Darn, this getting older is not much fun! Back when I turned 40, I began to notice that small type was getting harder and harder to read. That was just a few years ago, but sometimes I land on a web page that must have been produced by someone with unbelievable visual acuity!

Sometimes it is not the whole site, but just a particular section:

Safari 3.1.1 (The version that is included in Mac OS X 10.5.2) has several tools to handle text size.

The first way is to modify the toolbar at the top of the Safari Window. To do this, go to the View menu and choose Customize Toolbar…

In the next window, drag the Text Size icon to the Safari tool bar and then click the done button.



Now you will have a way to increase or decrease the text size in any window. That may be enough for you. However, it increases the size of all of the text by the same percentage, in every case (except where the text is really not text, but instead it is a picture of text). Sometimes the result is unacceptable. Sometimes it it is frustrating to have to keep resizing text every time you open a new window.

Apple should have made a way to make the change permanent, and there ought to be a way to just affect the smaller text without affecting the whole page! Well, they did, and there is!

To change the minimum size that text can be displayed, we need another tool. Go to the Safari menu and choose Preferences…

In the Preferences dialog box, choose the Advance tab.

Click on the Universal Access box to place a check in it and then choose the smallest font size you want to display. In my case, 12 is adequate, but you can choose a larger number if it is needed. Then close the Preferences window.

While this change will not affect text size in a few instances, it will make text much easier to read most of the time!

By the way, there are a few more icons that I have added to my Safari toolbar using the View > Customize Toolbar command. I have also re-arranged the icon order.

Before:

After:

While you are in the Customize Toolbar window, you can add, remove, and change the order of the icons to best suit your needs. Remember, you are a Macintosh owner and Apple gives you many opportunities to make your computer look and act just the way you want it to.

One of the things that we at Bob LeVitus Consulting can do is to help you make your computer easier to use if your eyesight is not as good as it used to be. We can help you make changes in the system, and individual programs to make the screen easier to read. We can also show you how to use the Universal Access System Preference to your advantage.

Why not give us a call at 408-627-7577 or send a request for a training session to urgentrequest@boblevitus.com and we can help make your Macintosh computer easier to use!

One of the listservs that I read each day is the MacRogues On-Line Mac User Group and OS X DISCUSSION LIST. I while occasionally provide an answer, I am often frustrated that the all-text listserv format does not make it easy to "show" someone how to fix a problem. The topic that caused me to want to "show" the answer this time is the problem of screen flashing on Macs.

The message writer said "The screen will freeze before flashing a solid blue and then return to normal." Several people responded, most suggesting a hardware problem.

Instead, I suspect the computer owner or someone has been doing a little exploring and found their way to the Universal Access System Preference. This panel can be the source of all sorts of unusual Macintosh behavior!

There are several ways to get to System Preferences. The most obvious might be an icon in the dock, but I have noticed that quite a few Mac user tend to remove the icon from the dock, so let's use a different method of getting there. If you click and hold on the Apple Menu in the upper left corner of your screen, you can find System Preferences there. . .



By the way, when you see an ellipsis (…) in a menu, it is a signal that choosing that menu item will cause a dialog box with additional options to appear.




Choose Universal Access and then select the Hearing tab.



If there is a check in the box "Flash the screen when an alert sound occurs, then each time you computer alerts you that you cannot do something, the screen will flash.

While I do not know if this has fixed the writer's problem, I know that over the years we have received many calls from the clients of Bob LeVitus Consulting who could not understand why their screens would suddenly flash. I wish all problems were as simple to fix as those caused by making changes in Universal Access, but if you are not expecting your screen to flash or the display to suddenly enlarge or several other unexpected problems, check out the settings in Universal Access.

Oh, one more thing!

Remember those ellipsis marks shown at the end of some menu items? We also use those as a tool in writing sometimes. Have you ever tried to use them, and then had them get all messed up as you tried to print or have you ever tried to make them look "right?"

Although they look like three periods, just typing three periods make them look to close...

Some people type period-space-period-space-period . . .

Those can break apart if they occur at the wrong place in a line. The real way to produce them on your computer is to hold down the Option key on your keyboard while typing a semi-colon – then they look a act just as they should…

– Pat

It is always fun when Bob LeVitus comes to Washington DC. This year he will be doing two days of seminars for my user group, Washington Apple Pi.

These seminars will be much like attending his seminars at Macworld Expo, except the price is MUCH cheaper!

If you would like to learn more about this event, be sure to check out the information page. To sign up, click here. I have linked to a copy of the pdf that we are sending out. To view or download a pdf file of the seminar information, click here -->levitus_seminars