Changing Web Font Sizes — Easier Viewing of Web Sites

Longtime subscriber Scott Adler wrote to ask:

In spite of everything I can do to slow down the aging process I've failed. Now I need help in adjusting the settings on my PC relating to the text size I receive on my monitor while on a web site. I've conquered the e-mail (Outlook express) but need your expertise for web sites.

An article on the subject of handicap persons use of PC and laptops might be in order in your news letter
Well, I don't know that I can do an article on handicapped persons' use of PC's and laptops, but I can certainly address the issue of viewing web sites.

All web browsers have some ability to increase the size of the viewed text. However, the capabilities and what is increased differs widely from web browser to web browser.

Internet Explorer 6 is one of the worst of the group. IE6 has five (5) different font sizes that you can choose from the View menu. You can find them from the menu bar under View > Text Size. The font choices are Smallest, Smaller, Medium, Larger and Largest. When you change font sizes, the page layout of the web page will change also.

If the web designer used tables to format his web page, the tables will resize with the fonts — but any images and spacing the web designer desired won't resize. This can result in a messy look, all because the user increased or decreased the font size.

You could also use the Control key and your mousse's scroll button to zoom larger or smaller. However, this only worked if the web designer did not specify the font size in pixels. If he specified pixel sizing, nothing would happen with Control plus the scrollbuttonn.

Firefox 2's treatment was similar to that of Internet Explorer, except that the choices of font size were not limited — you could keep going larger or smaller as you desired.

Opera 7, 8 and 9 treated the entire page as something that could be zoomed, either using the Menu Bar's View > Zoom options or by holding down the Control key and rolling your mouse's scroll wheel.

With the newer versions Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 3, IE and Firefox now use the more desirable zooming functions that Opera does, which keeps everything in proportionate sizes when you zoom larger or zoom smaller.

With the new style of zooming in IE 7, Firefox 3 and Opera, people with limited eyesight (or just tired eyes at the end of the day) can easily change the page size to suit them.