Countless browser tabs are open, a notepad is hiding behind the browser, can’t find the right page amidst a million other bookmarks, and so on…
Does this sound familiar? Bingo, we’re talking about the desktop scene of a content writer.
How often do you wonder if there is any better way to manage your writing tasks?
The good news is, there are plenty of writing extensions in the Google Chrome web store that can make your life easy and increase your writing productivity.
We’ll discuss some amazing writing Chrome extensions and also how to use them. Let’s see how you can save your time and boost your productivity with these extensions.
How To Install Chrome Extensions?
Chrome extensions are very easy to install. Just visit the Google Chrome Web Store.
You can either browse through the list of available extensions or search for a specific extension. Once you find an extension that you want to install, click “Add to Chrome.”
That’s it. We installed the extension. However, to use it, you’ll need to pin it first. Click the Extensions icon in the top right corner of your Chrome browser.
Then click the Pin icon to make the extension visible in your toolbar. It’s best to pin an extension to your toolbar if you’re going to use it frequently.
Best Writing Extensions For Chrome
While there are plenty of writing Chrome extensions available in the Chrome web store, these extensions are most likely to make you an instant fan.
OneTab
Writing high quality content demands a significant amount of research. The size and scope of research may vary according to the niche and the type of content you write.
However, the one thing which is almost always constant is the infinite number of tabs on your Chrome browser.
And without even realizing it, you end up jumping from one tab to another, reading erratically, and wasting your time. Yes, we’ve been there and done that.
OneTab to your rescue. It’ll help you declutter your browser without closing the tabs.
With just a click, OneTab consolidates all the open tabs into one tab and saves it as a list so that you can focus on important tabs.
And whenever you want to use the tabs from the list, you can either restore the tabs individually or all at once.
Evernote Web Clipper
Are you struggling to keep your research material organized and handy?
Solution? Evernote Web Clipper. With over 3 millions users and an average rating of 4.7 out of 5, the numbers speak for themselves.
After installing the extension, you need to sign up for an Evernote account before you can start using it.
Let’s say, during your research, you come across an article on personal growth. You want to save this article and read it later.
Click the Evernote extension (Green Elephant icon) on your Chrome toolbar and choose from the options to save the page.
You can also create different folders to organize your resources. And when you want to revisit your saved material, just login into your Evernote account.
You may be working on multiple projects at a time. With an Evernote account, you can organize your research material according to your projects. And you can have it handy whenever you need it.
Read, reorder, or share with peers from your Evernote account. It’s much more than a bookmark.
Awesome Screenshot & Screen Recorder
Your efforts on SEO, research, and writing great content may go unnoticed if you’re not adding exemplary visuals to your content.
Content writing is much more than just writing. The end goal is to provide value to the readers through content. And visuals can be a great help in facilitating this goal.
Awesome Screenshot & Screen Recorder is quite handy when it comes to capturing screenshots or screen recording. You can capture screenshots and annotate the important parts of the images that you want your readers to notice.
As you click the Extension, you can see the menu with capture options to choose from.
Select the suitable option and capture a screenshot. And then you can annotate the picture as needed and save it.
Similarly, you can record your screen and make a video with many options to choose from.
You can also enable your microphone to record your voice while recording your screen, which is quite useful for making tutorial videos to include in your written content.
Bring life to your written content by creating awesome visuals with Awesome Screenshot & Screen Recorder.
Grammarly
More than 10 million users trust Grammarly for improving their writing. This Google Chrome extension is any writer’s best friend. It’s like having your grammar teacher constantly with you while you write.
It saves a lot of time that usually goes into editing and proofreading because Grammarly identifies errors and suggests corrections in real time as you type.
This writing Chrome extension is a blessing for anyone who wants to write better: students, bloggers, writers, professionals, or entrepreneurs.
Grammarly is compatible with most websites, Gmail, Google Docs, social media platforms, WordPress, and other blogging platforms.
Just add this extension to your Chrome toolbar, and you’ll start seeing suggestions on all the compatible platforms as you write.
Grammarly is more than just a grammar and spelling checker. It also keeps a check on your writing style and tone, and suggests contextual corrections.
Read Aloud: A Text To Speech Voice Reader
Reading your words out loud is an effective way to self-edit your content. Sometimes what you have written may sound different in context when you listen to it.
Reading aloud can improve your writing by helping you identify your mistakes in the rhythm, flow, and context of your writing. But you may not always like reading aloud, or sometimes you are working in a place where you can’t read aloud.
Read Aloud extension can read it out loud for you.
Once you install the extension, click the Read Aloud icon in your Chrome toolbar and it’ll start reading your current web page aloud.
You can also listen to the specific parts of the text by selecting them.
Read Aloud offers multiple languages and accent options to choose from. You can also adjust the speed and pitch from the settings.
So, feel free to delegate some of your reading work to Read Aloud. And give some rest to your eyes while you listen to the text.
StayFocusd
It’s needless to say that writing great content requires a lot of focus.
However, it’s very easy to get distracted with emails, WhatsApp Web and social media notifications popping up on your screen. And you end up spending your working hours on time-wasting websites.
StayFocusd is a productivity extension for Google Chrome that helps you stay focused on work by restricting the time you can spend on these websites.
Click the StayFocusd extension. Go to settings, select the “Blocked Sites” option, and enter the URLs of websites you want to block or restrict the usage.
You can set the time allowed for blocked sites. Once you have used up your time limit, StayFocusd will make them inaccessible for the rest of the day.
This writing Chrome extension is highly configurable, allowing you to block or allow entire sites, specific pages, even specific in-page content (videos, games, images, forms, etc).
Google Similar Pages
You are researching a topic, and you want to find more pages on the same topic. But you’re not able to come up with the right search query on Google.
Google Similar Pages can help!
This writing extension for Chrome can help you find web pages similar to the page you’re currently viewing.
When you want to find more web pages like the one you’re viewing, just click the extension on your Chrome toolbar and you’ll be able to see the similar pages.
Panda
It’s hard to stay ahead of the competition, and that is why you need to keep up with your industry’s news and latest developments.
Panda is a smart extension that works as a newsreader. It brings you the best content related to your areas of interest to keep you informed and inspired.
You need to sign up for a Panda account once you install the extension.
Then select your interest areas and add your favorite websites or blogs to your feed.
Panda replaces the new tab with the latest articles, news, or stories from your selected websites. You can see the updated feed whenever you open a new tab.
Check My Links
Internal and external links benefit both the reader and the website. But sometimes you may see the famous “404 error” on clicking a link. That is a broken link.
Broken links are not only annoying for your readers, but they also hurt your SEO efforts. Hence, fixing the broken links is highly recommended to improve your website.
However, if you have tried to find and fix the broken links, you know it’s not a simple task.
Check My Links crawls through your webpage, checks all the links and spots the broken links.
Visit a website you want to check the links for, click the extension and you’ll see broken links highlighted in red color.
Voice In: Voice Typing
Did you know that dictation is around three times faster than typing on a keyboard?
An average person writes about 40 words per minute, but they can speak as many as 150 words per minute. Why not use this to your advantage?
With Voice In, you can convert your voice into text on all the compatible platforms.
Download and pin the extension to your Chrome toolbar, and allow the permission to access your microphone when prompted.
Right-click within a text box and click “Start Recording”. Whatever you’ll dictate, Voice In will convert it into text.
So why not free your hands for some time and let Voice In type for you?
Marinara: Pomodoro Assistant
Marinara is a very simple yet productive writing extension for Chrome; inspired by the famous Pomodoro Technique.
You can set your “Focus Session” during which you’ll focus only on writing, followed by a “Short Break Session”.
Add Marinara extension to Chrome and start working.
The default timer is set to a 25 minutes focus session and then a 5 minutes break. The focus and break session timings can be customized by clicking “Options” on the menu.
Click the Marinara extension and your focus session will start according to the session time you have set. Once a focus session ends, it’ll prompt you to take a short break.
When the break session timer ends, you’ll get a notification to finish your break. This entire session is called a Pomodoro.
For every 4th break session, you will take a long break of 15-30 minutes. And then restart the cycle.
You can set the Pomodoro session timings that suit your daily writing goals.
Conclusion
These writing extensions for Chrome have helped us immensely in improving our productivity and efficiency.
You too can save a lot of time with these tools and invest in other productive tasks.
Did you find an extension that you haven’t tried yet? If yes, then why not take a test-drive and share your experience? What’s your favorite writing Chrome extension?
Thank you for sharing such a helpful and informative article on writing Chrome extensions. As someone who struggles to keep track of my research when writing, I found the suggestion to use the OneTab extension particularly useful. Your article provided clear and concise explanations of each extension, which made it easy for me to understand their benefits. Overall, I appreciate the time and effort you put into creating this resource, and I look forward to implementing these extensions into my writing process. Keep up the great work.