Although we now have 19″ and larger monitors on most new desktop computers, the text seems to shrink. Why is that? It has to do with screen resolution (how much information can be displayed). Screen resolutions on today’s monitors are up to 3X that of monitors we used just 6-8 years ago. We can see a lot more information, but often the text is too small to view for some computer users.
Never fear. Using this week’s tip, you can easily and quickly enlarge the text of any web page using only your keyboard and mouse. This tip will work with any web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, etc) and any operating system (Windows, Ubuntu, Mac OS X).
All you need is a mouse with a scroll wheel and your keyboard. This tip can be performed without the mouse as well, but I’ll touch on that later.
First, when you are reading a web site, particularly news web sites and blog type sites like mine, look for an indication of a printer friendly page. Often designated as Printer Friendly, Print this article, or simply Print, clicking this link brings up a version of the article you are reading that is much less busy and cleaner than how the article presents on the web page itself. This alone may make enough difference for readability.
However, you can quickly increase the size of the text you are reading by holding down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and spinning your mouse scroll wheel away from your body (towards the computer monitor). Amazing, no? Holding down the Ctrl key and spinning towards your body (away from the monitor) will shrink the text again.
The same result can be achieved by holding down the Ctrl key and pressing the “+” or “-” keys as well. I think the mouse method is a little more intuitive and elegant. (Apple users will need to use their command keys, not control key).
Watch the short video below to see this tip in action and see the web as never before!
The ctrl/mouse seldom changes the text size for me. And only sometimes does “view” “text size” work. Why?
XP SP2, IE6
It works best in Firefox or Google Chrome…either of which ALL people should be using. But at the very least, you will be much better off upgrading to IE7.
It certainly works for me. I loved that tip. Are you sure you are holding down the Cntrl key? Works great! Thanks Rick
Hi June! Good to hear from you…I hope the chipotle sauce business is thriving!
Thankyou:) I have worked with computers for nearly 20 years and have had to get glasses so I could see the screen print. Wish I’d of know this:)
thanks, i learn a lot from you
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