These Apps are Helping Me Make the Most of Chromebook

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Asif Ahmed
Asif Ahmedhttp://techtippr.com
Founder and Cheif Editor of Techtippr, Get in touch with me on Twitter or Enjoy my Stories on Instagram. I think they are interesting. :-)

I am writing this article with the assumption that you already know about Chromebooks and how they work.

I own a Chromebook, and these apps are helping me do everything I do on a traditional computer with a Windows or Mac-based OS.

Word Processing/Office Documents

My purpose of using a computer is to work with files like PDFs, Spreadsheets, and Word Documents for which I have been relying on MS Office (or related office suites like Open Office, Libre Office, etc.) for most of it, and I now use Google Docs for it.

I was already using Google Docs for working on files where I needed to collaborate with my team members, but now it’s fully Google Docs, and I haven’t come across a single issue with it.

Using Google Docs for all my work has enabled me to access it from my mobile phone as well, and I am using my phone to make edits and proofread blog posts, which has saved time.

The Good thing about Google Docs is that it works in offline mode so that you can write even when you are not connected to the internet.

Photo Editing / Creating Screenshots.

Another important part of my work is working with a lot of images; I have to create many screenshots and edit images to use on my posts and tutorials.

It was the sole reason for the dilemma in switching to Chromebook, I used Photoshop and SnagIt for that purpose, and it was an amazingly fast workflow on Desktop.

Moving to Chromebook, I thought my workflow will slow down because of the lack of great tools.

I started using a combination of Pixlr Editor and PicMonkey for editing and creating images and Nimbus for creating screenshots. After one week of using this combination and I can perform this action much faster than on my Desktop.

The downside of this combination is that it works when connected to the internet. Still, I am connected to the internet almost every time as I have to take screenshots of websites or look for relevant creative commons licensed photos on Flickr or any other site.

Watching Videos or Listening to Music.

For the last few years, the primary source of my entertainment has been YouTube. I hardly watch TV as YouTube lets me watch my favorite TV shows anytime I want to.

If I have to give it in numbers, the hours I spend watching TV and YouTube will be 1 hour of TV and over 50+ hours of YouTube every month.

I haven’t faced any problem continuing this trend after switching to Chromebook. Mostly all the Chromebooks have only around 10GB of storage left for the users.

You can not put your Video and Music library, but you definitely can put your favorites and watch them whenever you want. So many music streaming services that let you enjoy music without having to download them saving you space.

Instant Messaging and Communicating

I mostly try to ignore using instant messages while working, but I have allowed my team to message me anytime they want via Hangouts.

So, there is no problem with that when I am using Chromebook. Google Duo works great for doing video conferencing.

I have a few clients and partners with whom I have to speak over Skype every week. Thankfully Skype is available for Mobile Phones, and it’s with me all the time, so I am not losing on this one.

WhatsApp has enabled Android/Blackberry and Windows Phone users to send/receive messages from Google Chrome using WhatsApp Web.

Playing Video Games

I don’t play games on PC, the only play games when I have to test the apps for the blog, so I can’t comment on how the Gamers will find Chromebooks useful.

Some games can’t be played even on Traditional PCs without dedicated graphic cards on them, and then some web-based games can be played in the browser.

Chromebook is just like any other PC for the games in the latter category, letting you play those games in Google Chrome.

After listing all the things I can do with the Chromebook, I want to list a few things I love about it.

It’s a machine I use to perform my full-time work, yet I don’t fear the Hard Disk crash and losing all my work. I don’t fear losing my Chromebook at all.

All my work is saved in the cloud, and I can continue working on any other device. I love this.

I love that I can start working in just 7 seconds after opening the lid of my Chromebook. I put it on standby without worrying about slowing it down over time.

I step out of my home with my Chromebook without having to carry the charger, at it gets me around 8 hours of serious work.

I understand that not everyone has a work requirement like I do, and not everyone would be working on a machine that does not have a notepad or basic computer programs.

But if you travel a lot and there is a web version of the software/service you use, and there is no problem with internet connectivity, Chromebook is something you can count on for your work.

Have questions like, Can you edit video on Chrome? Check out this FAQ page for Chromebooks.

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