Housing Your Apps

Housing Your Apps

When I first looked at my apps, it was a little overwhelming and sometimes difficult to navigate. Once I added apps that I had investigated, finding the right app easily became much more challenging. Therefore, I think it's very important to know about your storage options on your Chromebook. Initially, I thought I might have to spend lots of time scrolling through all of my apps to find the ones I needed. However, this is not the case at all! Yay! I will discuss a few options that you have to organize your apps more effectively.

Using the Shelf

The Shelf is really another way to say your taskbar. It's that black part of your screen way at the bottom. It probably already has some apps such as Drive  and Gmail loaded down there. I typically keep apps I know that I use frequently on my shelf. That way I can simply click on them to open them. To add apps to your shelf, follow these steps:
1. Click on the magnifying glass icon or keyboard button.
2. Find the app you want to place on your shelf. You may need to click on ALL APPS to find it.
3. Two-finger click (place one finger on each side of your mouse) on the app's icon. This should bring up a drop-down menu.
4. Select PIN TO SHELF. Then, like magic, your app should appear on your shelf.

Creating "Folders" for Your Apps

This concept should sound familiar. You can group apps together, so you can easily find what you are looking for. For instance, you may want to put Google Docs, Slides, Drawings, Forms, and Sheets into one folder. To create a folder for a group of apps, follow these steps:
1. Open your apps list by clicking on the magnifying glass icon or button.
2. Click on the first app that you want to group.
3. Drag the app over the second app that you want to group.
4. Release the app, and both apps should be linked together.
5. If you want to name the group of apps, click on it to open the group.
6. Click at the top, where you should have an icon, and add a name for your group.

Using Google Shortcuts (Extension)

One of the extensions you can add to your Chromebook and/or Chrome browser is Google Shortcuts. You can find this app in the Web Store.

After you install this extension, you will see it as a blue box with a white arrow beside your URL bar.

Clicking on the Google Shortcut extension opens a box with Google Apps that you use frequently. You can also customize which apps show up in your shortcuts.  Check out this short video clip.