I assume that you have already created a folder called CSS in your desktop, and you have copied my style sheets into this folder. If you haven't done that, do it.
The CSS folder on your desktop holds special formatting documents for web pages called, cascading style sheets to enlarge your text. To use these style sheets effectively you will have to dig into the bowels of your Internet Explorer just a little bit.
On your main Internet Explorer menu bar you must click the <Tools> tab. Lots of choices roll down but the one you want is <Internet Options> .
Now the < Internet Options> tab activates a visually unfriendly dialog box titled [ Internet Options] . Ignore most of it, but in the lower, right-hand corner there is a button labeled [Accessibility] . The print on this button is really small, and it is not easy to read. The best bet is to memorize its location once you have found it. The [Accessibility] button is in the second row of buttons from the bottom, and it is the right-most button in that row.
Once you click [Accessibility] another visually unfriendly dialog box will open, but again its geography is easy to memorize. There are four check-boxes on the left. Check them all. The top three boxes will turn off any reasonable web author's color choices, font styles and font sizes, and leave those choices up to you. The bottom-most check-box enables your choice of style sheets.
You will then have to browse for the style sheet file you want. The [Browse] button is on the right-hand side of the accessibility dialogue box just below the check-box for style sheets. Once again you must memorize its location because the print is painfully small and impossible to enlarge.
Once you click the [Browse] button, a window named Open will pop up. Now things start to get fun.
You probably won't be in the folder that holds your holds your style sheets, but there is a tiny icon on the top of the Open window with a microscopic file icon and up-arrow. You'll probably need a magnification device to find this button, so once again memorize its location for future use. Keep clicking this button until you arrive at the desktop folder. Note: XP users can just click a pretty reasonable sized icon on the left of the window that is labeled “desktop”. It is the second from the top in its column of icons.
Once you are in the desktop, click your folder named CSS . It contains four files, Fix.css , FixStatic.css , Mix.css and MixStatic.css . Choose Fix.css or FixStatic.css first by clicking its folder icon and then push the open button on the lower right-hand corner of the Open window.
Now, click the [OK] button on the [Accessibility] box. Next, click [OK] on the [Internet Options] box, and you are cool to go.
Your browser is initialized.
This style sheet will give you three things. It will enlarge the print to larger than the <largest> setting in Internet Explorer. It will increase the line spacing for easier tracking when you read. Finally it will give you the best possible sans-serif font on your system to improve readability. The color you have will be your Windows default color scheme that you can set with the Display Settings when you set up your windows system.
Now, Fix.css and FixStatic are not intended for reading long documents. They uses the minimum print size that a person with low vision can read with moderate comfort. Its purpose is browsing the web.
Most web site authors target a visually oriented audience. Their pages are laid out with lots of items all over the screen. To use these pages easily, you need to be able to see as much of the author's page as possible at any time. To maximize the screen real estate that you can see, you must minimize your print size as much as possible. Fix.css and FixStatic.css do that pretty well.
If your page looks good with Fix.css , then that will be your best choice for browsing. If it looks strange with stuff overwriting other stuff then try FixStatic . That usually opens things up. You don't have any overwriting, but the page may look deranged because FixStatic.css may pull things apart in a manner that does not fit with the author's intended sequence of reading.
Once you locate a document that you want to read, Fix.css and FixStatic.css are probably too small for your needs. I usually get a stiff neck and my eyes hurt when I try to read a big document at the browse print size. You need to switch style sheets for a larger font size.
Here is what you do. From the <Tools> menu, choose <Internet Options> as you did before. From the unfriendly [Internet Options] you punch the [Accessibility] button and get the equally unfriendly [Accessibility] dialogue box.
Up to now this is exactly how we loaded the "fix" style sheets. Now things change. Since you already have all the check-boxes marked, you only need to open a new style sheet. So, click the [browse] button on the dialogue box; navigate until you get to the desktop; open the CSS folder, and then open Mix.css or MixStatic.css . Click [OK] for accessibility and [OK] for the internet options, and your print size should have grown a lot. Again you use MixStatic.css to spread out your page if Mix.css looks too messed up. Actually, neither of these style sheets works well with more than one column.
To adjust print size go to the <view> choice on the Internet Explorer menu. Then pick [text size]. That will give you the choices, smallest, smaller, medium, larger and largest. Pick the one that works best for you and start reading.
I hope you like the stuff , Wayne Dick