Chromebook for Beginners | Getting Started with Chromebook

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Chromebook for Beginners

Chromebooks were introduced by Google in 2011. Since then, Google has released multiple editions of Chromebooks for different types of consumers.

Chromebooks are getting more and more popular just because of their great reputation in the market.

Chromebooks are easy-to-use and anyone can get started with them.

Google has upgraded its ChromeOS for Chromebooks, which now offers better compatibility and great features to explore web-based applications.

If we talk about today’s Chromebooks, they are now more powerful and capable of handling almost all the tasks that a normal PC can do. The upgraded ChromeOS is designed for all types of users.

If you have just bought a new Chromebook and trying your hands for the first time, then this article is going to be worth a bookmark for you. Everything you need to know about the Chromebook is given here.

The Chromebook for Beginners guide would help beginner users to understand the Chromebook and its functionality.

How to Set up a Chromebook for the First Time?

As noted above, Chromebook runs on Google’s ChromeOS, the user-friendly operating system that is familiar to everyone.

Anyone can use this device as it doesn’t require special skills. ChromeOS acts as a web browser where you can use the web and run web-based applications easily.

The following steps will help you to set up the Chromebook for the first time. If you have just pulled out your Chromebook, then follow these steps to get started with it.

Note: Make sure that your Chromebook is fully charged. Even if your Chromebook is charged enough, consider plugging into the charging port while setting up for the first time to complete the setup process with no interruptions.

1. Pull out the Chromebook from the bag and open the lid to turn it on.

2. On the front screen, you will be asked to enter your Google Account. Type in your email Id and click the next button. (follow basic instructions such as selecting the language, your country, etc.)

Chromebook for Beginners - How to Set up a Chromebook for the First Time

Chromebook for Beginners – How to Set up a Chromebook for the First Time

3. The next page will ask you to enter the password for your email account. (If you have enabled two-way authentication, make sure to confirm the login process from the other device.)

4. After confirming the login process, you will be presented with a message that lets you see what things will be synced on this Chromebook.

5. Tick mark “Review sync options following setup” and then click the Accept and Continue buttons.

signed in

6. Google Play apps and services window will be presented on your screen. Make sure you read the given terms and conditions. Click the More button to follow the guidelines.

7. The location option can be disabled to prevent apps and third-party sources from using your current location.

8. At last, select Accept button to finish the setup.

After completing the setup of the Chromebook, you will be asked to take a tour of the Chromebook to improve your user interface.

You can click the X button from the upper right corner to close down this window. If you don’t want to take the tour, click the X button.

take a tour

Chromebook for Beginners – take a tour

That’s all you have to do to set up the Chromebook for the first time. All the extensions and applications associated with your Google Account will be installed automatically on the Chromebook.

If you closely look at the lower right corner, you can see the Clock that lets you adjust the time and date.

If there are any updates available, you can open the notification panel from the bottom right corner. Select the Update all button to update all the apps for a fresh start.

Furthermore, we have listed down some more tips that you can follow to use the Chromebook like a Pro-user.

How to Screenshot on Chromebook?

There are two different ways in which a Chromebook user can take a screenshot on Google’s Chromebook.

We have listed both methods here. You can follow and use any of these methods as per your preference.

Method 1. Take a Screenshot of the Full Screen on a Chromebook

If you want to capture the entire screen as a screenshot, then there’s a shortcut to do so. Press and hold down the Control Key and Switch Key from the Keyboard. These keys are located on the top raw.

How to take a screenshot on Chromebook

How to take a screenshot on Chromebook

If you own a Chromebook with a 360-hinge, you can easily grab a screenshot by pressing the Power and Volume Down buttons.

Method 2. Capture a part of the Screen on a Chromebook

There comes a time when you need to capture just a small part of the screen and not the entire screen. In this situation, you need to follow the combination of the given keys from your keyboard.

To capture a part of the screen on a Chromebook, press and hold the Control, Shift, and Switch Window keys.

Capture a part of the Screen on Chromebook

Capture a part of the Screen on Chromebook

As soon as you press these three keys, the cursor of your mouse will be changed to a crosshair that lets you select the part from the current screen.

Once your screenshot is captured, a pop-up notification will be displayed on the screen and the screenshot will be saved automatically on Google Drive.

You can view the screenshots from the Downloads folder of your Chromebook.

How to Type Math Symbols on Chromebook?

The Keyboard of the Chromebook is different from other PCs. For that reason, you can’t type math symbols or we can say special characters easily.

The easiest way with which you can get the math symbols or special characters is by simply searching for them on the Google Chrome browser to copy and paste them.

You can insert special characters and math symbols with Unicode on Google Chrome. You can use google Unicodes to insert special characters using Google Chromebook’s keyboard.

While typing the math symbol or any other special character from the Unicode, you need to press and hold the Control+Shift+Unicode to insert the special character in the document.

The best way to get the math symbol is to add an extension called Virtual Math Keyboard.

This add-on allows you to use the virtual keyboard on your Chromebook. This is the simplest way to get special characters or, we can say, math symbols in your Chromebook.

How to Type Math Symbol on Chromebook

How to Type Math Symbol on Chromebook

Get a Virtual Math Keyboard

How to Use Speech to Text Chromebook Feature?

Being a Google Product, Chromebook allows its users to use the unique speech-to-enter text feature. You can enable this feature on your Chromebook by following the below-given steps.

The dictation feature needs to be enabled by the user from the Chromebook’s Accessibility settings.

1. Go to Chromebook Settings and search for the Accessibility option in the search box.

2. Select Manage accessibility features from this page.

Chromebook for Beginners - How to Use Speech to Text Chromebook Feature

Chromebook for Beginners – How to Use Speech-to-Text Chromebook Feature

3. Scroll down the page and select the Keyboard and text input section.

text input section

text input section

4. Here, you will see Enable dictation (speak to type) option. Click the toggle button to enable this feature.

Chromebook for Beginners - Enable dictation

Enable dictation

That’s all you have to do to enable the speech-to-text feature. Whenever you click the search field, a microphone’s symbol can be seen beside the window.

Click the icon and speak. The system will type in what you speak automatically.

How to Use Text to Speech (Select-to-Speak) Chromebook Feature?

Google Chromebook’s built-in feature lets you hear parts of the current page. With this text-to-speech feature enabled, users can now select the words from the page to read aloud by the system.

Follow these steps to enable this feature on your Chromebook.

1. Select the Time option from the bottom right corner of your Chromebook.

How to Use Text to Speech (Select-to-Speak) Chromebook Feature

How to Use Text-to-Speech (Select-to-Speak) Chromebook Feature

2. From here, select the Settings option or Keyboard option. You can also launch Accessibility by clicking on the Accessibility option. (See above image)

3. Scroll down the page and then select the Advanced option.

4. Select the Accessibility option, and then click Manage Accessibility features. (You can open this page right from the built-in Chrome Browser on your Chromebook.)

Chromebook for Beginners - Enable select to speak

Chromebook for Beginners – Enable select to speak

@youtube

5. Turn on the toggle button of Enable Select-to-Speak, which is given under the Text-to-speech option.

Chromebook for Beginners - select to speak

Chromebook for Beginners – select to speak

You can tweak this feature further by adopting different functions given on the accessibility page.

You can also turn on the page reader feature that starts reading the page automatically. You can enable or disable this feature any time you want from the Accessibility Settings.

Conclusion:

This is how you can set up the newly bought Chromebook and use the different features and functions on it.

As soon as you are using the Chrome Browser, there will be no issues with the interface of the Chromebook.

You can use Chromebook for work as well as for personal stuff by connecting it to multiple monitors via docking stations for Chromebook.

You can easily open the Settings tab from the lower right corner of the page and can start using the different features and functions of the standard Chrome browser.

Chromebook’s ChromeOS is quite easy. Explore more of its features to know more about the features and functions of the Chromebook.

Chromebook FAQ

Chromebook FAQ
How to Connect Camera on Chromebook?
How to Delete Apps on Chromebook?
How to Rotate Screen on Chromebook?
How to Connect Chromebook to TV?
How to Setup Zoom App for Chromebook
How to Screen Record on Chromebook?
How to Delete History on Chromebook?
How to Connect Printer to Chromebook?
How to Block YouTube On Chromebook?
How to Update Chromebook?
How to Get Minecraft on a Chromebook?
How to Connect AirPods to Chromebook?
How to Copy and Paste on a Chromebook?
How to Factory Reset Chromebook?
How to Split Screen on Chromebook?
How to Play Google Stadia on Chromebook?
How to Cast From Chromebook?
How to Connect 2 Monitors to Chromebook?

See Also

Chromebook for kids

Chromebooks vs Laptop

How to Choose a Chromebook?