Carmel's Corner: How to declutter your screen

Sunday 3 June 2018

How to declutter your screen

Clear reading

Are you using this simple solution to clear your screen of additional clutter?

You’ve arrived at the article you want to read but the website is full of clutter, advertisements, sidebars with links to other articles and menus for navigating the site. Perhaps you want just the single article and a clear view of it.

Look for Reader View. A good reader view will clear the page of extraneous material, enable text resizing, and some will provide the facility to change the background screen colour. Not all websites provide the option for a reader view but it is well worth using it when available.

Safari for iPad

In the address bar look for the 4 line symbol in on the far left. A single tap will enable the simplified view or by a long press you can select to use on all websites.

Chrome - Windows

For years I have been using the web extension Clearly by Evernote on my Windows PC but it has been discontinued. If you have Clearly installed it is likely it will continue to work but no further development is being undertaken.

Try Mercury Reader available from the Chrome web store if you do not have Clearly still working.

Chrome - Android

The latest version now offers as simplified view. To access it,

Open the Chrome browser (version 65) on your phone or tablet
Go to Settings > Accessibility
Tap on Simplified View

This will force Chrome to offer to show articles in a simplified view when that is supported. If your phone or tablet has not automatically downloaded the latest version of the browser, head to the Play store to update it.

Microsoft Edge

Edge has a reading mode built into the browser which can be activated by clicking on the book symbol in the address bar. The disadvantage with this method is that the pages are then reordered left to right rather than the normal method of scrolling down a page. Some may like that arrangement as it mimics a book layout.