Chromebook Information for Students
Special Chromebook Tips and Troubleshooting
Chromebook Troubleshooting Guide
Here's a short document you can use as a guide to the most common things that go wrong on a Chromebook. Created by our student tech interns!
BASIC CHROMEBOOK DIFFERENCES
Hi students!
Your Chromebook is a little different than the desktops or other laptops you might have used.
Here are some quick tips for trouble you might be having.
If your Chromebook freezes, try to reset it by holding the power button down for about 3 seconds to turn off your ChromeBook.
Then turn it on again after about 10-15 seconds of waiting.
CAPS LOCK is different for a Chromebook than for other computers.
There is a search button (a picture of a magnifying glass is on it) where the caps lock button is on other computers.
Press and hold this button at the same the as the "alt" button to turn on caps lock.
Press the "shift" button to turn off caps lock.
Shortcuts are a little different than on other computers.
Instead of holding down command and tapping x to cut, you hold down control and tap x.
Instead of holding down command and tapping c to copy, you hold down control and tap c.
Instead of holding down command and tapping v to paste, you hold down control and tap v.
See the picture below to learn about taking a screenshot.
Right Clicking on a PC is called "alt click" on a Chromebook.
Instead of right clicking by holding down Control and clicking with your mouse like on our Apple desktop computers, on a Chromebook you need to hold down alt and click with your mouse.
Learn how to have text read to you on your Chromebook.
You'll need to change some settings on your Chromebook to have text read to you.
How to make windows side-by-side on a Chromebook
Here's a trick that can help any Chromebook user: use the alt key plus the [ or ] key to push a window to the right or left side of the screen. Note: this only works on Chromebooks, not Windows or Mac (sorry). This can be extremely helpful when you're seeing a presentation over Meet or Zoom so you can see both the presentation and also everyone's faces.