Flash on Chromebooks

If you use any websites that rely on Flash, such as i-Ready, you may have discovered they have trouble on chromebooks.  This is because Flash has been slowly going away for a few years now and Google finally disabled it.  They're not alone.  Apple did this with Safari in June 2016 and iPhones way back in 2007.  FireFox will be doing it in 2017.

If you need to keep Flash running on a chromebook for a bit longer, you can do it using the directions below.

1. Open a new tab and go to "chrome://plugins".  
2. Look for "Adobe Flash Player" and check "Always allowed to run".  

"Read Mode" for Chrome Removes Distractions

Many web pages are full of distracting advertisements, animations, buttons, and "If you liked this..." links.  These can often get in the way of the real reason that you went there:  To read something.

To handle this, install "Read Mode" on Chrome or chromebooks.  It can take a cluttered website and strip away the distractions, noisy ads, and other "busy" items that tug at your attention.  In other words, this:

Before using Read Mode

...becomes this:

Read Mode leaves only the useful part

To install it, go to the Chrome Web Store (at chrome.google.com) and search for "Read Mode".

Once installed, there will be a small eye glasses icon at the top-right whenever Read Mode thinks it can remove distractions.  Click that and it will perform its magic.

Click the "eye glasses" to activate Read Mode

Bonus tip:  Using Read Mode before print a web page can make the printout much cleaner and save ink!

Chromebook Login Quick Fix

Chromebooks are largely trouble-free, but no computer is perfect.  One thing that sometimes goes wrong on a chromebook is that it gets "pointed at" the wrong wireless network and asks you to login to the "Guest" wireless network.  Fortunately, this is easy to fix.

If you see this:

That means the chromebook is on the "Guest" wireless network.  To switch it back to "Data" just do the following.

First, click on the lower-right corner.  A menu will pop up.

Next, click on "Connected to Guest".

Lastly, click on "Data".

Wait for a few seconds while it connects.

Once it connects, things should be back to normal.