Since their creation and the first and most popular alternatives, they have evolved, changed and more than ever, become an increasingly necessary element in what we do on the Internet. We are talking about browsers.
More than the gateway to access the most diverse sites, browsers are essential in many things we do and that are not restricted to pure and simple access to a blog, for example.
Mastering and controlling its operation, implies in facilities at work and leisure, finding what you need, speed in navigation and even greater productivity.
For these reasons, today we are going to bring you the main “tricks” that the most popular browsers offer.
Why know and use the main features, functions and browser customization?
As we mentioned, unlike the early years of the Internet, when its role was just to access any website, today it is not an exaggeration to say that without web browsers, not even working would be possible, or perhaps it would be much more difficult than it is.
Have you ever stopped to think about how many things depend on them?
Access to your files stored in the cloud, the webmail of your professional and/or personal email account, the company’s intranet and possibly several of the systems that the organization has, remote communication services, online office suites, your EaD system college or company training / recycling and Internet Banking.
By resorting to memory, this list can grow enormously, but it is enough to realize how crucial they are today.
Some will say that there are applications and even programs linked to several of these examples. It is also true.
However, through the browser, none of this needs to be installed, taking up disk space, consuming more memory and processing, producing a window for each program in use and making the system slower operating system.
It is even based on this concept that the emergence of Chromebooks and the Chrome OS operating system and more recently Chrome OS Flex was possible.
For those who don’t know them, the hardware (represented by Chromebooks) and the operating system (Chrome OS and Flex) are much more modest than traditional notebooks and the most popular operating systems (Windows, Linux and MacOS) and that’s why , are smaller, more portable, consume less battery and are cheaper, among other advantages.
Among their features, the one that stands out is the access to everything – or almost everything – in the cloud through from a browser, based on the concept that nothing needs to be installed and there will always be some online alternative for to programs that we traditionally had installed on the notebook or desktop.
The most conservative and averse to changes, the most hostages of paradigms, the skeptical and distrustful, may still be stuck to the old ways of doing things. things, but there is already a huge contingent of users who have joined.
It is for these that the companies behind the main web browsers have increasingly created features, functions and making customization flexible, in order to make the use more and more intense, more and more simple and at the same time, more powerful.
If you belong to this group or want to change – for the better – the way of doing things things and enjoy the benefits that the world wide web offers, let’s get down to business…
Useful browser features, functions and customizations
Before you let’s start to list the set of facilities and modifications that are available, it is worth highlighting two aspects.
Let’s get down to it to the native features of each browser. Therefore, those that are obtained through browser addons or extensions are left out. The main reasons for this is that extensions exist in droves, each with different characteristics and, above all, because they are created by third parties, which can be insecure or affect performance and resource consumption.
O second point is that not every feature is present in all browsers and, therefore, we will inform you in which each one is present.
1. Pin Tabs/Tabs
Are there websites or pages that you have to access every time you open your browser?
Suppose you have an internal company system , or the intranet, or the webmail, or the three things and it is always necessary to have the pages and the respective tabs when opening the browser at the beginning of the day, just place the mouse cursor on each tab, click with the right button and on the drop-down menu and select the option “pin tab” (MS Edge and Firefox) and “pin” (Chrome and Brave).
The pin pinned tab will be positioned on the left and will have a smaller horizontal size, displaying only the page’s favicon, but whenever the browser is opened, it will be in that position and the respective page will be loaded.
You can set as many tabs as you want, as well as the order in which they are arranged can be changed by dragging and dropping to the desired position.
Right-clicking on any one that has been fixed displays, among others, the option to “unset affix”.
2. Tab Groups
Do you have multiple websites open and need to switch between them? But due to the large number of guides, their width becomes very narrow, preventing you from being able to read what each one refers to.
It is possible to place the mouse cursor over each one and expect to be the balloon with the page title is displayed. But what if there are 20 of them? It can be a bit time consuming to find the one you want or need to access.
One of the alternatives is to create groups, in cases where there are common factors, such as those related to the company’s systems, websites of suppliers, service providers and others.
When creating groups, you have the related tabs gathered and grouped under the same color and name, so you can visually identify in which group to place the mouse cursor.
Creating a group is simple. Just right-click on the one you want to include and select “add guide to a group”.
If you already have one or more groups created, just select the desired one. You can create and add a new one, defining the name and color of the group.
It is also possible to remove or change a group tab through the drop-down menu when clicking on each one, or include or change groups by dragging and dropping over the interest group.
Another advantage of groups is that by right-clicking on it, it is possible to close all the tabs related to the group.
The feature is only available natively for Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome. Firefox and Brave don’t have it.
3. Omnibox
Created by Google for your browser, the address field or URL of the site, gained more than the function of containing the link or domain of the site you want to access.
Most browsers have adopted the feature and today they allow you to perform a search on the default search site, typing the keywords you want to search for and pressing “enter”. That is, you don’t have to open the search engine and then type what you want.
Many people know that. What they don’t know is that when opening a new tab, when typing the name of a page (meta tag) already open, in addition to the search suggestions options, the corresponding page and the option “switch to the tab” will appear.
That is, it is a way to quickly locate a tab among several.
The feature is available for Chrome, Firefox, Brave and MS Edge, and in the latter , does not work for pinned tabs.
4. Vertical guides
For now only present in Edge, the vertical guides feature was created as an interesting alternative for those who often have to deal with many guides.
What it basically does is display the tabs arranged vertically on the left, making reading the name of each one possible, even if you have dozens of them open.
Groups of tabs and pinned are maintained and viewing and usage becomes even more interesting.
5. Reading
Interactive reader or immersive reader, is another interesting native resource, especially for sites with a lot of textual content, but which also contains other elements that can make reading difficult or complicated, such as those that contain a lot of advertising.
In the only browsers that offer it as standard – MS Edge and Firefox – just press F9 and that causes the view to be drastically changed, removing practically everything that does not represent content material, including possible advertising, such as banners, background images, menus and other elements that are not textual.
In addition, both in Microsoft browser and in Mozilla, the reading features are enabled aloud and which consists of a built-in reader that verbalizes the text, allowing you to choose the voice and reading speed.
In this mode, it is also available to choose the font and its size, alignment and even background and text colors, which is especially useful in terms of accessibility.
6. Reading List
This is another exclusive feature, but from Google Chrome.
By right-clicking on the tab and selecting “Add tab reading list”, it is possible to store a list of pages in the browser for later reading, without having to add the URL to favorites.
Another benefit of the feature is that the contents are synchronized in your Google account, if you are logged into your account, allowing you to continue reading on other devices.
7. Collections
Another feature only present in MS Edge, collections allow you to collect page links, an entire page, text excerpts, images, that is, any selectable component of a page and grouping them in groups and being accessible by the shortcut CTRL + SHIFT + Y.
It is a particularly useful resource for those who are gathering information and diverse content from different pages and sites and that they need to access later.
Collections are synced across your connected devices, so if you use Microsoft Edge on multiple devices, your collections will always be up to date on all of them.
8. Link to highlighted content
Do you need to send a link to a certain content, but do you need to highlight a specific excerpt?
Both MS Edge and Google Chrome, offer this solution.
Select the text you want to highlight, click on it with the right mouse button and use the option “copy link to highlighted text”.
When performing the procedure, you will have available a link that, once accessed, will take the user exactly to the highlighted section, which will appear selected, as you did.
Conclusion
Knowing the features and functions of the browser you use allows for a more efficient, faster and more personalized use, improving your experience and productivity.
