Currently, I have 20 extensions in Chrome and this is after I recently cleaned up. Just to be clear, that’s a lot. Or at least, I think so. This problem is only raised by my workflow. At Guiding Tech, I write about great productivity apps including Chrome extensions. That means I’ve tested and used a lot of them.
But here’s the problem – I don’t want to give them up. Some I use regularly while others are for some specific use case, things I use several times a month.
First I need to clean up the overloaded extensions bar, bring some logic to it, maybe move things around a bit and then I’ll try some extensions to help me out problem about this extension. Talk about meta.
There are some extensions that can work with keyboard shortcuts or right-click menus but still take up space on the extension bar. I will remove them first. Read-later extensions like Instapaper and Pocket are perfect candidates here.
Right click on the extension button and select The nut is strawberry perform the trick.
If I feel lonely, I can go to Extensions page and click Show button to get it back.
Move things around, scale it down
The expansion buttons are movable, so I just clicked on the icons and dragged them around to create some structure out of the chaos.
Taking a team approach here makes sense. Text related extensions together, VPN and internet related extensions like Hola and Ghostery are also grouped.
Next, the extension bar can be scaled down. Placing the cursor between the URL and the extension will display a move icon. And it’s as simple as pulling it in.
Combining the two, what I get is a top-down list of extensions with my most used apps at the front. Then I minimized the extensions bar so only the important extensions were visible. Ah, much better.
Extensions to make it easy to overload extensions
It’s like bringing beer to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting but, this is a non-alcoholic beer, trust me.
The appropriately named Extension Manager extension provides all the important features with a single click. That’s fine because I hate having to go to the Extensions page every time I have to make a small change.
Clicking on the extension icon gives me access to all the extensions I have installed right there. From here, I can turn extensions on and off in a jiffy.
This is great for extensions that I need to use maybe once a month. Now that extension can be disabled by default and I can enable it with one click thanks to the Extension Manager.
There is a similar extension called One Click Extension Manager and it is a simplified version of the Extension Manager. There is only one view that lists all the extensions, and the conversion of extensions is not clear.
Alternative: Context
Guiding Tech Emeritus author Saikat Basu (now an editor at MakeUseOf) wrote about an extension called Context. Context allows me to create groups of extensions. So I can group certain extensions together and load or disable them at any time.
Personally, I don’t find this extension useful. I accidentally disabled all the extensions once, then messed up the group. But many writers whose opinion I respect swear by it. So even if it doesn’t work for me, it might work for someone else.
Your expanded story
If you’re an extension junkie like me and have gone through cleaning rituals and interventions but still pushed the limits without losing your productivity tools, please share your experience. your experience with me in the comments section below.
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
