12.04.2013

How to: Turn a Webpage into an Application Shortcut

If you are a heavy user of any particular webpage or web-based service it may benefit you to simply turn that webpage into a clickable app shortcut. This way you can easily bring up the page directly without having to bring up your browser and going to the URL. It may also just be that you are getting used to launching everything via Apps on your mobile device. Whatever the reason, I find it extremley useful to convert many of the webpages I use often to shortcuts on the desktop. This is especially useful for sites that you may use to monitor social media traffic; Hootsuite, Buffer, Google Analytics etc etc. Chrome offers a great feature that lets you turn any webpage into an application shortcut on your desktop. It presents the page in a much more sleek, address bar-free presentation and is perfect for quick access to frequently used webpages.

Performed on Chrome; current Version 31.0.165

Step 1
At the top right click "Customize and Control Google Chrome Icon"


Step 2
In the drop-down menu click "Tools"


Step 3
From here click the "Create Application Shortcuts..."



Step 4
A box will pop up showing you what you are about to create as a shortcut. You can select where the shortcut will appear on you desktop. I recommend at least keeping "Pin to Task Bar" as it is nice to have the shortcut visible and ready to launch without having to minimize whatever else you might be doing on your desktop. Hit the "Create" button.





It's as simple as that. Now find your Icon and click on it. Don't forget to adjust the height and width of the window to suite your preference. Now that webpage can be easily launched, via application shortcut, anytime you want.