Website Distilling/Cleansing
Web distilling is the ability to remove distractions from a web page that may include advertisements, graphics or other non-related text items. In distilling a website, only the article is displayed making it easier for students to concentrate on the content.
Windows: There is no web cleansing support built into Windows internet browsers at this time.
Mac:
· The safari browser on both the OSX and iOS platforms has a built-in screen reader option. When you navigate to a website that supports this feature, an icon will appear on the left hand side of the address bar. Clicking on this icon will present the information in a simplified form. There is a further option to change the font type and size within the screen reader function (top right hand corner).
Chrome: There are several extension (e) tools to activate web distilling:
· Google distill – this is a feature that is still in its beta form and will require some technical ability in setting it up. However, once it is installed, clicking on the settings bar in the top right hand corner will open up a distill option.
· Read&Write for Google (e) – the simplify page tool has two functions: clicking the icon in the toolbar will first present the information in a simplified form (distilling).
· Mercury Reader (e) – clicking the extension icon will present the information in a simplified form. There is an option to send the distilled page to a Kindle device.
· Announcify (e) – clicking the extension icon will the page in a new tab without distractions and it will be read aloud
Recommendation(s):
· Mac computer: use the built-in distill feature built into Safari.
· iDevice: use the built-in distill feature built into Safari.
· Windows computer: use the built-in distill feature in Google Chrome or the Clearly extension.
· ChromeBook: use the built-in distill feature in Google Chrome or the Clearly extension.