How to change text size in Internet Explorer

Some web sites use larger text while others use small, hard-to-read text. To change the size of text that appears on a web page in Internet Explorer, follow one of the two procedures below.

To change text size:

To make the text that is displayed in your web browser larger or smaller, click View on Internet Explorer's menu bar. From the drop-down menu, select Text Size. The five choices for text size will appear: Largest, Larger, Medium, Smaller, and Smallest. Medium is selected by default, but you can choose the size that you want. To change to a different size, just go back to the View menu and choose a new size.

Internet Explorer saves the selection that you make. If you load a new web page, or close and reopen your browser, the text size will remain at the level that you've chosen, until you choose differently.

To zoom:

Another way to alter text size is to use the Zoom feature. Zoom increases or decreases text size, but it will also make everything else on the page (such as graphics) larger or smaller as well. Zoom options can be found under the View menu, next to Zoom. You can choose a preset percentage to zoom, or enter a custom value, or just go larger or smaller by stepped increments.

The nice thing about zoom is that it has keyboard shortcuts associated with it, unlike the Text Size feature. By pressing [CTRL] and then [+] you can zoom in (make everything appear larger) and [CTRL] and then [-] will zoom out. If you want to reset the zoom value back to the standard view, press [CTRL] and then [0]. These shortcuts will affect text size, but only in proportion with everything else on the page.

Some web sites (such as Yahoo) are designed so that the Text Size feature won't override the text size specified in the site's code. For sites like these, where the Text Size feature won't change anything, you can use the Zoom feature to enlarge or reduce the page.

(Originally posted on FixYa.com, February 2011)