Change Font Size for Easy Reading

Change Font Size for Easy Reading

Q.  Sometimes I receive email or view Web pages in which the text is so small, I can’t read it. Is there some way I can increase the font size just for that particular page or message without changing it for everything else?

A.  Yes, there are several ways to accomplish this. In most email programs, including Outlook and Thunderbird, click View > Text size and you can select a larger font. If you’re using a Web browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox, press CTRL and the + key to increase the font size of what appears on screen. If you have a wheel mouse, try holding down the CTRL key and use your mouse scroll wheel, rolling it backwards or forwards to increase or reduce the size of the font. 

Q.  When I read about checking the path to a file, what does that mean? What is a path?

A.  A path is a series of folders that lead to a particular resource, such as a document. For example, if you have a document named ScrambledEggs.doc that you saved with other recipes, the path to it might be: C:\My Documents\Recipes\Breakfasts\ScrambledEggs.doc

Reading the path, we see at the far right is the Scrambled Eggs file, and looking to its left, we see that it’s in a folder named Breakfasts, which is itself a folder located within the Recipes folder, which is a folder within the My Documents folder. Folders within other folders are called sub-folders by some individuals; others call it confusing.

Think of paths and folders as you would a room full of file cabinets. The room itself is the equivalent of your C:\ drive. Let’s say one of the filing cabinets in that room is named My Documents. One of the drawers in that filing cabinet would be labeled Recipes, and within the Recipes drawer are several manila file folders, one of which is labeled Breakfasts. If you open the Breakfasts folder, you’ll find the document containing your scrambled eggs recipe.

So the path to any item on your computer simply provides directions where to look to find a given file or other item. Without paths or some organizational framework (called a hierarchy), documents would be strewn around your hard drive making it difficult to find anything. 

Mr. Modem’s Sites of the Week:
All About Cheese
Perhaps best known as one of the cheesiest resources on the Web, here visitors can search for a specific cheese by name, country of origin, texture, or scroll the site’s alphabetical listing of more than 670 cheeses. There are also other fun features such as Cheese Facts, Recipes, and even a section on Cheese News. And if you’re like me, you can’t go a day without your daily slice of cheese news.
www.cheese.com

MailExpire
This is a free, disposable email service you can use to create temporary email addresses. For example, when you need to provide an email address for an online purchase, but you don’t want to be pestered thereafter, create a MailExpire address. You can select the lifespan of your address from 12 hours to three months. Any mail sent to your MailExpire address during that period will be forwarded to your real email address, thus protecting your real address from spammers.
www.mailexpire.com 

Cats and Dogs Warning: Poisonous Plants
There are an appallingly large number of plants that are poisonous to cats and dogs. These two sites list them and provide helpful information should your pooch or kitty do some unsupervised munching. 
Dogs: http://tinyurl.com/2krqnj
Cats: http://tinyurl.com/5qsco

For plain-English answers to your questions by email, plus useful PC tips, subscribe to Mr. Modem’s Weekly Newsletter. For information, visit www.MrModem.com.