Customize New Tab in Chrome with Google Tab Maker

You might not realize it, but the New Tab page is one of the most viewed pages in your browser. In Chrome, you can customize the New Tab page so that you’re greeted there every time with photos, the weather, news, announcements, or whatever you want. We do this with the Google Tab Maker.

For this purpose, Chrome has developed a tool that allows you to compose an extension yourself that loads the layout and content into the New Tab page. It is even possible to create several new tabs, after which Chrome picks one at random. You don’t need to install anything to use Google Tab Maker as it is a web tool. Moreover, Tab Maker is free and you don’t have to work with code.

If you share your extension with others, they will also see these new tabs. This makes it an interesting solution for companies, organizations, schools and associations that want to keep their community warm with news and announcements. Professional programmers used to develop these types of Chrome extensions, but Tab Maker allows anyone to create personalized tabs.

Working principle

To see the operation of Google Tab Maker to understand, it is useful to know how the tool works. To start with, there are eleven different templates to choose from. Those templates determine the basic shape and divide the content into boxes or blocks. In these boxes you can place images, text, links or animated gifs and also add links to your favorite news feeds. You will then see the most recent news every time you open a new tab.

You record the content of the template in a Google spreadsheet. Then you connect the spreadsheet to the chosen template, and the content is loaded into the appropriate boxes in the future.

Choose Template

To get started, click the green button at the top right: Make your own† In the next window you will read that the whole procedure only takes five steps. click on Get started, you will then see the eleven templates. When you click on such a template, you will see a larger view on the right. There are also templates for dual functions, if you want to compare the results of different sports clubs or compare the weather forecasts of different cities, for example. Once you have selected a template, click Next.

Contents

In the next step, you need to capture the content in a Google spreadsheet. You can start with a blank worksheet, or open the sample content to get an idea of ​​what is expected of you. Under the button Add your own content you will see the box where you will have to paste the internet address of the Google spreadsheet. We are going to fill in our details ourselves, so choose the bottom button.

Spreadsheet

A Google spreadsheet will open, asking you in capital letters to make a copy of this spreadsheet. You do that via the menu File / Make a copy† Give this new document a recognizable name, for example content_tab_maker† By default, Google Sheets will publish this new document via Google Drive. You can leave it that way.

At the bottom of this worksheet you see that this spreadsheet consists of three tabs that will guide you through the structure. So the first tab lets you make a copy of this worksheet. Step two invites you to add content and in step three you can publish the worksheet.

Columns and rows

After we have copied the worksheet, let’s create the content. That’s just a matter of filling the cells with images, links and text. Click on the tab called at the bottom Step 2: Add content to this sheet† Since the sheet is automatically saved to your Google account, you can return to it and continue working on it at any time.

At the top of the spreadsheet you can see the subject division of the template you are working in. You will recognize the numbers of the boxes in the columns of the spreadsheet. Each block has its own column and there is also a column for the background images. The rows in the spreadsheet represent a new tab each time. For example, if you use ten rows, you create the same number of new tabs. It’s critical that you don’t mix photos and gifs with text content in the same column.

To add an image or gif, search for it online. Right click on the search result and choose Copy address of the image† Then paste this link in the correct cell. You do the same with hyperlinks to other sources, such as news feeds.

In this example, we’ll create a new tab page for a photo club that showcases two member photos each month.

To publish

Even if you’re not quite done yet, you can already publish the spreadsheet by going to File / Share to go. There you choose the option Publishing on the Internet† You have to pay attention in the pop-up window. below Link the option defaults to Whole document† Obviously, you shouldn’t publish the entire spreadsheet document, just the tab named Step 2: Add content to this sheet†

In addition, you have to choose the file format in which you publish the spreadsheet. By default this is set to web page† Change this to the option Comma separated values ​​(.csv)† Adjust these settings and click To publish† You will then receive a link that starts with https://docs.google.com/spreasheet/† You have to copy that link.

Adjust body

Then you go back to the opened page in Tab Maker. Paste the link you just copied into the URL box. Then click Next† A preview of the new tab page will now appear, after which you still need to fine-tune the layout.

First you adjust the properties of the entire page. Then you can change the properties block by block. This way you can select the background color and determine how you want the images and text in the boxes. With images you have three options under Image Fit: Repeat, Fill and Cover† Bee repeat the image is repeated until the frame is filled.

Of fill the web app will stretch the image height and width to fit the frame, distorting the image. Of cover the image is scaled and cropped to fill the frame without distortion.

Different tabs

In this example, we created five rows for as many new tabs. At the bottom you can request the preview per row (ie per new tab page). Select the desired row and click Refresh† Of Page Padding determine the width of the margin. Of Block Spacing decide how much space there should be between the different blocks.

The larger the value you enter here, the wider the space between the content blocks becomes, but the smaller the content blocks themselves become.

Customize block content

Take care of the contents of the blocks. When it comes to text, you can edit the font, font size, style, height, and many other properties. When you click on such an element, the number of the block appears in the left column with the associated parameters with which you control vertical and horizontal alignment.

You can color each block with the controller Block Color and the opacity of that background color is determined with Background Alpha† For example, if you set it to 50, the background color will become semi-transparent. It is also possible to provide the blocks with rounded corners with Border Radius†

Bundling

In the next step you will bundle all the properties you have captured in the Google spreadsheet together with Tab Maker in a new extension. Name the new tab and type a short description. Below that, choose an icon for the extension.

Tab Maker presents a set of icons that you can use freely, but you can also select a graphic file from your hard drive. When all the boxes are filled in, you can click on the blue button Download zip file†

Share privately or via Web Store

Now you have the choice. Do you want to share the extension yourself with a group of people you know? Or are you so proud of your project that you want to distribute the extension through the Chrome Web Store?

In the latter case, you must register yourself as a developer and pay a one-time fee of five dollars for a registration fee. After that you need to upload the zip file in the Developer Dashboard† Finally, you must have the extension approved by Google before it is included in the Web Store.

To share the extension within your own circle, Tab Maker will also compile a zip file. You can then send that to the others.

to install

The recipient of your extension must have the file tab-maker.zip unpack first. Then it opens Chrome and goes to the extension manager by entering the address box chrome://extensions to type. There he switches the Developer Mode in, located in the top right corner.

This will cause the button Load unpacked extension in the image and he can upload the extracted extension. To view the result, the person has to open a new tab.

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