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Make the Most of Chrome DevTools: 6 Practical Features

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Introduction

If you build or maintain websites, Chrome DevTools is already part of your everyday routine. It’s the place where you tweak layouts, check network requests, debug scripts, and experiment with styles until everything looks and works just right.

But even though we all rely on it, most people use only a fraction of what DevTools can actually do. Beyond the familiar Console and Elements tabs, there are plenty of smaller features that can make debugging faster, performance analysis clearer, and design testing smoother.

In this post, we’ll go through a few of those practical features — the ones that don’t always get much attention, but can really streamline your workflow once you start using them. No extensions, no setup — just the built-in tools that make DevTools feel a bit more like a power tool and less like a basic inspector.

1. Logpoints – Debugging Without Editing Your Code

What Are Logpoints?

If you’ve ever had to scatter console.log() all over your code just to understand what’s going on, you’re going to love Logpoints. They let you add console messages dynamically, directly in DevTools — without touching your source files.
That means you can inspect variable values or execution flow even in production-like environments, without redeploying or saving files.

How to Use Logpoints

1. Open the Sources tab.
2. Navigate to the line you want to observe.
3. Right-click on the line number → Add logpoint…
4. Type the expression you want to log (e.g. user.name or response.status).
5. Run your app — the log appears in the console instantly.

Typical Use Cases

• Debug live code when you can’t modify the source.
• Inspect loops, async functions, or event handlers.
• Temporarily trace variable changes without committing debug code.

Comparison: Logpoints vs. console.log()

2. Emulate Focus – Testing Accessibility and Design States

Why It Matters

Focus states are a huge part of accessibility and usability, but testing them manually can be awkward. Sometimes, it’s impossible to trigger :focus on hidden or complex elements using just the keyboard.
That’s where Emulate Focus comes in — it allows you to force the focus state on any element directly from DevTools.

How to Use It

1. In the Elements panel, right-click an element.
2. Choose Force state → :focus.
3. DevTools instantly applies the focus style, so you can see how it looks and behaves.

Use Cases

• Verify accessibility compliance for keyboard navigation.
• Check that visual focus indicators are visible and consistent.
• Debug custom focus styles or CSS transitions.

3. CSS Shadow Editor – Designing with Precision

Purpose

Let’s be honest — writing box-shadow manually is a guessing game. A few pixels too much blur or spread can turn a clean card into a messy blob. Chrome’s CSS Shadow Editor fixes that with an intuitive visual editor.

How It Works

1. Open Elements → Styles.
2. Find an element with a box-shadow.
3. Click the color preview icon to open the visual editor.
4. Adjust sliders for offset, blur, spread, and color — DevTools updates the CSS in real time.

Why Developers Love It

• Instant visual feedback while you tweak values.
• No more “reload and pray” cycles.
• Perfect for designers and developers collaborating on consistent shadow tokens.

4. Measure Unused Scripts & CSS - Find What Your App Doesn’t Need

Why It Matters

Modern web frameworks make it incredibly easy to build complex, feature-rich applications. But with that convenience often comes a lot of extra weight — libraries, components, and styles that end up being loaded even when they’re not used.

Over time, this can slow down page loads, increase memory usage, and make debugging more difficult. The good news is that Chrome DevTools has a built-in solution: the Coverage tool. It helps you see exactly which parts of your JavaScript and CSS are actually being used — and which aren’t.

How to Use the Coverage Tool

1. Open DevTools and press Ctrl + Shift + P (or Cmd + Shift + P on macOS).

2. Type “Coverage” and select Show Coverage.

3. Click the reload icon in the Coverage tab to start measuring.

4. Interact with your app as you normally would — DevTools records which parts of your code are executed.

When it’s done, you’ll see a detailed report showing each file and how much of it was actually used. Red areas represent unused code, and green areas show what ran.

What You Can Do with This Data

• Clean up unused CSS from frameworks or legacy code.

• Split large JavaScript bundles with lazy loading.

• Use tools like PurgeCSS or UnusedCSS for automated cleanup based on coverage results.

By keeping track of what your app really needs, you make it faster, leaner, and easier to maintain.

Comparison Table: Coverage vs. External Tools

5. Break On – Catch DOM Changes as They Happen

What It Does

Sometimes an element disappears, moves, or changes style, and you have no idea what caused it. The Break On feature lets you pause JavaScript execution exactly when a DOM change occurs.

How to Use Break On

1. In the Elements panel, right-click the element in question.
2. Choose Break on → subtree modifications, attribute modifications, or node removal.
3. Interact with the page.
4. When that element changes, DevTools automatically pauses and highlights the responsible script.

Use Cases

• Finding which script hides a modal or button.
• Debugging dynamic content injections.
• Tracking unexpected CSS class changes.

6.Capture Node Screenshot – Isolate and Document Elements

Why It’s Useful

Full-page screenshots are fine, but what if you only need to capture a specific button, card, or header? That’s where Capture Node Screenshot shines.
It allows you to take pixel-perfect screenshots of individual DOM elements — no cropping needed.

How to Use It

1. Right-click any element in the Elements panel.
2. Choose Capture node screenshot.
3. Chrome instantly saves an image of just that component.

Use Cases

• Documenting UI states for QA or design reviews.
• Comparing design changes across versions.
• Creating visual assets for bug reports or portfolios.

Dependencies & Compatibility

These features require nothing more than Google Chrome v92+ — no extensions, no command-line flags.
They work identically across Windows, Linux, and macOS, making them perfect for developers and sysadmins alike.

If any of the panels (like “Coverage”) are missing, open DevTools and navigate to More Tools → enable the missing feature manually.

Conclusion

Chrome DevTools is one of those tools we all use, but usually just enough to get the job done. Still, there’s a lot of value in exploring what else it can do — especially features that quietly solve everyday problems.

Things like Logpoints, Emulate Focus, the CSS Shadow Editor, or Break On might not look flashy, but once you start using them, they make debugging smoother and design work a lot more predictable. Tools such as Measure Unused Scripts & CSS or Capture Node Screenshot can help you clean up projects and document your work more efficiently.

You don’t need to master every panel in DevTools — just knowing a few of these tricks can make your workflow faster and your code a little cleaner. And that’s usually all it takes to make development feel less like troubleshooting and more like building something you actually enjoy.