How to Customize the Way That Web Pages Are Displayed (306872)

MORE INFORMATION

Web pages are designed to display text in specific styles, sizes, and colors. In most cases, you can override the settings on the Web page with your own preferences. Although these changes might affect the layout and change the design that is intended by the Web site author, they enable you to view text in a size, style, or color that may be easier for you to read.

How to Control the Way That Fonts and Web Pages Are Displayed

When Web authors and designers create Web pages, they often specify particular font styles, colors, and sizes and background colors. These settings are specified for each item or they are specified in a style sheet, which is a type of template that specifies how different styles appear throughout a Web page or site.

You can override any or all of these settings. This is useful if you have limited or low vision. You can specify your font and color preferences so that Internet Explorer uses your preferences for all pages.

How to Change the Way That Colors Are Displayed

To change how page colors are displayed:

Start Internet Explorer.
On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
On the General tab, click Colors.
Change the color settings to the settings that you want.

These preferences are used if the Web page author did not specify settings or if you configure Internet Explorer to always use your preferences by using the procedure that is described in the How to Specify Which Font and Color Settings to Always Use section of this article.

How to Display Text in a Different Font Style

To display text in a different font style:

Start Internet Explorer.
On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
On the General tab, click Fonts.
In the Web page font and Plain text font boxes, click the fonts that you want.

How to Display Text in a Different Font Size

To display text in a different font size:

Start Internet Explorer.
On the View menu, point to Text Size, and then click the size you want.

How to Specify Which Font and Color Settings to Always Use

To specify that your font and color preferences are always used:

Start Internet Explorer.
On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options.
On the General tab, click Accessibility.
Change the settings to the settings that you want.

NOTE: If you must have more control over the way Internet Explorer formats Web pages, create your own style sheet (.css file) and specify it on the Accessibility tab. For example, use the following procedure to create a style sheet that specifies the following preferences and to configure Internet Explorer to use these preferences instead of the settings specified by the Web page author:

Headings: Arial, 15 point, Bold, Gray
Body: Background: Black, Font: White, 12 point.
Links: Red
Visited Links: Blue
Active Links: Orange

Click Start, and then click Run.
In the Open box, type notepad, and then click OK.

Paste the following text into Notepad.

  H1        {font-family: Arial
            font-size: 15pt;
            font-weight: bold;
            color: gray}
  H2        {font-size: 15pt;
            font-weight: bold;
            color: gray}
  H3        {font-size: 15pt;
            font-weight: bold;
            color: gray}
  body      {background: black
            font-size: 12pt;
            color: white}
  A:link    {color: red}
  A:visited {color: blue}
  A:active  {color: orange}

On the File menu, click Save As.
In the File name box, type mystyles.css, and then click Save.
Start Internet Explorer.
On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
On the General tab, click Accessibility.
Click to select the following check boxes:
- Ignore colors specified on Web pages
- Ignore font styles specified on Web pages
- Ignore font sizes specified on Web pages
- Format documents using my style sheet
Click Browse, click the file you saved in step 5, and then click Open.
Click OK two times.

For additional information about style sheets, see the following Microsoft Web site:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnie60/html/cssenhancements.asp

How to View Web Pages That Are Written in a Different Language

Some Web sites offer their content in several different languages. You can add languages to your list of languages in Internet Explorer so that you can view these sites in your preferred language.

If you frequently view Web pages that are written in languages other than the default language on your computer, you may want to add the ability to display Web pages in different languages. To do this:

On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options.
On the General tab, click Languages.
Click Add, and then click the language that you want to add.

Notes

If you speak several languages, you can arrange the languages in order of priority. If a Web site offers multiple languages, the site supplies content in the language with the highest priority.
When you add a language, you may not have a font on your computer that can display the language that you want to view. You may need to download language support to display pages in the language that you want. To download language support, click Start, and then click Windows Update. On the Windows Update Web site, click Product Updates. In the International Language Support section, you can download language support for the languages that are not installed on your computer.

Note that you can also view the Microsoft Windows Update Web site if you click the following link:

http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com