Chapter 20

Ten Handy Shortcuts

Chromebook was definitely made to be easy to use right out of the box. It’s not a self-driving car, but it’s almost as easy. Get it out, plug it in, turn it on, and follow the prompts: You’ll be up and running in less than five minutes. Still, even though Chromebook is very usable, you may want to do some further customization. This chapter contains ten tips, tricks, and shortcuts to make your Chromebook experience more productive — or at least a little more fun.

Google Search from the App Launcher

The Google platform is baked into the Chromebook and Chrome OS. That was the point when Chromebook was created: Create a tool that’s powered almost exclusively by the extensive Google ecosystem of applications. Well, bravo, Google — you did it. One way in which the Google platform is integrated into Chrome OS is the Chromebook Search feature. When you open the App Launcher or press the Search button on your keyboard, a Search bar is revealed. Type a search query into the bar and press Enter. Chromebook serves you Google search results. In a Chrome browser window. It becomes second nature very quickly.

Quick Reboot

No computer is perfect, and although some manufacturers like to make you think that you’ll never need to reboot your computer, you almost always will. The longer you use your Chromebook, the more gunked up the memory will become with remnant websites, applications, data, and so on. You can reboot your computer a number of ways, but the fastest ...

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