Easier Reading Browser Tip

If you're a NetscapeNavigator user and you find yourself squinting too much while reading on the Web, try this:

To make the font bigger, press "Ctrl" and the "]" key. To make the font smaller, press "Ctrl" and the "[" key.

Ah... yet an AmericanCulturalAssumption. On my keyboard, there is no "]" key. To make "]", I use "AltGr?" and "9". -- OleAndersen

I think it might be a MicrosoftWindowsCulturalAssumption too, because it doesn't work for me using Netscape Communicator 4.1 under LinuxOs.

In InternetExplorer 4, Menu View/Fonts/Larger etc. ("Fonts" becomes "Text Size" in Explorer 6.) Pick one you like. This old dude uses "Larger". In Netscape, see the view menu for corresponding options, and the shortcuts that should be available for them.

Tip of the Day : use Ctrl-(mouse wheel up) to make the font larger and Ctrl-(mouse wheel down) to make it smaller.

This works the other way around on InternetExplorer and MozillaFirefox.

Oh, and speaking of MozillaFirefox, you can use [Ctrl][+] and [Ctrl][-] (either the regular +/- keys or the ones on the numeric pad) to increase and decrease font size, respectively. -- CodyBoisclair

[ ] Show a different tip on your next Wiki session?

Also, select a sans-serif font, such as Helvetica or Arial. It is said to be easier to read text from a screen if it is printed in a sans-serif font although, as with all human-factors issues, YourMileageMayVary.

Don't you wish all pages were designed so you could play with the font sizes? Well, this requires relative font sizes to be specified by the author. It's unfortunate that many web designers put form above function, making the Web increasingly less accessible.

In the MozillaBrowser you can specify a minimum font size. This helps tremendously when a web page would otherwise display unreadably tiny.

MozillaBrowser also scales absolute font sizes, for what it's worth. -- CodyBoisclair

CategoryWebBrowser