James T. Cains

Article / Updated 04-27-2023

Google Chrome takes seriously the privacy and security of your content while you browse the web, because, like it or not, there are certain people out there who will try to take advantage of you by trying to get a hold of the information on your computer. As with most things in life, it’s better to be safe than sorry when protecting your personal information. If you’re working with a personal (that is, non-work) computer, managing these settings is your responsibility. But if you’re using a work computer, you may find that your employer’s IT department is already enforcing some of these settings according to its security policy. Those settings will appear grayed-out and with a little buildings icon next to it, meaning that you can’t change them. Here’s a rundown of what all those content privacy settings mean. Cookies Cookies allow external websites to store information on your computer to help them remember you. This information may include the last time you visited the site, the links you’ve clicked, and so on. You may not want external websites to set that kind of data on your computer, or your employer may not want them to. Just check the box to block third-party cookies and site data if you don’t want websites to have that kind of access. Images Deciding whether to show images on websites isn’t really a security concern, but not showing images can speed up your browsing considerably. You’ll miss out on a lot, though. You may only want to disable images if your connection is very slow or if you’re on a data plan (for example, if you’re on the road and tethering your laptop to your phone’s data connection so that you can access the internet). Downloading images can eat into your allowed data quickly, and if you’re interested only in the text, why waste your data? JavaScript JavaScript can be a major security concern. JavaScript applications are tiny programs that run on websites. Most above-board websites use JavaScript in a positive, nonthreatening way, such as gathering website traffic data (that is, tracking where you go and what you click on their website). However, some not-so-nice websites can use JavaScript to try to get at the information on your computer. If you’re in the habit of visiting only nice websites, then you can leave JavaScript enabled; however, if you tend to venture on the wild side of the web, you may want to disable JavaScript. Handlers Handlers are external applications (that is, not your browser) on your computer that are allowed to handle certain tasks. For example, if you click a link for someone’s email address, it’s very likely that Chrome will tell your default email application to open so that you can write a new message to the recipient. Websites may ask you if you’d like them to handle certain tasks for you. It’s up to you to decide whether to let them. Rest assured, websites can’t do this without your permission, which is why they ask. Plugins Plugins are little applications that you install in your browser to enhance its functionality. You might also call then Add-ons. Plugins are a great way to enable your browser to do things more easily. For example, if you frequently take screenshots of websites, you can get a screenshot plugin that enables you to take a screenshot with just one or two clicks. But plugins can also do some nefarious things, which is why you may want to limit their use. Pop-ups We all know about pop-ups — those mostly annoying browser windows that pop up with advertisements, interrupting the flow of what you’re doing. It’s worse than TV commercials! Sometimes, though, pop-ups are necessary, such as when you’re purchasing something online. But that’s a relatively rare situation compared to when ads pop up, so it’s best to keep pop-ups disabled and add exceptions on a case-by-case basis. Location Some websites may want to know where you’re located, such as a shopping site asking you where you are so that it can show you pricing for the nearest store. Most of the time, this is harmless. But still, you may not want people to know where you are. So, it’s probably best to not allow websites to know where you are, except for when they ask and you decide to let them know. Note, though, that for your work computer, your IT department may completely disable this so that, no matter what, websites can’t know where you are. Notifications Chrome allows websites to provide desktop notifications, such as when new emails arrive in your web-based email app or the latest football scores or weather updates. The default for this setting is to have websites ask if you want to receive notifications. But if you know for sure that you either want or don’t want them, you can change this setting appropriately. Fullscreen Believe it or not, some websites have the audacity to want to take over your entire screen. Luckily, Chrome makes them ask first, so you can rightfully say no. You can use this setting to specify exceptions — that is, sites that you want to automatically take over your screen, such as gaming sites. Mouse cursor You may not realize this, but an external website can disable your mouse cursor if it wants to. For example, online games may disable your mouse cursor during play. You can decide whether you want websites to be able to do this; the default is that they have to ask. Protected content Protected content is usually content that you’ve subscribed to or purchased the right to view on your computer. If you do this often, you’ll want to make sure the Allow box is checked for this option. Media Some websites, such as sites that offer web conferencing, may want to use your microphone and camera. That’s perfectly understandable, given the usage. But beware websites that you don’t know that want access. That’s why Chrome asks for your permission before granting access. But if you’re sure you’d never want a website to have that kind of access, choose Do Not Allow from the options. Unsandboxed plugin access Chrome runs all of its plug-ins in a sandboxed environment, which means that it limits the access that the plug-ins have to your computer. That way, they can’t cause all kinds of havoc on your computer. Some plug-ins, however, require unrestricted access. You can safely allow the above-board add-ons, such as a streaming video player from a company you trust (such as your cable company), to run outside of the sandboxed environment. But you should be very careful about giving that kind of access to any and all plug-ins. It’s best to let Chrome ask when to run plug-ins outside of the sandbox. Automatic downloads Some websites may try to force Chrome to download multiple files — and some of them may be harmful. For example, if you download one file by choice, the site may try to download another file after that without your permission. Obviously, you don’t want websites downloading stuff to your computer without your permission, so it’s best to keep the Ask When option selected. MIDI devices full control MIDI is an old technology that allows for digital communication between electronic musical instruments. What does this have to do with Chrome? Well, believe it or not, your computer contains MIDI support (and has for a long, long time). Websites can access those MIDI devices to make music in your Chrome browser. Will you ever use this? Probably not, but you might as well leave the default Ask Me option selected. Most of these settings have a Manage Exceptions button that enables you to set which sites you want to exclude from a particular exception. So, for example, if you don’t want to download images on most sites except for a few, then you can list the exceptions under that setting.

Article / Updated 04-25-2023

Google Translate gives you a Phrasebook in which you can save translated words and phrases. You can view your Phrasebook on your computer or your smartphone or tablet, so if you have words and phrases that you use often in a different language, you can access them from anywhere. Google Translate’s Phrasebook is fine for remembering various words and phrases that it translates for you. However, if you are traveling and you need an actual phrasebook to help with the language of the country you’re traveling to, Google Translate’s Phrasebook won’t help much — unless you take the time to type in, translate, and save all the phrases you think you’ll need. But why do that when you can get a real phrasebook, either a book or an app for your smartphone or tablet? Luckily, some phrasebook apps are either free or cost only a few bucks. Add a phrase to your Phrasebook on your computer First, go to translate.google.com and log in to your Google account. Though Google Translate is available for use without an account, your Phrasebook is saved within your Google account, so you have to log in to add to it. Type in a word or phrase you want to translate in the text box on the right, and choose the language you want it translated into on the left. Then follow these steps: In the box that shows your translation, click the Star icon. The star will turn yellow, and you’ll see the number 1 in a red circle on the Star button in the top right. To view your Phrasebook, click the Star button in the top right. Your Phrasebook displays on the right, showing the phrase you just added (see Figure 1). You have a few things you can do within the Phrasebook. Take a look: You can search for a phrase in your Phrasebook using the search field above the list. If you have multiple Phrasebook entries in different languages, you can choose to view All Languages or view a selected language from the drop-down menu. You can sort the order of your entries by Recently Added or alphabetical by the Original Text. You can export your Phrasebook items to Google Sheets (Google’s spreadsheet program that’s part of Google Drive) by clicking the Export to Google Sheets icon at the right. If you hover over a translated item in the list, you’ll see speaker icons next to the original text and the translation. Click the icons to hear the phrases spoken aloud. Figure 1: Google Translate’s Phrasebook in action Add a phrase to your Phrasebook on your mobile device If you haven’t already, download the Google Translate app from the iOS App Store or Google Play Store for Android, and then launch the app and sign in to your Google account. Follow these steps: Type in a phrase to translate and tap the blue circle with the arrow to translate. In the box that shows your translation, tap the Star icon. The star turns yellow. To view your Phrasebook in iOS, tap the Star icon at the bottom of the screen. To view your Phrasebook in Android, tap the Menu icon and tap Phrasebook. You have the same search, sort, and audio options in the app as you have in a web browser. Because your Phrasebook is part of your Google account, it stays synchronized whether you’re using it on your computer or on your mobile device.

Article / Updated 11-04-2022

Listen to the article:Download audio Want to translate a website to English or another foreign language? Google Translate can help you with that. And it’s not just single web pages, either. You can browse an entire website in the chosen language, and even change languages as you browse. You can also use Google Translate on your iOS or Android mobile device. Like other online translation tools, Google Translate isn’t perfect. It does have a good reputation for accuracy, but it does make mistakes. So use it with caution. It should work fine with casual browsing of websites — for example, if you want to read a website that is in Portuguese — but be very careful in relying on Google Translate for anything official. To translate an entire website using Google Translate, follow these steps and see Figure 1 for reference: Open a web browser and go to translate.google.com. You don’t need a Google account to access it, because it’s free to all. In the text box on the left, type in the entire URL (including the http://) of the website you want to view. On the right, choose the language you want to see the website in. Click on the highlighted URL. The translated website appears (see Figure 2). You can browse the entire website in that language by clicking links on the site — as long as you stay within the Google Translate user interface. The Translate toolbar at the top enables you to do a couple of other things: From the language drop-down menu at the top of the page, you can change the translation language on the fly. Using the drop-down menu at the top-right of the page, you can toggle back and forth between the translated website and the site in its original language. You may wonder why some words and phrases are not translated. Google Translate translates only the actual text on a page. Any text that appears in an image is not translated. That’s why, in Figure 2, the titles in the book cover images are not translated; they are images.

Article / Updated 10-19-2022

Google Translate doesn’t just translate words and phrases for you; it can also translate entire documents, such as plain text and rich-text documents, Microsoft Word documents, HTML, and even translate PDFs. (It also translates entire websites.) The file-size limit for translating documents (as stated in Google’s FAQs) is 1MB. However, you may have success with larger documents. After all, it doesn’t hurt to try. Keep in mind, the larger the document, the longer the translation will take. To use Google Translate to translate an entire document, follow these steps and see the figure below for reference: Open a Web browser and go to translate.google.com. You don’t need a Google account to access it, because it’s free to all. In the top left area of your screen, click the Documents button. Click Browse to navigate to a document on your hard drive that you want to translate. At the top left of the window in which your document appears, choose the language that the document is already in — for example, English. On the right, choose the language you want the document translated into — for example, French. Click Translate. The translation appears in a blank browser window. If you hover over each line, you can see the original English text that it was translated from. If you think the translation is incorrect, you can change it ― just hover your cursor over a line of the translation and click the Contribute a Better Translation link. Type your translation into the text box and click Contribute. Your translation is submitted to Google Translate. To use the translated text, simply copy and paste it from the browser window into a new document. Just like other online translation tools, Google Translate is far from perfect. It does have a good reputation for accuracy, but it does make mistakes. So use it with caution. It may work fine in casual situations — for example, if you’re translating a love poem into another language for Valentine’s Day. But if you rely on it for translating official business documents, be very careful. It’s probably better to pay for a reputable translation when business is on the line.

Article / Updated 06-23-2022

If you have your own website, you can use the Google Translate extension to automatically have your website translated into more than 90 languages. So, there’s no need to have multiple versions of your website created. Google Translate requires code to be placed on every page of your site, so you need some website know-how to do this. If you have a small website, you may be able to add the code to every page. However, if it’s a large site, you’ll want to use some kind of template to place the code on every page, depending on the platform your website is on. Here’s how to add Google Translate to your site: In a web browser, go to translate.google.com. At the bottom of the page, click Website Translator. On your first time visiting the Website Translator, you see a page asking you to add your website. Click the blue Add to Your Website Now button. Type in the URL of your site. For example, www.dummies.com. Choose the language your site is in, such as English. Click Next. Choose whether you want your site translated into All Languages or Specific Languages. If you choose Specific Languages, you see a list in which you can check the languages you want. Under Display Mode, choose how you want the Website Translator banner to appear on your site. Clicking each radio button shows how the box will display. Under Advanced, decide whether to check these options: Automatically display translation banner: If your site is in English, and someone who has their browser set to display French, then the translation banner automatically appears. The banner won’t appear for people whose language is the same as your site’s. Your page has content in multiple languages: Check this box if your site contains different languages, so that the plugin knows to expect content in different languages. Track translation data using Google Analytics: If you use Google Analytics to monitor the traffic on your site, you can view data on the usage of the plugin on your site. When you check that box, you will need to provide your Google Analytics property ID number, such as UA-55555-55. Click Get Code. You’ll get two pieces of code that you need to place on your site. The first piece of code, which is the tag, goes in the header (that is, between the tags) of your HTML pages. The second piece of code, which is in and tags, goes where you want the translation banner to appear on your pages. This code determines what the translation banner looks like and how it behaves. <p class="Warning">How you place the code on your site depends largely on the platform you use. Some platforms, like WordPress, make it easy to place code on all pages of the site. However, if you’re not sure how to do this, you should seek out someone with website know-how to help you out. Otherwise, you could mess up the appearance of your pages.</p>

Article / Updated 12-20-2021

So you’ve been using Google Chrome for a while and you’ve accumulated a ton of bookmarks. Or perhaps you’ve imported a slew (or is that a gaggle?) of bookmarks into Chrome from another browser. Regardless, it’s time to organize them, because you’re the ever-efficient worker bee who is super-productive to the hive. Right? Seriously, if you spend much of your work life on the web, you probably have online resources that you check regularly. Organizing them is the best way to get to those resources more quickly. Thankfully, Chrome has a Bookmark Manager that can help you out. Accessing the Bookmark Manager To use the Bookmark Manager, first you have to find it. Here’s how: The upper-right corner of the browser window Source: Google Chrome In the upper-right corner of the browser, click the three little dots (see figure above). Hover over Bookmarks (see figure below), and then click Bookmarks Manager from the submenu that pops up. You will see that the Bookmark Manager acts very much like a file manager, with the ability to create folders into which you can file your bookmarks. You can also edit your bookmarks here. Creating new bookmark folders When you organize your bookmarks, it’s best to create folders to put them in. Just like with folders on your computer, you can nest folders within folders for categories, subcategories, and so on — it just depends on how organized you want to be. Here’s how to create a new bookmarks folder: Click the three dots icon in the upper-right corner of the Bookmark Manager window, and then select Add new folder. A box opens up where you can type in a name for the new folder. Repeat as necessary to have as many folders as you need. When you have all of your folders set up, you can easily drag and drop bookmarks (and even additional folders) into the folders. Creating folders in the Bookmarks Bar folder represents the epitome of organization. If you always have your Bookmarks Bar visible (and you do, don’t you?), then the folders act as drop-down menus in the Bookmarks Bar. Clicking the folder enables you to see all the bookmarks in the folder, any of which you can click to visit that web site. Editing a bookmark When you save a bookmark, Chrome likely uses the web page title (that is, what appears in the title bar of the browser) as the descriptive name of the bookmark. Sometimes that name is just too long and clogs up your Bookmarks Bar. You can edit the bookmark name and URL of the bookmark easily. Here’s how: In the Bookmark Manager window, right-click on any bookmark and choose Edit. The name and URL become editable text boxes. Make your changes, as needed, and by all means, shorten that bookmark name! If you want to manually create a bookmark, simply click the three dots icon in the upper-right corner of the Bookmark Manager window and select Add new bookmark. A box opens up where you can type in the name of the bookmark and copy and paste the URL to create your new bookmark.

Article / Updated 12-16-2021

What good is a Google group without other people to talk to? If you’ve created a group that’s open, then you can wait for others with similar interests to find your group and join. But if you’ve created a closed group — for example, for a business project — you need to invite others to join the group. Follow these steps to invite people to your group: After logging in to your Google account and going to your Google group, click Manage in the upper right. In the left navigation, click Members and then choose Invite Members. You see the Invite Members screen (see the figure below). In the top field, type in or copy and paste the email address of those you want to invite. Separate each email address with a comma. You can invite as many people as you want. Invitees must have Google accounts to participate. In the bottom field, type in a message to your invitees. Your group’s name, description, and URL are automatically included in the email invitation, so this message can be something different than that. Your message can be up to 1,000 characters. Click the Send Invites button at the top. Your invitations are sent to the recipients. Your recipients will receive an email inviting them to the group. They must click the Accept This Invitation button to join the group. Invitations are good for seven days. If someone doesn’t accept an invitation within that time frame, you’ll have to resend the invitation. To do so, click Outstanding Invites in the left navigation, check the box of the invited member, and click the Resend Invitation button. You can also revoke an invitation for whatever reason. You can also directly add people without sending an invite. Click Direct Add Members in the left navigation and follow the same steps above. However, be careful when using this option. Make sure the members know that you’re adding them, because as soon as you add them, they will begin receiving email messages from the group. If you add people who don’t know or don’t want to participate, then you could have your account deactivated for spamming.

Article / Updated 12-14-2021

Google Chrome puts a premium on your online privacy and has a host of settings to help protect your privacy. If you’re using a personal (that is, non-work) computer, you’re responsible for those settings yourself. But if you’re using a company-provided computer, you may find that your IT department has already made some of those privacy decisions for you. To access Chrome’s privacy settings, follow these steps: Click the Chrome button in the top-right corner of the browser. Choose Settings. The Settings page displays in your browser. Scroll down and click the Show Advanced Settings link. Additional settings appear below. Scroll to the Privacy area, as displayed in the figure below. Your IT department may enforce certain privacy restrictions as part of their security policy. Those settings appear grayed out with a buildings icon next to them. You can’t change those settings, because your IT department likely has very good, security-minded reasons for enforcing them. Here’s a quick rundown of what all those settings mean: Content settings: You’ll find a whole slew of settings here to help determine how Chrome manages website content. Those are covered in this article: How to Decipher Google Chrome’s Content Privacy Settings. Clear browsing data: Use this to get rid of the browsing data that Chrome stores locally on your computer. This is covered in this article: How to Clear Your Google Chrome Browsing Data. Use a web service to help resolve navigation errors: If you try to visit a page that doesn’t load, Chrome can send back to Google for help. Google tries to resolve the issue for you by suggesting alternative pages. The reason this is a privacy setting is that Chrome sends where you’re trying to go to Google. If you don’t want it to, then make sure this box is unchecked. Use a prediction service to help complete searches and URLs typed in the address bar or the app launcher search box: Google tries to help you in auto-completing search phrases and URLs that you type in, based on your search and browsing history, as well as other web searches that have been done on Google. Again, data is sent to Google, which you may not want to share. If you don’t mind and find Google’s help valuable, then check this box. Prefetch resources to load pages more quickly (also known as “Predict network actions to improve page load performance”): This option can help speed up your browsing. When you visit a site, Chrome analyzes the links on the page and contacts those sites to download all the resources needed to render the page even before you click the link. This can make the next page display lickety-split. The caveat is, however, that those prefetched sites can set cookies in your browser before you visit them, which carries a security risk. Honestly, with broadband speeds so fast nowadays, the time you might save in prefetching resources might not be worth the risk. Automatically report details of possible security incidents to Google: Google’s Safe Browsing, which is already ingrained in Chrome, relies partially on reports of security incidents from users. If Chrome has suspicions about a site or download, it will ask if you want to send a security report to Google. Enabling this setting bypasses Google asking your permission and automatically sends the report. Enable phishing and malware protection: Chrome helps protect your computer by checking the URL of the website you’re visiting against a list of websites known to be disreputable. If it finds a match, not only do you get a warning, but the URL is also sent to Google to confirm whether the site poses a risk or not. Use a web service to help resolve spelling errors: If you know you’re not going to be winning any spelling bees in the near future, then you may want to take advantage of Google’s spellcheck service. This is the same spellchecker Google uses in its search engine to provide you with relevant search results even if you misspell a word or two. Chrome does send what you type to Google, so decide for yourself if you want them to know how bad a speller you are! Automatically send usage statistics and crash reports to Google: If you want to help Google improve Chrome, you can send your usage statistics, as well as reports on when Chrome has crashed or not worked properly. This does send information such as your preferences and what you’ve clicked, but it doesn’t send your personal information. Send a “Do Not Track” request with your browsing traffic: If you don’t want the websites you visit to track what you’re doing, then check this box. However, this doesn’t mean that websites won’t collect your browsing data for their own purposes, such as serving up ads and analyzing traffic statistics. Keep in mind, though, that this is a “request,” and it’s up to the website to decide whether it honors the request (most don’t).

Article / Updated 12-14-2021

Google Drawings is the free drawing tool built into Google Drive. It’s like a very basic version of Microsoft Visio. With it, you can create drawings like organizational charts or basic diagrams in which you need to include text, rudimentary shapes, icons, and images. However, if you need more advanced functionality, such as creating specialized drawings mechanical drawings, or building plans, you’ll need to invest in an advanced drawing program. Because Google Drawings is a web-based application, you don’t have to purchase and install the software on your computer. You can use it on multiple computers, so for example, if you start an organizational chart at work in Google Drawings, you can finish it up later on your home computer because the application and the document are stored on Google Drive. No files to transfer. Start new or open existing Google Drawings In a new browser window on your computer, log in to your Google Drive account and follow these steps: To start a new document, click the red New button in the upper left. Choose More, and then Google Drawings. A new browser window or tab appears displaying a blank Google drawing (see Figure 1). To open an existing Google drawing, navigate to the drawing you wish to open on your Google Drive and double-click. The drawing appears in a new browser window or tab. You don’t have to manually save your drawing. Google Drive automatically saves it for you. At this time, Google Drawings is available to use only with your web browser. Google hasn’t made a mobile app for it yet. However, you can view Google drawings on your smartphone or tablet with the Google Drive app. Here’s how: Log in to your Google Drive account on your device. Navigate to the drawing you want to view and tap it. The drawing displays on your screen. You can’t really do a whole lot with the Google drawing on your mobile device. You can print, share, and download the file to your device, but that’s about it. To do one of those things, open the drawing and tap the Information icon (white circle with the “i” in it); you’ll see various options for printing, sharing, and downloading the drawing. Create a basic drawing When you open Google Drawings, you’re presented with a blank canvas. You can use the various tools to create your drawing: Line tools: You can draw lines, connectors, curved lines, or freeform lines. Click the down arrow next to the Line icon to choose the type of line you want, then click on the canvas and drag your cursor to draw. Shape tools: You can use any number of shapes, arrows, callouts, or math symbols in your drawing. Click the down arrow next to the Shapes icon to choose the type of shape you want, then click on the canvas and drag your cursor to draw. You can also type text into your shape by clicking on it. Text box: If you want just text with nothing around it, then click the Text box icon, drag your cursor where you want to place the text. In the outline of the text box, you can type your text. Image tool: You can place an image in your drawing by clicking the Image button and choosing an image from your hard drive, your Google Drive, or from an external URL. You can choose other options as well, such as including tables and comments. In no time, you can complete your basic drawing (see Figure 2 as an example) and share it with others.

Article / Updated 12-14-2021

In Google Classroom, if you want to message your entire class quickly and all at once, then the Announcement feature is the way to go. However, if you want to send a message to one or a few students in particular, or if you want to send a detailed message to all of your students, you can easily do so from within your class. Here’s how: Log in to your class and click the Students tab. To email one student, click the envelope icon to the right of the student’s name. To email more than one student, check the boxes next to the students you want to email and click the Email button. To email all students in the class, check the top box on the left, which selects all of the students. In the New Message window (see Figure 1), type in a subject and your message. Click Send. Your message is sent to your students. At the bottom of the New Message window, you can use the formatting tools to format your text, just like in Gmail. You can also attach documents using the paperclip and Google Drive icons. Students also have the ability to send emails to other students. Rather than a Students tab, students see a Classmates tab, which lists everyone in the class. They have the same capabilities for sending emails as described above.