Controlling Text and Colors in Your Web Browser

The following guidelines will enable you to enlarge the text size and control the colors on your screen. Please select your operating system and browser to view instructions.

Windows Users

• Internet Explorer (versions 5.x-6.x)
• Firefox (version 1.x)
• Netscape (version 4.x)
• Netscape (version 6.0 and greater)

Mac OS Users

• Firefox (version 1.x)
• Safari (version 1.x)
• Netscape (version 4.x)
• Netscape (version 6.0 and greater)

Note: Internet Explorer is no longer supported for Mac OS

Windows Users

Internet Explorer (versions 5.x-6.x) for Windows

To change text size for a user session:

1. Using the browser's menu bar at the top of the screen, select View > Text Size
2. Choose a suitable text size.

To make permanent text size or color changes:

1. From the Menu Bar, select Tools > Internet Options
2. Select the General tab and click on the Accessibility button
3. Ensure that all three checkboxes under Formatting are checked
4. Click OK in the Accessibility dialog box
5. Click OK in the Internet Options dialog box
6. Click Refresh

To change colors:

1. From the Menu Bar, select Tools > Internet Options
2. Select the General tab and click the Colors button

Firefox (Version 1.x) for Windows

To change text size for a user session:

From the Firefox Menu Bar, select View > Text Size > Increase

To make permanent text size changes or to change page colors:

1. From the Firefox Menu Bar, select Tools > Options
2. Click on Content
3. Go to Fonts & Colors
4. Click on the Advanced button to set font sizes and/or set a minimum font size.
5. Unclick ‘Allow pages to choose their own fonts’ to override the web designer’s preferences.
6. Click OK
7. Click on Colors to change font, background, and link colors
8. Unclick ‘Allow pages to choose their own colors…’ to override the web designer’s preferences.

Netscape (version 4.x) for Windows

To change text size for a user session:

From the menu bar, select View > Increase Font or Decrease Font

To make permanent text size changes:

1. From the menu bar, select Edit > Preferences
2. Click on the Appearance category and select Fonts
3. Select the item entitled Use my default fonts, overriding document-specified fonts
   
4. Click OK
5. Click Reload

Netscape (version 6 and greater) for Windows

To change text size for a user session:

1. From the Menu Bar, select View
2. Scroll down to Text Zoom and choose your preferences.

To make permanent text size changes:

1. From the Menu Bar, select Edit > Preferences
2. Under the Appearance category, click Fonts
3. Select font size and/or set the minimum font size
4. To override the web designer’s preferences, deselect Allow documents to use other fonts

To change colors:

1. From the Menu Bar, select Edit > Preferences
2. Under the Appearance category, click Colors
3. Select a color button to change colors of text, background, and links
4. To override web designer’s preferences, select the Use my chosen colors, ignoring the colors and background image specified option.

Mac OS Users

Firefox (Version 1.x) for Mac OS

To change text size for a user session:

From the Firefox Menu Bar, select View > Text Size > Increase

To make permanent text size changes or to change page colors:

1. From the Firefox Menu Bar, select Firefox > Preferences
   
2. Click on Content
3. Go to Fonts & Colors
4. Click on the Advanced button to set font sizes and/or set a minimum font size.
5. Unclick Allow pages to choose their own fonts to override the web designer’s preferences.
6. Click on Colors to change font, background, and link colors
7. Unclick Allow pages to choose their own colors… to override the web designer’s preferences.

Safari (version 1.x) for Mac OS

To change text size for a user session:

From the Menu bar, select View > Make Text Bigger

To make permanent text size changes:

1. From the Safari menu, select Preferences
2. Click Appearance
3. To change the standard font or fixed-width font used in pages, click the appropriate Select button
4. Change the font size using the slider bar

Netscape (version 4.x) for Mac OS

To change text size for a user session:

From the menu bar, select View > Increase Font or Decrease Font

To make permanent text size changes:

1. From the Menu Bar, select Edit and click Preferences
2. Click on the Appearance category and select Fonts 
3. Select the item entitled Use my fonts, overriding page specified fonts
   
4. Click OK
5. Click Reload

Netscape (version 6 and greater) for Mac OS

To change text size for a user session:

1. From the Menu Bar, select View
2. Scroll down to Text Zoom and choose your preferences.

To make permanent text size changes:

1. From the Menu Bar, select Netscape > Preferences
   
2. Under the Appearance category, click Fonts
3. Select font size and/or set the minimum font size
4. To override the web designer’s preferences, deselect ‘Allow documents to use other fonts’

To change colors:

1. From the Menu Bar, select Netscape > Preferences
2. Under the Appearance category, click Colors
3. Select a color button to change colors of text, background, and links
4. To override web designer’s preferences, select the ‘Use my chosen colors, ignoring the colors and background image specified’ option.