# Text, developer, and handy tools in Admin Tools ## What are the text, dev, and handy tools? Admin Tools by Cloud Captains is a Chrome extension with more than 130 separate tools, organized into eleven categories. You open them all from the popup window: click the extension's icon in your toolbar and pick the tool you need. In this article we highlight three groups you will reach for most often in daily work: the text tools, the developer (dev) tools, and the handy everyday utilities. The extension is built for developers, IT administrators, and power users, but most tools are just as useful when you simply want to convert or check something quickly. You can find the full overview on the homepage at https://cloud-captains.com/admin-tools/. :::info title="First, a word about privacy" The text, math, and crypto tools run 100% locally in your browser. Whatever you type stays on your own device: no data is sent to any server and there is no telemetry. A small number of tools do need an external service to work (for example, fetching live exchange rates), and we point those out explicitly below. ::: ## The text tools The text tools let you convert or analyze text quickly, without needing a separate website or app. A few common examples: - **Case conversion**: turn text into ALL CAPS, all lowercase, Sentence case, or Title Case. Handy for tidying up headings or labels. - **Statistics**: counts words, characters, sentences, and paragraphs. Useful to check whether a piece of text fits within a limit. - **Slugify**: turns a title into a clean, URL-friendly slug, so "My First Article!" becomes "my-first-article". - **Diff**: compares two pieces of text and highlights what was added or removed. Ideal for placing two versions side by side. - **Hash**: calculates a hash (such as SHA-256) of your text, for example to check whether two files or texts are identical. - **Base64**: encodes text into Base64 and back again. This is not encryption, but a way to send text safely through systems that only handle plain characters. - **Markdown to HTML**: converts Markdown into ready-to-use HTML that you can paste into a website or email. :::howto title="Convert text with the Case conversion tool" 1. Click the Admin Tools icon in your Chrome toolbar. 2. Open the Text category and choose the Case conversion tool. 3. Paste or type your text into the input field. 4. Pick the style you want, for example Title Case or all lowercase. 5. Click the copy button to send the result to your clipboard. ::: :::tip title="Base64 is not security" Base64 makes text unreadable to the eye, but anyone can reverse it in seconds. If you want to truly protect something, use the AES encryption tool in the Security and Forensics category, not Base64. ::: ## The dev tools The Dev and System category is full of gear that developers need every day. Because everything happens in the popup, you no longer have to switch between dozens of separate websites. - **Code formatter**: cleans up messy code with proper indentation, for formats such as JSON, YAML, and CSV. - **Regex tester**: tests a regular expression against sample text and shows live what matches. Saves a lot of guesswork. - **cURL to fetch**: paste a cURL command and get back working JavaScript fetch code, ready to drop into your project. - **chmod**: converts permissions between the numeric notation (such as 755) and the letter notation (rwxr-xr-x), so you no longer have to remember which number maps to which permission. - **crontab**: helps you build a cron line and explains in plain language when a job will run. - **git cheatsheet**: a reference of the most-used git commands, for when you cannot quite remember how that one command went. :::howto title="Convert a cURL command to fetch" 1. Open Admin Tools and go to the Dev and System category. 2. Choose the cURL to fetch tool. 3. Paste your full cURL command into the input field. 4. Read off the generated fetch code and check the headers. 5. Copy the code and paste it into your project. ::: :::tip title="Get to grips with regex faster" Use the regex tester together with the AI regex explainer from the AI Assistant. The tester shows what matches, while the explainer tells you in plain language what your expression actually does. The AI runs locally through Chrome's built-in Gemini Nano, so your expression never leaves your device. ::: ## The handy utilities The Utilities and privacy category (and a few related categories) hold tools that come in handy well beyond programming. - **Currency**: converts amounts between currencies using live exchange rates. This tool fetches rates through the external service frankfurter.app, so it needs an internet connection. - **IBAN validator**: checks whether an IBAN account number is valid and correctly structured. The check happens locally in your browser. - **QR code**: creates a QR code from a piece of text or a link. There is also a wifi QR that produces a code guests can scan to join your wifi. Generating these happens locally. - **Clipboard history**: keeps a list of what you recently copied, so you can easily find something from earlier. For this, the extension needs access to your clipboard. - **Outlook Safelink decoder**: extracts the real destination from an Outlook Safelink URL, so you can see where a wrapped link points before you click. :::howto title="Create a wifi QR for your guests" 1. Open Admin Tools and go to the Image and QR category. 2. Choose the wifi QR tool. 3. Enter the network name (SSID) and password, and pick the security type. 4. The QR code appears on screen right away. 5. Have guests scan the code with their camera to connect automatically. ::: :::warn title="Take care with clipboard history" Clipboard history can also keep sensitive things you copy, such as passwords or tokens. The list lives only locally on your own device and is not synced, but clear it after use on a shared or public computer. ::: :::tip title="Check a link before you click" Got a long, unreadable Outlook Safelink URL in an email? Paste it into the Safelink decoder to reveal the real destination. That way you can spot suspicious links before you click them. ::: ## Why these tools are useful The strength of Admin Tools lies in the combination: everything sits in one place, you do not have to hunt for separate websites of varying quality, and the sensitive work stays local. For anyone who works with text and code a lot, that removes small interruptions throughout the day. And because the text, math, and crypto tools send nothing out, you can also use them for material that does not belong in an online tool. Want to know more or see the full list of tools? Visit https://cloud-captains.com/admin-tools/. :::faq ### Do these tools really run locally in my browser? The text, math, and crypto tools run entirely locally: whatever you type stays on your own device and nothing goes to a server. A few tools, such as the currency converter, do need an external service to fetch live data. Those tools always say so clearly. ### Do I need internet to use Admin Tools? For most text and dev tools, no, they work offline too. Only tools that need live or looked-up data, such as the currency converter via frankfurter.app, require an internet connection. ### Is Base64 the same as encryption? No. Base64 converts text into another format so it can pass through systems that only handle plain characters, but it is not security. Anyone can reverse it. For real protection, use the AES encryption tool in the Security and Forensics category. ### What exactly does the Outlook Safelink decoder do? Outlook sometimes wraps links in emails inside a long Safelink URL. The decoder unpacks it and shows the real destination, so you can check where a link points before you click. ### Which Chrome version do I need? Admin Tools works from Chrome 138 onward. The AI features use Chrome's built-in Gemini Nano, which runs on your own device, so you will need a recent version of Chrome for those. :::