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Adjusting display resolution

Resources - Software

I encounter a lot of LCD monitors set to a low display resolution. Text and images are large but not crisp, and often the display ratio is incorrect, making people in photos look too fat or too thin.

If the person using the computer has very poor eyesight, then sometimes it is best to leave the display resolution set very low. However, there is a way of correcting the display ratio. Simply pick a display resolution that uses the same display ratio as the monitor.

This chart shows the most common display resolutions, with the color of each resolution type indicating the display ratio (e.g., orange indicates a 4:3 ratio)

The ideal method, though, is to start by setting the display resolution to that of the monitor, then work on increasing font, icon and image sizes to suit the new display resolution. The instructions are different for each operating system, so go to Microsoft's Display and Readability page and work your way through some of the suggestions there.

One important piece of advice that seems to be missing from the Microsoft instructions is changing the DPI setting in Windows XP.

What you may find is that text and images within particular programs also need to be resized to make them easier to view. Browsers will have options for changing the zoom level.

Jungle Disk -

Resources - Software

I've been getting familiar with a new online service this week. The service is called Jungle Disk. It allows users to back up their data "on the Internet" and it allows them to access those backed up files wherever they are. The software does a whole lot more than that, and it's part of a move towards "cloud computing". Prices start at about $75 per year.

Why would you bother with the service? Disaster recovery is an obvious reason. Families and small businesses in Christchurch have lost valuable data - either because it wasn't backed up, or because the backed-up data wasn't stored remotely. People often need ready access to their files while they're away from home or the office.

"Online Backups Review" examines Jungle Disk

Text too small in Firefox?

Resources - Software

I wanted to boost the size of the text and images in Firefox for my mother. Firefox has a feature called Zoom that lets you do this on individual pages. Zoom can even be tweaked a little, but I couldn't find a way to set the default zoom to anything other than 100%, until I found a useful add-on Default FullZoom Level:

"Two of the biggest complaints about Firefox’s zooming feature are the inabilities to save zoom levels for future browsing sessions and to set a different zoom level for all websites by default.

Default FullZoom Level is a handy add-on for Firefox 3.6 and later that offers to resolve both issues and more."
Source: Change The Firefox Default Zoom Level

ProduKey - recover lost Windows product key (CD-Key)

Resources - Software

I've just bought a computer—complete with bundled Works Suite 2003 software—for a client. The Works Suite installation disks are present, but the CD-keys are missing - making re-installation almost impossible. Fortunately, there's a solution:

ProduKey is a small utility that displays the ProductID and the CD-Key of Microsoft Office (Microsoft Office 2003, Microsoft Office 2007), Windows (Including Windows 7 and Windows Vista), Exchange Server, and SQL Server installed on your computer.