Resize Me

By | October 14, 2005

Sometimes the simplest functions are the best. But you tend to stumble across them by accident, and only then realise what you’ve been missing. Take the ‘Enlarge/Reduce’ function. This basically increases or reduces the size of text in the browser. To me it’s a Godsend when web-pages aren’t quite how I’d like them to be. Here are the keystrokes, just in case you haven’t come across them:

  • Firefox: Control -/+
  • Opera: 9/0 (or Shift -/+. Control – reduces the page to its minimum size, 20% of the original.) Opera doesn’t just change the font size: Everything is reproportioned including images.)
  • Internet Explorer: er, none. Well, View/Text size will let you enlarge or reduce text, but, I believe, it will only change text that has been specified in HTML as a percentage (as opposed to a specific font size). Which makes it pretty useless. Perhaps there’s a plug-in which handles this.

In any case, try it out. It makes Firefox (and Opera) even more pleasurable to use.

4 thoughts on “Resize Me

  1. Nicole SimonN

    It has a same function as Firefox: if ctrl +/- work in Firefox, you can use CTRL and mousewheel up and down.

    Given, you can only choose between the 5 settings, but in many times it is enough.

    Firefox allows you to do it endlessly, but that is not always an advantage – if you go over a special size, 99% of all websites get unreadable because of their css in general.

    Nicole, IE at work, Firefox at home.

    Reply
  2. Mike

    Control and moving the track ball on the mouse resizes all Microsoft applications, including Word, Excel, and IE.

    I use Firefox. I think IE is a bit dated, but at least on this one no plug in is necessary.

    Reply
  3. Scott

    With Apple’s Safari, it’s Cmd +/-.

    Safari has a keystroke that I haven’t found in Firefox, but I’m sure some extension provides it. Shift Cmd [left|right]arrow moves between your tabbed windows. Anyone know how to simplify moving between Firefox tabs like that?

    Reply
  4. shantanuo

    You can even set the minimum font size for all webpages in firefox.

    Tools – Options – General – Fonts and Colors – Minimum Font size

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.