As a writer, I use multiple Chrome extensions that make writing my posts much more accessible. Whether fixing grammatical errors, taking screenshots, or researching topics, Chrome extensions take the hard part out of my hard work. Whether you are an author, a college student, or a business manager who needs to write often to clients, I know a bunch of Chrome extensions that can make writing surprisingly easier for you. Below you’ll find some of my favorite Chrome extensions that make writing easier for me and a few more that I highly recommend for their powerful features.
Grammarly
I am gonna start with my favorite extension that has fixed thousands of my grammar errors in the last 5 years. Grammarly helps fix grammar errors in your write-ups by highlighting them and fixing them with a single click. The free version of Grammarly does a fantastic job of fixing the write-up’s punctions, spellings, and overall conciseness. For most people, the free version of Grammarly is more than enough to fix common typos and punctuation errors. However, if you want to improve your writing and make it impactful, Grammarly Premium won’t disappoint. The premium version checks your writing for clarity, fluency, tone, better word choice, formality level, and plagiarism. All of it is done automatically as you type in real-time, and you can fix mistakes by choosing the right suggestion by Grammarly. The basic functions of Grammarly work without signing up for an account. However, I’ll recommend you to create a free account to track stats and access more features like seeing synonyms and definitions of words with a double-click.
Just Read
Although you can use a Chrome flag to enable reader mode in Chrome, Just Read is a great Chrome extension if you want more control. The extension will strip away all distracting content on a page and load the main content and images in a simple interface. The stripped content includes buttons, ads, background images, comments, and side and bottom panel content. This leaves a clean post to read without any distractions, making it much easier to research content as you won’t be overwhelmed by the extra stuff. Interestingly, you can change the interface’s look manually by adjusting font size, background color, content width, etc. You can also easily switch between dark and light themes as needed.
Read Aloud
If you are tired and don’t want to read, then a text-to-speech Chrome extension can read the content for you. Read Aloud is an extension that will copy a page’s content in its interface and read it aloud. There are play/pause, stop, forward, and rewind buttons to control playback, and you can also manually highlight content to read aloud. The extension supports over 40 languages and voices from Google Voice, Google Wavenet, Microsoft, and more. Although only voices by Google Voice is free, the rest require the premium account or Wavenet permission; you can read more here. You can change voice, speed, pitch, and volume from the extension’s options. Selecting one of the premium voices will allow you to sign up for the premium account. If you run a blog or business site, you may be interested in converting articles into audio.
Marinara
Based on the Pomodoro technique, Marinara helps manage your time to work in intervals. It’s basically a timer app that starts a 25min work session and then a 5min break. When the work or break session timer ends, you’ll get a notification and hear a tone. From the settings, you can change the duration of both the work and break sessions and change tones. Even a long break session allows you to take a longer break than usual after multiple sessions. Overall, if you are interested in using the Pomodoro technique while writing, Marinara is the perfect extension to keep you on track.
Google Similar Pages
Google Similar Pages helps you see other websites similar to the one you are currently viewing. This is a great extension to find out more websites just like the one you are viewing, which can be a good way to find new websites for inspiration. While on a website of interest, click the extension button, and a list of similar website links will appear. You can directly click on these links to open them in a new tab.
Dark Reader
If you often need to work in a dark environment, you need a dark mode extension to avoid straining your eyes. Dark Reader is a highly customizable dark mode extension that automatically inverts bright colors on websites to create a dark theme. The extension keeps the original formatting of the websites and only changes bright colors. Although it’s enabled by default on all websites, you can also whitelist websites or only allow extensions on select websites. There is also an option to turn on/off dark mode on command. Interestingly, there is also an option to turn on a light mode that can turn dark websites into light color.
Lightshot
Taking screenshots is crucial for a writer to illustrate concepts quickly or adequately share or save ideas. There are many screenshots extensions in the Chrome web store, but I like Lightshot as straightforward. The extension doesn’t require any prior setup or signups to work. Just click on the extension button, and it will take a screenshot of the currently opened tab and open it in a new tab. You can then manually crop the screenshot to get the exact picture of the area. There are buttons to make minor edits like adding arrows or text, etc., and you can directly share the screenshot over social media or download it to your PC.
Headlinr
A great Chrome extension for bloggers needs to create catchy headings to attract users and increase visibility. Headlinr extension helps you create catchy headings by just providing the keyword to the extension. The extension contains over a thousand catchy heading phrases where it automatically adjusts your provided keyword to make a new heading. Some of the headings may not make sense as it uses a fixed database of headings, but most do make sense, or at least give you an idea to create a good heading with some manual edits. Unfortunately, the free version only offers 30 headline ideas. You’ll have to upgrade to the Pro version to access all the headings.
Cite This For Me
A must-have extension for students needs to cite sources in multiple formats like APA, Chicago, etc. Cite This For Me makes the citation process a snap by automatically creating citations in the preferred style with just a click. You have to visit the web page you want to cite and click on the extension button. The extension will show APA, Chicago, Harward, and MLA as selectable styles. You can click on any of these styles to create a citation in that format. Left-clicking on the generated citation will fully highlight it; you can then copy and paste it into your document. The extension also has a premium version that lets you save your citations online, but the free version is enough to create citations.
OneTab
Writing requires tons of research, which means you’ll be opening dozens of tabs simultaneously. Opening too many tabs can heavily clutter the browser and also slow it down. OneTab can fix this problem by discarding all the opened tabs and creating a list of all the opened websites. This will release all the tabs’ memory and make it easier to go through the list and open just the tab you immediately need. You can close and open the tabs from the OneTab window, and there is also the option to bulk open or bulk delete the tabs. The list of websites can be exported and opened on a different device or to keep it safe to use later.
Wrapping up
No matter how good your grammar is, I will still recommend you to get Grammarly as it does an amazing job of fixing typos that are impossible to avoid. Grammarly usually fixes 10+ mistakes in every post I write, and I make almost all of them unconsciously. Furthermore, if you focus on the work, then Marinara is worth a try. Pomodoro technique is surprisingly effective, especially if you work from home. Next, explore how to optimize content and copy through AI-powered tools.
