by Charles Miller

Some of the feedback I received from last week's column provided me with one of those "head slapping" moments, because I had innocently referred to using your internet browser's "reader mode" without considering that not everyone knows what that is. I also used the phrase "point your browser" without explaining that means to use your internet browser to visit a web page. With apologies to all who were disappointed or dumbfounded by my failure to explain things more fully, I will try to make up for that this week.

"Reader mode" is a feature found in most but not all web browsers; more on that later. This mode of web browsing is designed to make the web easier to read by removing distracting elements from web pages. These distractions include psychedelic color formatting, empty space, ads, videos that activate your speakers at high volume, and other elements that would otherwise make it hard for you to concentrate on the text you want to read. Different web browsers have implemented reader mode in different ways.

Without a doubt one of the best implementations of reader mode is Apple's Safari browser; available for both MacOS and iOS. Apple calls it "Reader View." Simply click on the reader view button in the address bar on Mac, iPhone, or iPad. Your device will immediately display the page, minus all the advertisements and other distractions. There is an option to automatically load all pages in reader mode, but I am hesitant to recommend that, because if you tell your Apple device to block all ads by automatically using reader mode some pages will fail to load without telling you why.

Microsoft likewise includes reader mode as a feature in its Edge browser, calling it "Immersive Reader." When you click the "Enter Immersive Reader" icon in the address bar, it looks like an open book; then all the ads disappear. It also works to press the [F9] key on the keyboard.

Mozilla Firefox is another popular web browser with its own reader mode, and since everyone has to be different, Mozilla calls theirs "Reader View." To make all the ads and distractions instantaneously disappear from a page, you may press [F9] or click on the icon in the address bar that looks like a sheet of paper with lines of text on it.

So what about Google Chrome, the internet's most popular web browser for computers and smart phones? Chrome is a free web browser provided by Google, the world's largest advertising agency and, gee whiz, the Chrome browser does not seem to have a button to zap all the annoying advertising from web pages. I wonder why.

Chrome actually does have a feature called "Reading Mode" that can be found if you click the vertical ellipses (three dots) in the upper right, and navigate down the menu to "More Tools," and then click on "Reading mode." This so-called reader mode is pretty lame compared to the other browsers, however; this Chrome feature does make it easy to change the font, color, and text spacing of the page; so that might be useful for some. What it does not do is remove the ads from the screen. To do that, you would need to use your mouse to resize the window to cover the ads.

For both computers and smart phones, there are extensions that can be downloaded and added to Chrome to provide a better reader mode. My own experience with this is that these modifications to Google Chrome frequently quit working after a software update. Google probably does not want users blocking their ads.

Reader mode is available to you now, and able to provide an improved, distraction-free reading experience. Removing unnecessary clutter, such as ads, pop-ups, blaring videos, and extraneous elements can help you better enjoy the core content of web pages free from distractions.

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Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant with decades of IT experience and a Texan with a lifetime love for Mexico. The opinions expressed are his own. He may be contacted at 415-101-8528 or email FAQ8 (at) SMAguru.com.

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