How Do I Zoom in on Small Writing?
Quit squinting, already. You don't have to put up with the small type that too often flashes across your computer screen. Whether you use a Mac or PC, there are all kinds of commands to make that type larger and more readable. You can make type and icons larger system-wide or in various programs. You can make the changes temporary or permanent, and you can do it with menus or simple keystroke combinations.
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Mac Operating System
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Most Mac operating systems have a built-in zoom, full-screen magnifier that shows items on the screen up to 40 times larger. Activate with keyboard commands, a button on the screen, a trackpad movement or the scroll ball or wheel on your mouse. To set it through your system preferences, open system preferences and click on the "Universal Access" icon. Click the "Seeing" tab and left-click on "Turn on Zoom." Or you can use keyboard shortcuts by left-clicking on "Option, Command (the Apple key)", and push 8 on your keyboard to turn zoom on or off. Then simply push Option, Command, + to zoom in and Option, Command, - to zoom out. If, for some reason, you want to turn zoom capability off, push "Option, Command, 8" again.
PC (Microsoft) Operating System
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Like Mac OS, Windows offers a top-level way to change magnification as well as keyboard shortcuts. Start magnifier by left-clicking "Start, Programs, Accessories, Accessibility, Magnifier." Click "OK." The Magnifier window appears by default at the top of the screen. You can drag it wherever you want on the screen. You can also use keyboard and mouse commands. Hold down the "Ctrl" button with one hand while moving the scroll wheel on the mouse with the other. Forward increases the size; backward decreases it. Or,left-click on "View" on the main toolbar in upper left corner of your screen, scroll to "zoom" and left-click it. Choose "Zoom Out" on the submenu. Or, left-click the small black arrowhead pointing downward near the magnifying glass in the lower right hand corner of the screen. Left-click on "Zoom Out" from the pop-up menu.
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Zooming in Web Browsers
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In addition to the system-wide keyboard commands that work on the browsers, you can also set type size through browser menus.
With Microsoft Internet Explorer, you can make Web pages easier to see by changing the size of text used on Web pages. If you change the text size, graphics and controls will remain in their original size but the text size will change. If the person who created the Web page explicitly set the text size you must override it. On the "Start" menu, click on "Internet Explorer-Page-Text Size" Select Largest, Larger, Medium, Smaller or Smallest.
In Mozilla Firefox, click "View-Zoom-reset."
In Google Chrome, click on the wrench icon at the top right of the window. The "Zoom" option offers a plus and minus symbol and shows the percentage the page is currently set. Click on the plus or minus to get your desired size. The full screen icon on the same line will expand your Chrome window to the full screen. F11 will exit full screen mode.
In Apple Safari, you can enlarge the entire page or the text size. To enlarge the entire page, including images, click on "Page-Zoom in." The Page menu is at the upper-right corner of the window and looks like a page with a corner turned down. To enlarge the text only, click "Page-Zoom Text Only."
Microsoft Office
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Most Microsoft Office applications for both Macs and PCs include a menu bar option that shows the current percentage size of the page and a pull-down menu allowing you to enlarge the type up to 500 percent. You can also click on "View-Zoom" and select the size you want. If you want the type size to be larger in the finished document and in printed documents, highlight the type you want to change, click on "Format-Font" and change the type size. You have the option of setting the type size from 8 point in increments up to 72-point type.
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