How do I sign in to Google Chrome?

THESE INSTRUCTIONS ARE NOT FOR USERS OF CHROMEBOOKS.  CHROMEBOOKS ARE ALWAYS SIGNED INTO CHROME WITH SYNC ON.
THESE INSTRUCTIONS ARE NOT FOR USERS OF MOBILE DEVICES.  iPads, iPhones, and Android WORK DIFFERENTLY WITH CHROME.
THESE INSTRUCTIONS ARE FOR WINDOWS COMPUTERS, MAC COMPUTERS, AND LINUX COMPUTERS.

The objective of this video is for you to be logged into the Chrome browser with "Sync On."

One of the most challenging things from a technology standpoint when users are not using our equipment and not in our buildings is ensuring that everyone has access to the same computing environment.  Without a consistent environment, training and instruction often doesn't work.

In 2020, the best way to ensure that everyone has the same environment (at school and at home) is to ensure that we are all using the same browser and using it in the same way.  What I'm going to show you in this video is exactly how to do that.

We recommend that everyone uses the Chrome browser.  All of the Chromebooks have it built-in, and it runs on Windows and Mac computers if you install it.  It even runs on iPhones, iPads, and Android phones, although it doesn't always work exactly the same way there.  If you are using a computer without the Chrome browser, please install Chrome.  There are instructions for how to do this at our Home Tech Help site, hometechhelp.npsd.org.

So, for our purposes today, we will assume that Chrome is on your computer and you've opened Chrome.  Your status at this point is one of the following:

1. You are not signed into Chrome
   
2. You are signed into Chrome, but with "Sync Off"
   
3. You are signed into Chrome with "Sync On" (our goal).
   

How do you know which status you are in?  It's all in the user bubble.

The user bubble is in the upper right corner.  It can appear in a web page, but we aren't interested in that.  We want the user bubble that is part of the browser itself.  This ensures not only that we don't have to keep typing the username and password again and again, but also that our settings, extensions, bookmarks, etc. follow us on every computer we use.  This ensures that we don't have to keep installing and configuring things every time we use a different computer.

The user bubble is a circle on the toolbar, next-to-last on the right.  It may be this gray little guy, or it may be a colorful circle with your first initial in it, or, if you picked an account picture, a circle with that picture in it.

If you have the gray little guy, you are not signed into the browser.  To sign in, click the gray little guy, click "Turn on Sync," and enter your npsd.org credentials.  When prompted, choose to "Link Data" and then, when asked, select "Yes I'm In."

If your user bubble is your initial in a colorful circle or a picture in a colorful circle, you are signed into the browser.  You may not, however, have "Sync On."  Click the user bubble.  When the drop-down shows up, it will either say "Sync On" or "Sync Off."  If sync is off, there will be a "Turn on Sync" button.  Click it and enter your npsd.org credentials.  When prompted, choose to "Link Data" and then, when asked, select "Yes I'm In."

That's it!