Gadgetory

chromebooks make a great alternative to a traditional laptop they boot instantly they're always up to date and they can be had for as little as 200 bucks but if you're reluctant to make the jump because you're so used to getting around and multitasking on your MacBook or PC laptop here are some simple tips that will make the transition easier first let's talk about the trackpad you like the multitask with all your fancy schmancy gestures well I got your gestures right here a two finger tap works as a right-click three fingers swipe side-to-side works to scroll between open tabs and a three finger swipe up reveals all the currently open windows so that you can juggle between them quickly next let's talk about your shelf for your tray or your dock or whatever you want to call this thing down here at the bottom give this thing a two finger tap and you'll see options for moving the shelf to the left or right side of the screen you also see an option for automatically hiding the shelf when you don't need it if you alt click or two finger click on the app icon you'll be given the option of pinning or unpinning the app to your tray this also works if you go into the app folder and alt click an icon now by default most of these google apps will open as a new tab within the Chrome browser but if you're more of a window juggler than a tab shuffler and alt click on an app icon will also give you a number of options for how to open the app open as window is the third option and gives the whole thing a more conventional laptop feel now one final tip whether you're working with a tab or a window if you slam the thing into the far right or left of the screen and let it go it will snap into a split screen mode or split pane mode hold it there for an extra second and it'll snap into a quarter pane pull the window back into the center and it will inflate back to normal size so there you go some simple tips make your Chromebook behave more like a conventional laptop to learn more check out Jason Cipriani's right up over at cnet.com / - for seeing it and all about