IE 7 & Opera Soothe Tired Eyes
Posted by Sandy Berger on July 12th, 2006
My eyes get very tired at the end of the day when working on the Web. I never thought that a new Web browser would be my savior, but it is and I have two to choose from. The new Internet Explorer 7 and Opera 9 both have simple ways to make everything on a Web page larger. It’s not like using the “Make text larger” menu choice. It’s much better.
When you install the new IE a small magnifying lens and a 100% sign appear in the lower right corner of the browser. Just click on the magnifier or the small arrow next to it to change the zoom magnification. The entire Web page gets larger rather than just the text. So everything stays in proportion.
Opera 9 has the same feature with the magnifier appearing on the right side of the upper toolbar.
This is a great feature. Perhaps it will also show up in the new version of Firefox that is due out shortly. It’s a lifesaver for tired or aging eyes. For those with vision problems, the magnification in Internet Explorer goes all the way to 600%. The magnification in Opera tops out at a whopping 1,000%.
My unofficial side-by-side testing showed that at magnification levels over 100, Internet Explorer rendered the pages slightly clearer than Opera.
July 13th, 2006 at 3:02 pm
Thanks. I didn’t know that. My dad has a lot of trouble seeing the screen. I think I will install Opera for him.
July 19th, 2006 at 8:22 am
The current Firefox does not have a magnifying glass, but I have been using the Control key and the Plus (+) to increase the size or Minus (-) to decrease the size for quite a while now.
I use Firefox as my default browser on my home machines and Portable Firefox on a thumb drive at work or other places that do not have Firefox installed.
August 3rd, 2006 at 10:51 am
Firefox has an extension called QuickZoom that adds a magnifyer and a demagnifyer to the right of the Status Bar. Right click either icon to return to normal size. In FF, click Tools>Extensions>Get More Extensions. On the FF Add-ons web page, search for QuickZoom to download and install this handy feature.