Chrome Developer Tools are a set of tools in Google Chrome that provide web developers access inside the browser and/or application.
To begin using Chrome Developer Tools, start by selecting the chrome menu at the top-right hand corner of your browser, select Tools > Developer Tools. Or, for a shortcut you can use use ctrl + shift + I (Windows) OR command + option + I (Mac) to get to developer tools/inspect element.
There are eight main groups of Developer Tools (these are the tabs you will see on Developer Tools once you open it up):
This will give you access to the inspection of the code already applied to the website, so you can easily detect and fix problems such as overlay effects and overrides in your code.
The Elements panel allows you to inspect DOM elements and styles. These styles include digging deeper into the HTML of the webpage to understand what went wrong with the layout.
The Resources panel allows you to inspect resources that are loaded in the inspected page. This lets you interact with mainly Cookies, the HTML5 Database, etc.
The Network panel provides insight into resources that are requested and downloaded over the network. One thing to understand is patience because it takes a while for the network to address the requests you make.
The Sources panel allows you to debug your JavaScript using breakpoints or connect your local files via Workspaces to use DevTools as a code editor.
The Timeline panel in Developer Tools allows you to have an overview of your application while it is running. This is where you can check for errors or performance issues within your website.
The Profiles panel allows you to watch your execution time and memory storage in your web app/site. In this panel you will discover the CPU and Heap profilers.
When you click on CPU it will show where execution time is spent in your page’s JavaScript functions, while Heaps show your pages memory distribution by your page’s JavaScript objects.
Audits allow you to have control of the amount of CSS on your page.
Tutorials for using Chrome Developer Tools can be found here and here.