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Text Is Too Small Or Too Large

"But every page having an ample marge,
And every marge enclosing in the midst
A square of text that looks a little blot." (Alfred, Lord Tennyson: Idylls of the King)

Problem: The text on some web sites is too small, or too large, for me to read comfortably.

Video instructions (Requires Adobe Flash Player)

Internet Explorer Users

Select View on the main toolbar of your browser and then move down to select Text Size. You now have a range of standard text sizes to select. Try the Largest setting first and, if that is too big, then select the Larger setting. Also rkbdkbdber that, if you find a site is using text that is too large for you to read comfortably, you can always reduce the text size using the Smaller and Smallest settings.

Netscape, Mozilla and Firefox users

Select View on the main toolbar of your browser and then move down to select Increase Text Size or press the CTRL key and the '+' key simultaneously. This will increase the text size slightly but you can repeat this operation until you reach the desired tex size. To decrease the size of text, select Decrease Text Size" or press the CTRL key and the '-' key simultaneously until you reach the size you want.

Other Ways

There are other ways that you can change text size on a web page. If you have a mouse with a scroll wheel, simply hold down the CTRL key - or the command key if you are a Mac user - and move the scroll wheel up and down. For Firefox users, hold down the CTRL key and press the plus (+) and minus (-) keys. Finally, if you are using Internet Explorer 7, you can hold down the CTRL key and press the plus or minus keys which will zoom the whole page in and out of view.

Still Not Working?

If the changes above don't seem to have any effect, it is likely the web page you are viewing uses a fixed text size. However, you can still over-ride these settings in IE 6 by selecting "Tools" from the main manu followed by "Internet Options". Choose the "Accessibility…" button (on the "General" tab). Now check the box labelled "Ignore font sizes specified on Web pages" then click on "OK". Now the "Text Size" options under the "View" menu will work on all websites.

If, despite everything, you still find that you're straining to read text, you may want to consider screen magnification.

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