Print Friendly & PDF extension

I came across the Print Friendly & PDF Chrome extension today,  This extension allows you to print (or save as a PDF) a de-cluttered version of a web site.  Essentially, it strips out ads, navigation buttons and any content that you don't want printed.

For example, here's a page from CNN as it appears on the web:

And here it is after applying the Print Friendly & PDF extension:

Here's a video that explains how to install and use the extension:

Table of Contents Add-on

I've posted before about inserting tables of contents in Google Docs.  As a reminder-- as long as you use heading formats (see below), Docs can automatically create a TOC for you.

 

I've been working on a "textbook" for my class, however, and I really wanted the table of contents to be numbered (something Docs doesn't currently do-- although they recently added the ability to show page numbers instead of links).

Enter the Table of Contents Add-on for Google Docs.  To install, go to the Add-ons menu and search (or use the link above).  Once installed, you can select it from the menu.  It will appear on the right of your document.  Click to refresh and you will get a numbered table of contents!

After runing the Add-on, simply refresh the TOC that you created from the Insert menu in Google Docs and you will now have:

Google Arts & Culture

I stumbled across the Google Arts & Culture site today. It features content from many museums-- both fine art and history/culture (nearby contributors include the Marsh-Billings in Woodstock and Pointe-à-Callière and McCord museums in Montreal).

You can learn about different art movements and historical events, browse the collections of one of the participating museums, take 360 degree tours of historical buildings, and more.

There are also "projects" that pull together content around a theme.  Here, for example is the Black History & Culture project, featuring history, art, music, and more.

The site is still in beta, but there's a lot to explore here.

Solving Chromebook/Chrome problems

I just helped a student who was having a problem with the Screencastify extension in Chrome. The solution ended up being the same thing that's worked over and over for others-- and it's a simple one...

...update Chrome!

Many apps and extensions require Chrome to be up to date.  Updating Chrome is simple to do.

Here's how:

On your Chromebook, Chrome should update automatically, but you need to restart the Chromebook in order for the update to apply. The cue for this is when you see an up-arrow icon in your status area (down in the lower right where you see your profile pic/icon).  Click that arrow, then "Restart to update." Here are Google's instructions for this.

On other computers (or on your Chromebook), you can update Chrome manually by clicking on the 3 vertical dots icon on the upper right, then Settings, then About.  In particular, if you notice that those dots have changed color, that's an indication that Chrome is out of date.  Again, here are instructions from Google.

Insert videos from Google Drive into Google Slides

Up until now, Google Slides only allowed YouTube videos. But many of us store videos in Google Drive. You can now insert those videos into Slides. Like so: