My eyes! Tiny font, Dell Latitude laptop edition

October 3, 2016 11:58 AM

My new work laptop is smaller than any I've ever had. I love how light it is, but hate how small the font is for most applications - particularly Outlook. My Google-Fu is failing me. How do I increase the font size?

On other laptops some combination of a function key + and F key has made the font bigger. I have a Fn key, and there is a '+' on the question mark key, but pressing the two does nothing. I feel dumb, and I'm tired of squinting.

I know how to increase the size of font in the reading pane of Outlook, but that doesn't help me when navigating my inbox.

I've tried to change the resolution of the screen, but this causes weirdness when I dock my laptop and use a monitor.

Suggestions?

posted by walkinginsunshine to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

The Display control panel allows you to adjust the size of the text system-wide without changing the screen resolution. Perhaps you'd prefer medium (125%) or larger (150%).
posted by kindall at 12:04 PM on October 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

If you have an email open in Outlook, hold down and scroll your mouse wheel - handy shortcut to zoom Outlook fonts, but it doesn't help on the "Mailbox" view
posted by misterbrandt at 12:40 PM on October 3, 2016

^ hold down Ctrl and scroll the mouse wheel, that should be :)
posted by misterbrandt at 12:48 PM on October 3, 2016

Hm, in Windows I've never noticed a (typical), out-of-the-box hardware shortcut key to increase font size on the whole operating system, but I've been wrong before.

Also note (to add confusion) that not only can you change Windows Display settings to alter screen resolution (which affects the size of *everything*), and text size (which you may adjust independently of screen resolution, as kindall suggests) -

- Office/ Outlook also! has its own adjustable font sizes that are independently adjustable from 'text size' adjustment in Windows.

- Any web browser you use will additionally have its own ability to adjust the size of its fonts and resizable graphics within them, *separately* from the text size you pick in the Windows settings. Unfortunately this does not also affect the text sizes in menus and toolbars, though you might be able to find plugins/addons that do this. ;)
posted by bitterkitten at 1:25 PM on October 3, 2016

You should also be able to hold down Ctrl and press the + sign for bigger text and the - sign for smaller.
posted by tacodave at 4:15 PM on October 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Don’t change the screen resolution if you can avoid it - that will cause other problems.

You can try changing the global font size as kindall suggests: right click on the screen backround, go to Display Settings & Drag the “Change the size of text, apps, and other items” slider to the size you prefer. Then click on apply & (possibly) log in and out again.
posted by pharm at 1:38 AM on October 4, 2016

Inside Outlook, there are settings for font choices and font sizes. Unfortunately, they are not all in one easy place.

For the columns that you see when navigating your inbox (or any box), go to View, View Settings, Other Settings. You'll see a lot of choices there for column headers, column rows, and the AutoPreview text.

For other fonts, go to File, Options, Advanced. You'll see Outlook panes. You can choose each pane: Navigation pane, Reading Pane, To-Do Bar

It's kind of a pain to get all the fonts to a size that works for you, but once you do it, they should stick and be there every time you open it up.
posted by CathyG at 8:51 AM on October 4, 2016

I need to mention - for the View Settings, you need to do the same thing for EVERY BOX separately. Inbox, Drafts, Deleted Items, Sent Items, plus any custom folders that you have set up. The View Settings only apply to the actual view that you are looking at.
posted by CathyG at 8:54 AM on October 4, 2016