may.

Anyways, I hope that you learned something new today! Thank you for reading this and I will see you soon!

Common Shortcuts I Use Daily

I stopped using the new tab and close buttons a long time ago. Now I use shortcuts. Here are some of the ones I use every single day.

ctrl + w
Close tab
Ctrl + tab
Change tab
ctrl + t
New tab

Those are some of the basic common shortcuts that I use daily! Thank you for reading this and I hope to see you soon...

Discover App

Hello there! Today we are going to be teaching you about the kind of new discover app. Right now this app will not do much, but I am expecting more to come to it in the future. So let's take a look at what it can do right now.
When you open up the app, it will bring you to this screen:

Let's take a look at what the 3 different options do.
First, we have the redeem your offers button. Clicking on this will bring you to a website where you can get stuff just for having a Chromebook!

The second button that says get help will allow you to open up the get help application. Nothing too different.
And the last button, the one that says sync my files will just bring you to a page that will teach you how to sync your files.
Anyways, I hope you learned something new. Thank you for reading this!

Tip Archive

This is the place where we archive all of the tips that we have placed for some time on the sidebar! If you would like to know some more or less known tips about your Chromebook quickly than this is the correct place for you!

Maybe if enough of you guys sent emails to the school admins we could get Android applications back on our Chromebooks. Just saying...

Change your display resolution in the settings to make things on your screen bigger or smaller. If you like to have more space than I recommend having it smaller. If you like things being bigger and easier to select than I recommend having a larger resolution.

Having your shelf (place where all of the pinned apps are) on the left or right side of the screen might be cool, but there is more space for more apps if you move it to the bottom!

Websites

Here are some cool websites that you can show you and your friends that do cool things. All of these do different things, so I suggest that you just play around with them. Try combining some of these with some of the other cool things that you have learned about in our website for some cool effects!

More Websites

Want even more websites? Then check out our frequently updated blog, where we post cool new websites that you might not know about. Here's a link: internetgemhunt.blogspot.com

Wayback Machine

The wayback machine is a website that allows you to visit older versions of other websites for free. All you have to do is put in the name or link to a website in the search bar on the main screen, and then you are instantly taken to that website. You can browse the history of many different websites.

Anyways, that is all for right now! Thank you for reading this and I will see you soon...