Text Resizing in Your Browser – A Visual Guide

Posted by admin on December 12th, 2009 and filed under browser toolbar | 25 Comments »

A complete beginner’s guide on how to resize text. Please feel free to embed this video on any accessibility statement/help page on your site if it will help your users

FULL TRANSCRIPT
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Transcript for How to Resize Text video

If you are finding it difficult to read some text when viewing a web site you can resize the text up and down to suit your needs. However, by default web browsers – for example Internet Explorer and Firefox – do not make it obvious that you can do this; effectively they hide these useful controls.

Using Internet Explorer, otherwise known as IE, you can change the font size by selecting the View menu item and then selecting the Text Size option – you have 5 size settings to pick from. This is useful to know and once you select this setting, it is remembered for all web sites that you visit.

A better option is to place a text resize control permanently on your toolbar. To do this, press your right mouse button on the toolbar area to bring up the contextual menu and choose ‘Customize’. A list of available toolbar buttons appears on the left. Scroll down to the Text icon and then select ‘Add’. You can also change the display of the icons while you’re hear, just in case you find the toolbar icons a little small too. Once you hit the close button, you’ll see a Text Size control there, making it much easier to change the size.

If you are using IE 7, the process is much the same – right click on the toolbar, but you need to select ‘Customize Command Bar’ then ‘Add or Remove Commands’

In Firefox, you can increase the font size in a similar way to Internet Explorer. Unlike IE, you are not limited to 5 sizes (that being two notches up and two notches down from the default).

Unfortunately Firefox does not provide a toolbar icon for text resizing, even if you choose to customise. However, Patrick Lauke from the University of Salford has created an extension that creates a set of buttons that you can add to your toolbar. Simply go to the Firefox Extensions page and search for the ‘Text Size Toolbar’, or go to tinyurl.com/2ztudx. Once you’ve installed the extension and restarted Firefox, right click on your toolbar and choose customise. There you will find the resize buttons which you can drag and drop on to your toolbar.

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.

Ends

Duration : 0:2:42


[youtube 54iSS7KVcos]

25 Responses

  1. ThorLeyZ Says:

    nerd u got bullyed
    nerd u got bullyed

  2. ufoools Says:

    cheers very helpful …
    cheers very helpful, now i can sit back without going cross eyed.

  3. mysitewizardorg Says:

    Intelligent video! …
    Intelligent video! Whether you are a beginning website maker or professional this information is critical. Choice of font size and font colour on your website that visitors can easily see is an important consideration. Include a link to this video on the home page of your website to spread this message of internet accessibility. mySiteWizard

  4. iPinoyBaller Says:

    Yay! I have Opera …
    Yay! I have Opera but I still found it. :)

  5. LOLM8USWE Says:

    Ctrl O
    Ctrl O

  6. Cass0emoheart Says:

    Thanks for this. My …
    Thanks for this. My text was soo tiny and I didn’t know how I did it.

  7. ILoveEevee Says:

    Thank you so much …
    Thank you so much this helped me save time =]

  8. slimshadyson3 Says:

    assholr
    assholr

  9. 1992ProKilleR Says:

    Thank you!
    Thank you!

  10. RosarioRiveraMusic Says:

    Thank you!!
    I just …

    Thank you!!
    I just got my new MacBook and I accidentally made the text bigger using the keypad(i don’t know how) and it got hugeeee!! then i searched this video and i figured out how to make it smaller!!

  11. eskyjoe Says:

    I’m an Eskimo!!!!!! …
    I’m an Eskimo!!!!!!!!!

  12. metron118 Says:

    Wow thank you!
    Wow thank you!

  13. kagemaru026 Says:

    You’re my hero.
    You’re my hero.

  14. DJAelius Says:

    thanks for this …
    thanks for this video!

  15. GoHuskers94 Says:

    yes it did work on …
    yes it did work on windows xp but it isnt very exact. like it is either really big or really small

  16. BoneHead6661 Says:

    i know an easier …
    i know an easier way

    just hold ctrl and scroll your scroll on your mouse.. it might be just with vista i dont know but it changes icon sizes on your desktop.

    uhmm if your on the internet do the same and u can increase the size of everything and text, buttons, icons get bigger. you can also do this on im

  17. talesofpiratesftw Says:

    lol! im so glad i …
    lol! im so glad i found this video i accidentally made stuff really small and couldnt get it back i got scared lol

  18. therandyrandall89 Says:

    Tools>Options, have …
    Tools>Options, have a dig about, its under font.. in there somewhere

  19. AndrewDerekNugent Says:

    can u change the …
    can u change the font ?

  20. aavillanueva Says:

    lol ty
    lol ty

  21. petefrt Says:

    Thanks!
    Thanks!

  22. willo262 Says:

    To save you …
    To save you watching this whole video,
    Just hold down CTRL and scroll your mouse wheel.

  23. rdcL Says:

    ctrl+scroll wheel


    ctrl+scroll wheel

    np.

  24. glsims99 Says:

    Ian, this is …
    Ian, this is sooooo wonderful. In this high tech industry, we so often forget that simple solutions can be amazingly powerful. Well done!

  25. joannefinch Says:

    great video! Hope …
    great video! Hope you don’t mind me referencing it within the accessibility/help pages of a few of the sites I’ve done. It’s amazing the amount of users who don’t know this stuff.

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