Chrome Extension Readability Helps You Format Pages to Your Liking

Even after you replace all Flash objects with placeholders, it may not be easy to sit down and focus on a lengthy read. Perhaps the article loaded with distracting banners, maybe the font size is too small, or perhaps you'd rather curl up in an easy chair to read it. Readability is an elegant service that can solve all of these problems, and more.

Readability's Chrome extension converts busy Web pages to elegant, easy-to-read text.Much like its Firefox sibling, Readability's Chrome extension shows up as a simple button. Click the button, and you can opt to read the article now, read it later, or send it to your Kindle. If you choose to read it now, Readability extracts just the text and images for the article and displays them on a distraction-free page with large, attractive typography. You can customize the colors, width, and font size, and even hide images and convert all links to footnotes.

Choosing to read the article later adds it to your reading list, which you can access on the Readability website. And once you configure your Kindle to receive emails from Readability, sending articles to read from the comfort of your e-ink screen takes just one click.

Note: The Download button takes you to the Chrome Web store, where you can install the latest version directly into your Chrome browser.

—Erez Zukerman

From PC World. Shop computer and accessories from Amazon here

Chrome/Firefox Extension Gmelius Makes Gmail More Readable

With numerous buttons and options you may never use, Gmail's rich interface can get in the way of actually reading email. To be fair, Google packs a lot of functionality into the interface, but no interface is perfect for 100% of its users. Gmelius is a simple Chrome extension and/or Firefox add-on that lets you pick and choose which features you want to see, and how you want to use them.

Gmelius for Google Chrome lets you decide which Gmail options you want to see.Gmelius's interface is just a long list of settings with checkboxes, but it's divided into sensible sections and gets the job done. With one click, you can hide Gmail's top bar, and toggle it back by tapping the slash key (/) when you're in Gmail. Another click moves the labels to the right side of the email line, and yet another adds icons to email threads showing the type of attachments they contains.

Gmelius also lets you remove ads from Gmail, and homogenize the formatting of all incoming emails so that even if someone were to write you an email entirely in Comic Sans, it would show up in Gmail's default font.

Note: The Download button takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download install the latest version of the software directly into your Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox browser.

—Erez Zukerman

From PC World. Shop computer and accessories from Amazon here

Look up Word Definitions Easily With the Dictionary.com Chrome Extension

Dictionary.com Extension is for everyone who isn't blessed with a memory like the Oxford English Dictionary. If definitions don't instantly and effortlessly spring to mind and you need an authoritative reference source to look up a word without a lot of extra clicking, check out this free and useful Google Chrome browser extension. It makes the whole word definition search a breeze without having to go to the Dictionary.com site itself.

Highlight a word on the webpage and it will appear in the search box along with its definition.When you install the Dictionary.com extension, a small box will appear in the top bar of your Google Chrome browser. This is your Dictionary.com search box and it is the first way you can use the extension. Simply type the word you don't know into the box and your definition will appear, as if by magic.

The second way you can use this Chrome extension is to highlight a word on any webpage and then click on the small box in the top bar. The highlighted word will already be in the Dictionary.com search bar along with the definition underneath. Impressed?

The third way to use the Dictionary.com Chrome extension is to highlight the word on the webpage and right-click with your mouse. You will see an option in the right-click menu that invites you to view the highlighted word on Dictionary.com, and this is the one time where you are actually taken offsite to Dictionary.com to see the word definition.

Dictionary.com extension for Google Chrome works as advertised. The search button is small and unobtrusive, and the extension is useful to all budding linguists.

If you find yourself looking up dictionary definitions all day, then I highly recommend installing this free extension to save yourself some time and inconvenience. Afterwards, you'll wonder how you survived without it.

Note: The Download button takes you to the Chrome Web store, where you can install the latest version directly into your Chrome browser.

—Mark O'Neill

From PC World. Shop computer and accessories from Amazon here

Chrome Extension Readability Helps You Format Pages to Your Liking

Even after you replace all Flash objects with placeholders, it may not be easy to sit down and focus on a lengthy read. Perhaps the article loaded with distracting banners, maybe the font size is too small, or perhaps you'd rather curl up in an easy chair to read it. Readability is an elegant service that can solve all of these problems, and more.

Readability's Chrome extension converts busy Web pages to elegant, easy-to-read text.Much like its Firefox sibling, Readability's Chrome extension shows up as a simple button. Click the button, and you can opt to read the article now, read it later, or send it to your Kindle. If you choose to read it now, Readability extracts just the text and images for the article and displays them on a distraction-free page with large, attractive typography. You can customize the colors, width, and font size, and even hide images and convert all links to footnotes.

Choosing to read the article later adds it to your reading list, which you can access on the Readability website. And once you configure your Kindle to receive emails from Readability, sending articles to read from the comfort of your e-ink screen takes just one click.

Note: The Download button takes you to the Chrome Web store, where you can install the latest version directly into your Chrome browser.

—Erez Zukerman

From PC World. Shop computer and accessories from Amazon here

Chrome/Firefox Extension Gmelius Makes Gmail More Readable

With numerous buttons and options you may never use, Gmail's rich interface can get in the way of actually reading email. To be fair, Google packs a lot of functionality into the interface, but no interface is perfect for 100% of its users. Gmelius is a simple Chrome extension and/or Firefox add-on that lets you pick and choose which features you want to see, and how you want to use them.

Gmelius for Google Chrome lets you decide which Gmail options you want to see.Gmelius's interface is just a long list of settings with checkboxes, but it's divided into sensible sections and gets the job done. With one click, you can hide Gmail's top bar, and toggle it back by tapping the slash key (/) when you're in Gmail. Another click moves the labels to the right side of the email line, and yet another adds icons to email threads showing the type of attachments they contains.

Gmelius also lets you remove ads from Gmail, and homogenize the formatting of all incoming emails so that even if someone were to write you an email entirely in Comic Sans, it would show up in Gmail's default font.

Note: The Download button takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download install the latest version of the software directly into your Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox browser.

—Erez Zukerman

From PC World. Shop computer and accessories from Amazon here