More Chrome……
Posted by Simon Salvin on 25. Aug 2009 on Internet, PCIf you’ve converted your browsing preference to Google’s Chrome browser, like me, you may now be quite relaxed and in tune with it’s features. If not then now’s the chance to jump in and give it a go for yourself. I’m sure some of you reading this are my customers and you’ll have already received the chrome demo, but lets see what’s going on with Chrome now that it’s been around for a while.
Unlike Internet Explorer, Chrome receives major build updates automatically on a regular basis, this means you don’t have to wait 2 years for version X to be released to see new features, in fact they’re there when you next turn on! But what’s new and what’s coming?
A good place to start is the Google Chrome blog, find it here:
http://chrome.blogspot.com/
All the info about the latest releases, tips and tricks and other interesting news articles all about Chrome can be found here.
You may have installed Chrome from the prompts on the Google home page or through the Google Pack when installing or updating other software, but another way to see all the new features is to install the Beta version, a Beta version is a pre release version, it may contain bugs or glitches, but its a way for the developers to gain feedback to fix these issues before general release and its a way for you to have a play with some of the new features.
I’ve always found the Chrome beta’s to be very stable with little issues and I’d highly recommend you give it a go! But how do you download the beta? Well you need to find the Chrome home page, go to www.google.co.uk, at the top of the page click on ‘More’ and from the drop down menu click on ‘Even More’. 
At the next page find and click on Chrome in the left column of the page: 
You may want to come back to this page as you’ll find all Google has to offer, and there’s a huge array of great software, web apps and services available, most of which are free, which is always nice!
At the Chrome home page, disregard the large blue download button and head further down the page where you’ll see the ‘Try the latest BETA version’ link. Click on this link and follow the download instructions.
Now you may have noticed from my screen shots above that my Chrome looks like a baseball field, No? didn’t see that, well that’s what it’s meant to look like, it’s a new feature which gives a choice of themes to add to your browser, it’s not all serious stuff you know, computing can be fun!
Take a look at the themes available, head over to the spanner button in the top right corner, click on it and from the menu select ‘Options’. 
You’ll then be presented with, you guessed it, an options screen! Click the centre tab at the top ‘Personal Stuff’, and at the bottom you’ll see the ‘Get themes’ button. Go ahead, click on this button to open up all the available themes, then just click the ‘Apply theme’ button for the one you’d like, and if you change your mind head back to the options page to select a different theme or click the ‘Reset to default theme’ to go back to boring blue! But don’t tell anyone I said that 
Here’s a tip taken from the Google Chrome blog for opening new tabs:
Tabs can be great for working with multiple pages at the same time. But if you open them by right-clicking links and selecting "Open link in new tab," you might not have realized that there’s an easier way. Just use your middle mouse button (it might look like a wheel) to click a link, and it will open in a new tab in the background.
"But wait," you say, "my mouse doesn’t have a middle button!" No problem — another way to get the same effect is to hold down the Ctrl key while clicking (with the left mouse button) on a link.
(If clicking the middle button on a link doesn’t open it, your mouse may be set to use the middle button for something else. You can configure your mouse settings by going to the Windows Control Panel.)
Posted by Peter Kasting, Software Engineer
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