5 Chromebook productivity features I couldn’t live without

As a daily Chromebook user for over 10 years at this point, I’ve been around long enough to see features come and go. Generally speaking, the ChromeOS team has done a great job of adding new features without detracting from the core experience of Chromebooks being speedy, secure, and simple to use. Sure, there have been misses here and there (the first few months of the ChromeOS 70 tablet mode stuff, for example), but most of the additions to the OS have been for the better, and over time I’ve grown to not just enjoy those features, but rely on them quite heavily.

Just over the past week I started taking note of the newer productivity features that I use on a very regular basis, and I thought it would be helpful to share those with you all. Some of you have been around Chromebooks a long time and will hopefully nod along as you read this, but with it also being the holiday shopping season, there will be many of you new to these fantastic, straightforward laptops. Hopefully, if that’s you, you pick up on some new trick that will help you out in the days, weeks and months ahead as a ChromeOS user.

1 – Trackpad gestures, keyboard shortcuts

Arguably one of the biggest time savers for me is the use of keyboard shortcuts and trackpad gestures to navigate the UI of my Chromebook. While the standard typing and point/click nature of the keyboard and trackpad are necessary, there’s far more that can be accomplished with these tools once you know how to take advantage of them.

I won’t list everything here, but keyboard shortcuts like CTRL+X, C, and V (cut, copy, and paste) are huge time savers right alongside ALT+Backspace for delete and ALT+Tab to quickly switch between open windows. One of my most-used keyboard shortcuts is SEARCH+[ or ] to quickly move between open Virtual Desks. We’ll talk about Virtual Desks shortly, but using that shortcut to move around my desks is a constant tool I go to. You can hit CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+? to see all the possible shortcuts if you want to learn a few new ones, too. There are a ton!

And those shortcuts are only supplemented by all the things you can do with trackpad gestures. Pointing and clicking is fine, but there are so many things you can do with your Chromebook trackpad that extend far beyond those basics. Clicking (or tapping, depending on your settings) with two fingers brings up a context menu, while sliding the trackpad surface with two fingers allows you to scroll content on any page vertically or horizontally. Pinch zoom works in tons of places with the trackpad, too.

And then there’s the 3-finger swipe up for overview mode, a 3-finger swipe left and right in a Chrome window to quickly move through your open tabs, and a 3-finger click to close any open tabs. Change that to 4-fingers, and you can quickly swipe through your open Virtual Desks with ease, too. Combine all that with keyboard shortcuts, and you can get a whole lot done without lifting your hands from the bottom half of your Chromebook.

2 – Virtual Desks

We’ve mentioned these enough up to this point, so I’ll go ahead and get Virtual Desks marked off our list. If you’ve never tried Virtual Desks on MacOS or Windows, the quickest way to make sense of them is by talking about them like external displays. If you have a monitor attached to your Chromebook, you can set up different windows on each display, and this is the same thing you can do with up to 8 desks on your Chromebook.

Simply get into overview mode (the function button up top or swipe up with 3 fingers) and you’ll see the desks bar up top. Add them with the plus button and drag/drop windows to whichever desk you want. Once you have these workspaces aligned, you can 4-finger swipe or SEARCH+[ or ] to quickly move between your desks. Alternatively, you can just go back to the overview mode and click on the desk you want to go to and jump directly to it.

Google continues adding more features to Virtual Desks, and more are on the way. We know up to 16 desks will be available soon and features like ‘save for later’ are already live. Additionally, we expect Virtual Desk Templates to arrive pretty soon as well, so this is a productivity feature that is already wildly useful and only on the verge of getting that much better.

3 – Global Media Controls

Next up, I’ve become quite reliant on ChromeOS’ new-ish Global Media Controls. The concept is simple, and I love it. If there’s media playing that is originating from your Chromebook, this little media hub on your shelf will pick up on it and allow you to play/pause and skip tracks both forward and backward. It’s a fantastic addition to the usability of any Chromebook and something that – once you learn to look for it – can come in quite handy in lots of different scenarios

4 – Tote/Holding Space

This next feature has only been around for a bit, but I honestly don’t know what I’d do without it. Known as Tote or Holding Space, this little circle sits next to your other features on the shelf and gives you a quick, actionable glance at your latest download and screen captures. From this little hub, these files can be opened, dragged or dropped wherever you need.

For most of us, we tend to work with files that we’ve just recently acquired in the moment, so the Tote section is a real time saver that offers up those files in a quick, seamless, and easy-to-find way. The number of times I reach for the Tote folder on a daily basis is crazy, and I can’t imagine being productive without it.

5 – Phone Hub (Recent Photos)

Phone Hub is down in a similar area and is a super-handy tool for those with Android devices. At a glance, you can see your phone’s battery percentage, your last couple open Chrome tabs, and your last 4 photos. Functionally, you can turn your hotspot on and off, silence your phone or even locate it. But far and away, the thing I lean on most is the recent photos section of this feature.

Here, I can see my last 4 photos from my phone, including those from apps like WhatsApp. If I snap a picture and edit it, I also see that edited photo as a selection option. If I want to use that photo in a post, for example, I can click it and it will immediately transfer to Tote so it can be opened or dragged to where it is needed. It’s a massive time saver that has worked its way into my daily workflow to the point that I’d be fumbling quite a bit without it for sure.

All in all, those aren’t the only productivity features of your Chromebook, but they are the ones I’ve become extremely reliant upon over the course of the last few months. The idea that Chromebooks are “real laptops” is finally dying away a bit, and in that place we want to shine a light on all the ways these simple, fast and secure devices can be great tools for getting work done. These productivity boosting features are a great way for you to get started with your Chromebook, and I’m hopeful they help, too!