Get the Google Apps you need directly from your Chrome Menu

As a teacher in a G Suites school, I use Google Apps (Docs, Forms, Drawings, etc.) all the time. And I need fast access to them if I'm going to get anything done.

The following two Chrome extensions, used in conjunction, make my life so much easier. Let me make your life easier, too.

Part One:

The first extension is App Launcher Customizer for Google™ .

Install it, and you can customize the App Launcher that appears on any Google App page in the upper right-hand corner. (It looks like a 3x3 grid of blocks.)



Click on the extension in your Chrome Menu and you'll see this screen.

Just drag all the apps you use into the "My services" window, and all the one that you DON'T want out of the "My services" window back into the "Available" window.

There are an AWFUL LOT of Available apps! Use the Search feature to find the ones you're looking for.

I personally like to keep my App Launcher window clean, so I ruthlessly limit it to 12 icons. Any time a new one comes in, an old one goes out, but you can cram it as full of apps as you wish.

Part Two:

The second extension is App Launcher in popup

After installing this, it will put the app launcher icon directly on your Chrome Menu.

The biggest advantage is now I don't have to be on a Google-related page to access the App Launcher, and now I have access to the apps I need on a daily basis, and only those apps, from anywhere in Chrome.

Supercharge your Google Apps with Add-ons and Chrome with Extensions

ICYMI - From today's Mimi Charnoff Professional Development Day, my list of my go-to Add-ons for Google Apps (Docs, Forms, Slides) and my favorites extensions for Chrome.

REMINDER: Extensions only work in Chrome on a Chromebook, a PC or a Mac. They do NOT work on Chrome on a phone or tablet (iPad, etc.) as they are not true Chrome browsers.

Google Doc Add-ons
Change Case	For those typing mistakes - ALL CAPS all gone
Extensis Fonts	Find precisely the right font
Kaizena	Add voice comments to a shared doc thru Google Classroom
Highlight Tool	Share labeled highlighter categories
Sefaria	Add Jewish texts directly to docs
In an open Google Doc, go to Add-ons.

Google Form Add-ons
123RF Stock Photos	Free photos to insert into Forms
All Questions Required?	For Quizzes - Click when finished
CheckItOut	For keeping track of inventory
Form Publisher	Convert to Doc, Slide, Sheet
Form Limiter	Limit time or number of responses
PaperScorer	Create bubble sheet from form - scan w/ phone to score

Google Slides Add-Ons - NEW!
AdobeStock	Free photos to insert into Slides
ShutterStock
Unsplash Photos
Pear Deck	Create formative assessments and interactive slides
Slides Toolbox	One-click for repeated tasks

Supercharge Chrome with Extensions
Office Editing for Docs, Sheets and Slides	Edit Microsoft Office files with converting to Docs, etc.
Save to Pocket	Save articles to read later
AdBlock	Blocks ads online
Convert web page Adobe PDF	Does what it says
Share to Classroom	Post or push site to Google Classroom
Send from Gmail	Click and e-mail webpage
Google Keep Extension	Save directly to Keep
Mercury Reader	Declutters distracting pages
Readability Redux	Declutter and open multi-page articles
ShoutKey	Create a temp, real-word URL shortcut
Empty New Tab Page	New tabs open blank
Google Dictionary	Double-click on a word for its definition
OneTab	Turn all your tabs into 1 link page
Google Input Tool	Translate, transliterate into other languages
G Suite Training	On-screen tutorials within Google Apps
Accent Grid	If you need to insert foreign accents
Alice Keeler Gradebook Split	Opens Rediker in parallel window from Classroom
Drive20	Opens up to 20 docs in separate tabs

Screen Reading Showdown - PageZipper, Mercury Reader, Readability Redux

There's a lot of good stuff out there on the web. But reading on a computer monitor can be very uncomfortable.

First of all, the text is often shoved over into a skinny column while annoying ads hog most of the real estate on one or both sides.

Or those Wikitext articles that cover the entire screen in print.

Or that dreaded notice on the bottom "Click here for next page."

There are Chrome extensions to handle each of these problems individually, but there's one that handles them both.

PageZipper 

The first extension is PageZipper, available here on the Chrome Store, and it does just what its name claims. Install and click on the extension, and it will take a multi-page article and zip it together into one long continuous screen.

Here is screenshot showing the transition from the bottom of the first page to the top of the second.

But if there are ads at the bottom of each page, you still have to wade through all of them to get to the next page. And it does nothing to remove the distracting ads or increase the print size.

Mercury Reader

To deal with the crowded or cluttered page, there is Mercury Reader, available here on the Chrome Store. It is heir to such dearly departed extensions as Read Now and Clearly.

Mercury Reader cleans up the page, keeps the illustrations, eliminates the advertisements and extraneous information, and allows you to read in large, uncluttered print on your screen.

If you click on the Settings gear in the top right corner (not pictured) you can choose between serif and sans serif and adjust the size of the font.

Unfortunately, Mercury Reader will not display all the pages of a multi-page article.

Readability Redux

However, Readability Redux does all these things. It's customizable,  cleans up the page and displays all the pages of a multi-page article on one screen.

Caveat - the following extension can no longer be found by searching the Chrome Store, but this link will bring you to it directly. It hasn't been updated in 6 years, but it still works and it works better than any other extension at solving both these problems at once.

However, it does take a moment to set up to your liking. Right-click the extension and go to Options.

Fine tune your settings (you can see what they will look like as you choose) for Style, Print Size, and Margin Width.

Not only does Readability Redux remove all the ads and give you a nice readable, uncluttered page, it also automatically sews together all the pages from a multi-page article.

Here's a screen shot of the transition from the first to second page:

So despite its age and limited availability, Readability Redux is still my go-to extension for reading anything on my monitor.

Doc Hub - One Minor Plus over Kami

Although I enthused recently over Kami, the Chrome app Doc Hub has some features to recommend it. The free version is fine for having students fill in pdfs.

You still need to direct it to save in Google Drive; it will not do so automatically. It also saves its own copy of the edited document, so if a student forgets to save it to Google Drive, it is not irretrievably lost.

The one feature it has that I really like is a silly one, but it makes my life easier.

You can insert all sorts of symbols on the document, like check marks and exes.

You can change the size of the symbol and its fill color.

True, you could use the Draw feature on Kami (and as I use a pen stylus instead of a mouse, I can actually drawing something that looks pretty decent - wouldn't want to try that with a mouse). But I like being able to insert those symbols directly on to the students' filled out pdf "papers."