Whenever a tool I like to use updates, it makes me so happy! When Edge moved to Chromium over a year ago, I jumped for joy. Literally, in my chair. One of our goals as a department is to make every program we use seamless with Single Sign-On  – and Chromium provides that. Unified Classroom and Schoology are going to work better for our students with the use of Single Sign-On. (you know, the whole not having to sign in more than once thing) When these updates below went out, I was so excited, and I needed to tell you immediately. This post is in no particular order but without further ado, here are Mike’s Top 5 updates to Microsoft Edge!​

Vertical Tab

​If you love doing research but have a hard time keeping your research organized because you have 20 tabs open, then have I got a solution for you! By using vertical tabs, not only can you easily find the tabs you are looking for, but you can also hide the names, which is super helpful when you are presenting during a meeting. With the shift to Vertical Tabs, you will open more of your screen for viewing websites. Check out the instructions from Microsoft below.

How to set up Vertical Tabs in Edge:

1. Click menu > Settings in Edge.
2. Click Appearance.
3. Mark “Show vertical tabs button” (it’s supposed to be blue).

​​How to Hide and Show the Tab Sidebar in Edge

1. ​To access the vertical tab sidebar, click the “Turn on vertical tabs” button at the left side of Edge’s tab bar.
2. On the left side of Edge, you will see a tab icon. It defaults to the favicon or small icon used by the webpage.
3. To access the tabs, mouse over the left sidebar and it will appear over the current page you have open and shows you the title of each tab. It works the same way as open tabs, except it opens on top of the page you are looking at.
4. Click the “Pin pane” button at the top right corner of the tab panel. It will appear and stay on screen until you unpin it.
5. To turn it off, click “Turn off vertical tabs”. You can go back and forth as long as you do not change the settings for Edge.​

Collections:

If you are a bookmark user or Wakelet fan like I am, you are going to love Collections. Instead of only being able to save webpages, with Collections you can collect (see what I did there) websites, pdf’s, notes you make, videos and pictures clipped right from what you are reading. You just give it a name and build it. It is pretty outstanding. Also, if you sync across devices, then the collections come with you.​ Check out the directions from Microsoft below.

How to use it:

1. ​On a computer​ at the upper-right corner of Microsoft Edge and then Start new collection. 
2. To change the title of the collection, select it at the top of the Collections pane.
   
3. You can add content in many ways:
   • ​Select Add current page to save an entire webpage to the collection.
   • Select and drag an image into the collection.
   • Select and drag a link or highlighted text into the collection.
   • Select Add Sticky Note.​

Immersive Reader and Read Aloud

Guess what? Microsoft Edge has both Immersive Reader and a Read Aloud function. Instead of these tools just being available inside of Word, Sway, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Excel, we can find them here too. We love these amazing tools, and they are some of the most important tools Microsoft has ever made. They’re that important. For tools that can level the playing field for so many of our challenged learners, you don’t want to miss this.

For those of you who are unaware, Immersive reader is a free tool that Microsoft has created which integrates several proven techniques that help improve reading and writing. Immersive reader allows users to change font size, text spacing, background color, highlight parts of speech, break words into syllables and control how fast text can be read, with the ability to highlight the words and lines that are being said.​​

PDF Read Aloud and Ink/Draw on PDF

PDFS are ever present in our day to day lives and we have very limited ways to work with them. Either you find some hacks and spend hours attempting to rework or you’ll pay a lot of extra money for a program that allows you to write on PDF’s. While it’s not everything you want in a PDF program, this reader allows you to annotate files with ink and highlighting.

Here are a few of the key features that you should be excited about:​

Inking

Inking on PDF files comes in handy to take quick notes for easy reference, sign, or fill out PDF forms. This capability is now available in Microsoft Edge. In addition to inking PDF files as needed, you can use color and stroke width to bring attention to different parts of the PDF file. The next screenshot shows how a user can add inking to a pdf page.

Highlight

PDF reader in Microsoft Edge comes with support for adding and editing highlights. To create a highlight, the user simply needs to select the text, right-click on it, select highlights in the menu and choose the desired color. The next screenshot shows the highlight options that are available.

​Read Aloud

Read Aloud for PDF adds the convenience of listening to PDF content while carrying out other tasks that may be important to users. It also helps auditory learners focus on the content, which makes learning much easier. The next screenshot shows a Read Aloud example. The highlighting shows the text that is currently being read.​​

Accessibility

The PDF reader comes with support for Keyboard accessibility, high contrast mode, and screen reader support across Windows and macOS devices.

High contrast mode

PDF reader will use the settings defined at the operating system level to render PDF content in high contrast mode.

Screen reader support

Users can navigate through and read PDF files using screen readers on Windows and Mac computers.​

Web Capture

The MS Edge browser has a screenshot tool to help anyone who needs to take a picture of the screen. This tool gives you the ability to capture a website page and then write on it and save it to your OneNote, a Word document, or as an image! Check out how to use it below with Microsoft’s directions:

Web Capture Directions:

1. In MS Edge select the Settings (…) and select Web capture.

2. After you select Web Capture, it opens and you can use the selection tool to capture the web page. To get an entire web page, just hold down the selection tool and drag to the bottom of the page. It will continue to scroll until you stop.

3. Once you capture what you want, you will see a few options like Copy and Preview.

• Click Copy to add the image to your clipboard. It will then be available for you to paste into any application
• For more options, select Preview. This will allow you to preview the content you selected and provide options to share or save it locally​.

​Cool Additions that do not quite make our Top list:

Sync Edge extensions and other info

With the latest updates to Edge, you now can sync your extensions and passwords across different devices. If you have bookmarks or tools in Edge that you like, you can now move them with ease by signing into Edge, similar to how you would with Google Chrome extensions.

QR Code Generator

You can create QR codes for any webpage and this functionality is built into Edge! Check out the instructions from Microsoft below.

• Open Edge and type edge://flags in the address bar of Edge and hit enter.
• Next type QR in the search flags box of the experimental page.
• It’s disabled to start with, you will see the flag #sharing-qr-code-generator.
• Under the Enable sharing page via QR Code, on the right of the window, click on Default.
• Select Enable from the drop-down.
• Restart Edge by closing it and then open it up again.
• Boom! It will be enabled and accessible for any website in the URL bar.​

Dark mode

If you have never used Dark mode before on any tool, you don’t know what you’re missing. Dark mode changes the background of the web browser to black with white text which many people find easier to read. For me, I find that with the darker screen there is less strain on my eyes. I usually turn on Dark mode everywhere that it is available. 

What do you think? Do any of these tools stand out to you? Share your thoughts with us below. We’ll see you soon!