How to make text larger in Apple OS X 10.5 Leopard

Changing your screen resolution

Note: Mac key convention: ‘Ctrl’ is used for 'Control', ‘Apple’ is used for 'Command' and ‘Alt’ is used for the ‘Option’ key.

Note: For keyboard access make sure ‘Full keyboard access’ is turned on - you can turn it on or off; by pressing ‘Ctrl’ + ‘F1’ at any time.

• Make sure you are in ‘Finder’, press ‘Apple’ + ‘Tab’ if necessary to cycle through open applications until you return to ‘Finder’.
• Click on the ‘Apple’ menu or press ‘Ctrl’ + ‘F2’.
• Click to select ‘System Preferences...’ or press the down arrow key to highlight it and then press ‘Enter’. Fig 1

Fig 1

• Click on the ‘Displays’ icon or press ‘Tab’ repeatedly (you might need to press ‘Ctrl’ + ‘F7’ first) to cycle through the icons until the ‘Displays’ icon is highlighted,  and then press the ‘Spacebar’, Fig 2.

Fig 2

• Click on the ‘Display’ tab or press ‘Ctrl’ + ‘F7’ to highlight one of the four tabs and then press the left or right arrow key to select the ‘Display’ tab if it is not already selected.
• The typical display resolution is 1024 x 768, to make text on the screen bigger you can change it to 800 x 600 or 640x 480. To do this either click on the resolution you want or ‘Tab’ to one of the ‘Resolutions:’ settings is selected as shown in Fig 3 then press the up arrow to the resolution above, repeat the process up or down until you find the best screen resolution for you.

Fig 3

• When you are happy with screen size click the ‘Close’ (red) button at the top of the window or press ‘Apple’ + ‘W’ to close the window and return to the Finder desktop.

Changing font size for displaying files and folders

You can change both the text and icon size for all files and folders including those on the desktop on your Mac.

To change the size of files and folders on your desktop:

• Make sure you are in ‘Finder’, press ‘Apple’ + ‘Tab’ if necessary to cycle through open applications until you return to ‘Finder’.
• Click to select ‘View’ and select ‘Show View Options’ or press ‘Apple’ + ‘J’, Fig 4.

Fig 4

• Click on the box next to ‘Text size:’ and choose a font size up to 16pt (no keyboard shortcut). You can also make the Icon size smaller or larger by clicking on the ‘Icon size’ gauge (no keyboard shortcut), Fig 5.

Fig 5

• When you are happy with your choice, click on the close button at the top of the window (no keyboard shortcut).

To change the text size for files in folders:

• Select a folder by double clicking on it or press ‘Tab’ to highlight it and press ‘Apple’ + ‘O’ to open it. In this example a folder called ‘Pictures’ has been used.

Fig 6

• Click to select ‘View’ and select ‘Show View Options’ or press ‘Apple’ + ‘J’, Fig 4.
• Click on the box next to ‘Text size:’ and choose a font size up to 16 pt (no keyboard shortcut). You can also make the Icon size smaller or larger by selecting a small or large icon (no keyboard shortcut) as shown in Fig 6.
• When you are happy with your choice, click on the close button at the top of the window (no keyboard shortcut).

Note: If this does not work it could be because your computer settings cannot be changed due to local IT policies - contact your local IT support for further help.