Preview
Google Launches Offline Editing for Google Docs, Google Drive Apps for iOS and Chrome OS
iOS/ChromeOS: If you've been waiting for offline document editing in Google Docs, wait no longer. Google announced offline editing at Google I/O today, and Google Drive, Google's Dropbox-like competitor, picked up native apps for iOS and Chrome OS which allow you to view and edit documents in full screen on your iPhone, iPad, or Chromebook. More »
How to Enable/Disable Google Chrome Print Preview Feature
One of the feature that Google Chrome has added to its recent release is the Print Preview feature, which as its name implies, allows you to preview the page before the actual printing. This feature is still in beta and is not available for selection in the Wrench menu yet. For those who are unhappy with the ways that Google Chrome handles your printing, here’s how to enable/disable the Google Chrome’s print preview feature.
On your Google Chrome address bar, type “about:flags” (without the quote) and press Enter.
Scroll down the list until you see the option “Print Preview”. Click the Enable link.
Now restart your Google Chrome. Go to Print option and you will see the print preview.
Similarly, to disable the Print Preview feature, go to “about:flags” and click the Disable link.
One thing to note is that the Print preview feature is still in experimental stage and is not ready for general use. I have tried it on several occasion and it doesn’t load the preview correctly.
In addition, if you are using Linux and often using the print feature to convert webpage to PDF file, then this Print Preview will not work as it doesn’t detect the postscript driver as a printer.
Google Chrome's in-tab print preview feature begins taking shape
Right now, enabling Preview has no effect on functionality. Flipping the switch does, however, provide a partial glimpse of how the feature is shaping up. Entering chrome://print in your Omnibar will load the page you see above, minus the TSN page, of course. I composited that in to provide some idea how the preview might actually appear with content -- right now, chrome://print just displays the word main in all caps.
Once again, Google is eschewing additional application windows in favor of an in-tab display. As with the bookmark manager and the tabbed options feature in about:flags, building print preview into a tab should simplify deployment of the feature across different OSes.
It seems likely that chrome://print will also feature ties to Cloud Print -- so that you can easily fire off your document to any printer you've connected to the service.
Chrome Web Store preview adds Google Checkout payments, recommendations
Google Checkout payments are now supported, and developers can sign up for a merchant account on their dashboard page. Page previews have now been added -- so you can see how your app will look in the Store prior to publishing. Pages can be customized with header images and Google is also allowing devs to upload their own promotional banners (they'll be displayed when your app is feature in the store).
One downside for developers hoping to sell their apps in the Web Store is that Google Checkout might be the only payment option. Checkout still isn't available in that many countries, so international devs looking to deliver localized Web apps will have to wait for Google to make good on their expansion promises.
ed note: it's become an expected part of app stores, but as you can see in the screenshot the Chrome Web Store will offer recommendations based on what other users install.
Snippet: How to Disable Firefox 4 Tab Preview in Windows 7
We all know that Firefox 4 comes with plenty of interesting and useful features. However, there is one feature that really annoy me out of hell – the tab preview feature (only available for Windows 7).
Here’s what happen: Let’s assume that your Firefox browser is opened with plenty of tabs, but it is not currently your active application (you might be doing some work in Ms. Office). When you hover your mouse above the Firefox icon in the taskbar, it will show a preview of all the opened tabs. This is good and fine as I can now pick the tab that I want to go to. The bad part is, I don’t want to manually select the tab everytime. When I click on the Firefox icon, I would expect it to switch to the browser immediately and load my last active tab, not to make me select the tab.
See what Google Chrome extensions are up to before you install them
Fortunately there's a new extension which can do just that. What?! An extension to peek under the hood of other extensions? Yep. It's called Extension Gallery Inspector, and it's pretty slick.
Install the Inspector and head to the Chrome Extensions Gallery. When you browse an extension's detail page, the lightning bolt icon will appear in your Omnibar. Click it, and Inspector will unpack the .CRX file and scan for API calls, permissions, and OAuth support. It also tells you the uncompressed size of the extension and whether or not it has an options page and browser action icon.
You'll obviously need a bit of technical knowledge to benefit from Extension Gallery Inspector as it stands right now. Still, for power users who want to know what an extension has access to -- or developers who are just curious how a particular extension works -- Inspector is a must-have Google Chrome extension.
IE9 preview 3: better performance, HTML5 video and canvas, more awesome demos
Filed under: Microsoft, Browsers
Before you ask: no, the third developer preview of Internet Explorer 9 doesn't have any window chrome yet. It's still the same skeleton you've seen in the two previous releases.
That said, it's clear that Microsoft is serious about delivering a competitive browser. IE9 preview 3 has turned in better SunSpider and Acid3 results, and its hardware acceleration features really shine. The new release also features HTML5 audio and video support, as well as hardware acceleration for the canvas element. Support for Web fonts is now baked in as well.
Running the fledgling browser side-by-side with Google Chrome 6 I noticed very little difference on sites like Gmail, Facebook, and Google Reader... And good luck getting another browser to run Microsoft's standards-based demos as well as they run in IE9. They're pretty brutal without hardware acceleration (with the exception of Opera 10.60, which actually seems to perform better than Chrome and Firefox -- Sebastian has a video on the way). The SunSpider result has improved again, too, and is now roughly half what the first preview posted -- an impressive gain.
For full details about the new release, check out the official blog post from Microsoft.
Image Preview Adds Lightbox-Style Preview to All Web Sites
Google Chrome: Lightbox is a widely adopted image-preview script—if you've ever clicked on an image and had it fade the background and enlarge the image, that's Lightbox. Image Preview is a Chrome extension that brings Lightbox-style previews to all sites.
Even if you're on a site that doesn't have Lightbox, you can still enjoy that in-tab enlarging of images by downloading Image Preview. Once Image Preview is installed, all images you click on will enlarge within the current tab and provide an in-tab view of the larger image instead of opening the image by itself.
Just like with Lightbox, clicking anywhere on the screen—including the enlarged image—will remove the dimming mask and the image and return you to the normal page. Image Preview is a free extension and works wherever Google Chrome does. Have a favorite extension? Let's hear about it in the comments.