Old Guy,New computer

[KumaJim]

So for 20-30 years I busted My head againist the wall tring to get windows to do it's thing.
XP was really good so I figured Vista had to be better and since I was use to upgrades starting with DOS 2.0 I tried it.

What a mistake. In two years I bought three Toshibas from
Best Buy,smoked two hard drives with over heating within 8 to 12 months and boy did I get a hosing from Best buy for service.

So last week I finally decided to take the leap and go with Apple
never thinking that Apples are Apples and Windows are Windows.

So now I'm sitting here trying to re think My experance with notebooks and getting really frustrated.

So let Me start by asking a few simple questions,ho ho
1. How do You get the page Your on to go "full screen" ??
In windows all We had to do was hit F11

2. How do You increase the type size at the top of the window not down on the page,I got that one Myself but names of book marks and open tab in FireFox are almost impossibe to see !!!

If anyone has any answers for Me I thank You in advance.

KumaJim

 

[mkrishnan]

Welcome -- you'll get the hang of it, although the best general advice is that you should not expect a Mac to act like a Windows computer minus the malware and spyware and antivirus programs. It's actually a different operating system, and the philosophy that designed it is different in places.

1) Are you talking about Firefox or Safari -- I don't think Safari has a full screen mode, but in Firefox, it should be the same, pretty much. Some of the keyboard shortcuts are different -- go to the menu (view?) that it's in and see what keyboard shortcut it is. Depending on your setting, if it uses a function key, it may need to be command + the function key (function keys are rare as shortcuts in OS X, so the function keys by default on some of the setups do the things like raise/lower volume or whatever instead of the Fxx key, and you have to press cmd+function to get the Fxx).

2) You might try the accessibility options in System Prefs.

 

[Makosuke]

Full screen basically isn't anywhere near as popular on the Mac as on Windows, and so most apps don't have a way to do it. The reason for this is, I suspect, because in Windows the menu bar is attached to a window, while on the Mac it's always at the top of the screen. As a result, maximizing a window on Windows puts the menu bar in a known, consistent position, rather than having to hunt for the "current" menu bar on the active window (look up Fitt's Law for more detail). It's already there on the Mac, so maximization has never been a "thing" on the Mac.

That said, there are a lot of workarounds for making a browser full screen on the Mac, but not Safari. Shiira (uses the same core as Safari) and Opera both have it built-in, and you can get the same functionality in Firefox with a plugin.

As for your second question, it's unfortunate, but Apple hasn't yet turned on resolution independence (the main thing Win7 has going for it, if you ask me) yet; they're working on it, but so far no dice. That would let you arbitrarily expand elements of the user interface that don't otherwise adjust, like the menu bar and browser controls.

In the mean time, my only worthwhile advice is to look for another Firefox skin with bigger text; I assume they exist, but maybe someone else can point you to a good one.

 

[emptyCup]

2. How do You increase the type size at the top of the window not down on the page,I got that one Myself but names of book marks and open tab in FireFox are almost impossibe to see

My eyesight isn't what it was either. I find setting the display resolution (System Preferences > Displays) back one notch makes a big difference. You might also want to check out System Preferences > Universal Access > Zoom.

Best wishes.

 

[omeletpants]

Windows hasn't been around for 30 years.

 

[KumaJim]

So now You tell Me !!!

 

[old-wiz]

it would be nice if the OP only created ONE post on the subject. Both posts are identical.

 

[Buzz Bumble]

2) You might try the accessibility options in System Prefs.

Or change the screen resolution in the Display Preferences to something lower (although then it tends to go a bit blurry too).

1. How do You get the page Your on to go "full screen" ??
In windows all We had to do was hit F11

Clicking on the Green "traffic light" button in the window's top-left corner will toggle the window between it's current size and the maximum size needed (where possible) to display the contents. If you need the window any bigger you can stretch it by dragging the bottom-right-hand corner to whatever size you want. When you quit the application, Safari and many applications will remember the new size for next time.

Wanting applications to be "full screen" is often an annoyance for people switching over from Windows ... and vice-versa: Mac users often find the full screen applications in Windows annoying too.

 

[Gregg2]

There isn't any setting to change the size of the text at the top of a window. The screen resolution solution is the only way to do that, but, as mentioned, you loose some crispness.

As a user of Mac OS and Windows, I much prefer having easy access to icons on my Desktop at the edge of my open windows. Of course, with Expose, the whole Desktop is just one keystroke away.

 

[mac-ho]

To change the size of the text I push the key with the apple on it and the + key.

 

[Tumbleweed666]

To change the size of the text I push the key with the apple on it and the + key.

Thats not what he asked for , he asked (and everyone else understood this , how to change the text size in the app window, for example in menu items, bookmark links and so forth.

"How do You increase the type size at the top of the window not down on the page,I got that one Myself but names of book marks and open tab in FireFox are almost impossible to see"

As a young, confused person I'm sure you find it hard to believe that anyone has trouble reading teeny fonts like the labels on cans that tell you the ingredients, but you'll get there one day.

 

[jzuena]

If you have a mouse with a scroll-wheel you can hold down either Option or Command (I forget which) and spin the scroll-wheel. It will either zoom in or out on the display. When you are done reading the menu bar or tab info, scroll in the opposite direction to return to your full view. I don't know if there is a keyboard equivalent.

 

[Buzz Bumble]

The mouse-zooming could be useful, although again it goes a little blurry.

I don't know if there still are, but there used to be freeware / shareware applications that let you change the system font and size to anything you wanted (it may even be somewhere in Sytem Prefences), but the some software expects certain conditions, so you can sometimes end up with it being more messy rather than being helpfull, e.g. menu item names running into the keyboard shortcut on the other side of the menu, or not being able to fit all the menus across the screen.

 

[-Ryan-]

I've only noticed this evening that Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 has full screen mode built in - very useful and something I've wished was available in a Mac browser for a long time. Shift+Cmd+F

 

[Gregg2]

If you have a mouse with a scroll-wheel you can hold down either Option or Command (I forget which) and spin the scroll-wheel. It will either zoom in or out on the display. When you are done reading the menu bar or tab info, scroll in the opposite direction to return to your full view. I don't know if there is a keyboard equivalent.

It's actually the Control key. My scroll wheel can be finicky, or maybe it's the operators skill level. But, seems like a sure-fire way to return to "normal" view is a good idea. Anybody know a way to do that once you've zoomed in or out?

 

[Ashka]

Using control and scroll you can only zoom in then out again to the set resolution.

Using the Trackpad Pinch Open & Close is different and you can get back to default using Command 0 (zero).

If you use Command shift + or _ to zoom a window in or out, then Command 0 (zero) will put the window back to default.

If you use Command plus or minus to adjust the size of text Command 0 will again put it back to default.
S.

Note: Command 0 is also the shortcut for the activity window in Mail

 

[jzuena]

It's actually the Control key. My scroll wheel can be finicky, or maybe it's the operators skill level. But, seems like a sure-fire way to return to "normal" view is a good idea. Anybody know a way to do that once you've zoomed in or out?

Figures it was the only one I didn't mention! I think you can't zoom back out beyond the regular resolution, so if you hold CTRL and keep moving the scroll wheel back to the zoom-out it will get to the actual resolution and stop.

Also, if anyone remembers the freeware/shareware that Buzz Bumble talks about, I'm looking for it as well. I finally convinced my mom to try using a Mac to replace her aging PC and she would like some of the fonts bigger, too.

 

[Gregg2]

Anyway, I hope this helped the "Old Guy". How 'bout it, sir?

 

[arjen92]

My eyesight isn't what it was either. I find setting the display resolution (System Preferences > Displays) back one notch makes a big difference. You might also want to check out System Preferences > Universal Access > Zoom.

Best wishes.

Of course sharpness isn't the only thing which decreases your sight, but wouldn't it be more useful to get your yourself glasses instead of decreasing the resolution. As being probably younger I can't seem to find the reason to decrease the resolution of my big screen (cause it bought the screen for it's size and resolution, when the problem is just having bad eyes and the need for glasses, or are there other reasons for not seeing well which can't be solved that easy? I'm not asking it to bother you but I just wondered.

To the OP, I don't like it either not to have the screen full size, although you can do it manually by dragging the corner, it irritates me that it's not perfect fitting the screen (I've got another external screen, so when dragging the corner it goes to the other screen, so I never know when it is perfectly filling one screen entirely). But I found a program I use called rightzoom.

You just start the program and whenever you push the green button it will expand the window to fill your entire screen.