Magnification Difficulties
 

I am hoping the PPRuNe Illuminati might shed light on and help solve an annoying problem which I have only on this website. I am still looking at the grass from the green side and am upright and taking nutrition; but, at 76, my once 20::10 Eagle eyes have devolved to, well, I need 4-dioptre correction on my left eye to resolve text accurately.

I am running Firefox 143.0.2 (will update to 143.0.3 after I post this) with the add-on Fixed Zoom, which is selected to render PPRuNe at 125% magnification. Window's 11's Accessibility protocol is set to 100% magnification. So far, so good? Now, the problem.

Say I am viewing a page at the customary 125% enlargement. If I select and visit a hyperlinked site, all is well, but when I return to the pages of PPRuNe, the magnification drops, uncommanded, to 110%! This occurs more than 20 times per day and is most annoying! I have tried every settings change possible, I have deactivated Fixed Zoom, I have implemented the Microsoft Zoom Command. No Joy! I have profaned myself on a direct path to Hell on full afterburner/reheat. I am giving very strong consideration to heavy percussive maintenance or the Frisbee-i-zation of our nice laptop.

Is anyone able to suggest a solution? Suicide is not in the mix. Yet.

- Ed

Windows key + Alt +8 gives you 200% under Linux. Not just Firefox, all applications. Wait a bit, it takes a few seconds to become active. Enter the same key sequence again to return to normal magnification. Alternatively go into Settings > Accessibility > Zoom and set the zoom to whatever you want.

My solution? I bought a bigger screen second hand on ebay. I only use the workarounds on the laptop, which is tiny, and only has a 10.5" screen.

Thank you, justapax! I shall give your recommendation a try.

- Ed

Gosh, PPrune, again, at it's best & most varied. Had the same prob for the same reasons. Tired of finding a menu drop-down, changing zoom from 100 to 125 on every site change as it defaults to 100. Also gonna try out those two routes. Never have even dreamed of it.

How I switched from Boeing to Airbus and got the beast from Bahrain to Manilla is beyond all of us !

I look forward to your results and opinion, Gordomac!

- Ed

Cav ; Wilco. BIt nervous of trying and tied up a bit for a few days.

Had the same nerves of flying Airbus by pushing buttons ! Sooooper Arab Train Capt got a bit heated when he noted my reluctance , leaned over during some required inputs and yelled in my ear ; " insert, insert !! Press it, press it " ! I retorted ;" Blimey Alli, you sound like a porno movie !".

Linux is a lot more friendly to people with reduced visibilty than Window$. It used to be that there were peripherals that didn't have Linux drivers, and things you just couldn't do, this is no longer the case. The only major difference is that Linux has far fewer games than Window$. It might be worth making the change just for the accessibility options. The most Windows-like distribution is Ubuntu, making the transition for what you are used to, to a new OS, easy. If you are a power user, you might prefer Mint. Only slightly less intuitive, but a bit faster.

All that being said, a bigger screen is the best option unless you travel a lot and therefore use a laptop (I have both). My eyesight is not that bad (slightly not-good-enough for driving) without correction, and I find a 22" screen to be fine. I need 2-dioptre reading glasses to read a mobile phone, but the desktop screen is both far enough away that I don't need reading glasses to read it, and close enough I don't need to wear my lenses.

I also have a projector and 4m x 3m screen for watching films. 1 kW 5.1 Dolby/dts sound system to go with it. I think that should be a big enough screen for anyone! :)

If you do decide to go down the Linux path, you need to download RUFUS.EXE to make a USB stick bootable, Then download your choice of Linux, there are several varieties varying from the minimum configuration (to run on a Raspberry Pi) to the most popular ones like Ubuntu and Mint, which come bundled with a browser, an e-mail client, an Office suite for Word-processing and spreadsheets and the like, a video application (I prefer VLC because it has a graphic equaliser for my ageing ears) and lots beside. All Linuxes come with multi-language support, and accessibility support. Then get RUFUS.EXE to make your USB stick bootable.

Once you have your bootable USB stick, boot your computer with it. It's try-before-you-buy, if it's not for you, you just don't install, you can run Linux off the stick. Don't like it? Just reboot. it won't have cost you more than a few minutes of your time, and a download. Try another. Windows is one-size-fits-all, with Linux you choose the distro that suits you.

I use Ubuntu, which has a GUI most like Windows. It does everything I want. Others swear by Mint, which is faster, but less intuitive for an ex-Windows user. You can try several before deciding which one suits you. They're all free.

The City of London uses Linux, because it's relatively secure and doesn't crash.

That was a Party Political Broadcast on behalf of the Linux Party.

Cav ; Did say I would report back. Justa's routes were workable but the + ALT route hit 200%(he said it would) which was too high and defaulted to 100% anyway. The SETTINGS route is what I use anyway but while allowing magnification, again, defaults to 100. I was hoping to find away of resetting the default to 125 so that I do not have to keep zooming in & changing every time I change a site.

Have to live with it I guess.

Hey Gordomac - Thank you for your followup and I know of which you speak. I have tried the same routes with the same outcomes. My hangup is that I visit about twenty (20) sites every day, many of which I have set to different magnification levels on the Fixed Zoom Firefox add-on. Only PPRuNe jumps between the 125% Fixed Zoom setting and 110%, the origin of which is most probably in Windows 11, but perhaps within the site itself!? I adhere to the old saw "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!", but this feels broke and I have struggled to find the solution for a number of months. I'll let you know if I solve it!

- Ed

Still No Joy! Same problem and I am unable to find a solution. I have no settings in Windows 11, Firefox 144, or PPRuNe which explain the retrograde default to 110% magnification. I'll bet you are in the same boat, Gordomac. This is an intentional thread bump to see if we might get some new eyes on the problem. Thanks in advance to anyone who might offer a solution.

- Ed

Problem solved, sort of. I recently installed and am running the Waterfox browser. The magnification jump, which continues to occur in Firefox 147, does not raise its ugly head in Waterfox 6.6.8! I think that the problem is in a Firefox add-on, but unless I run into misbehaviors, I shall continue to utilize Waterfox and TOR.

- Ed

Waterfox is good. Not only is it significantly faster than Firefox, it protects your privacy. You still need to keep Firefox on your computer as some sites (like my bank) don't like its privacy settings. But you only need Firefox a couple of times a month, unless you use your bank a lot.

Tor is slow, slow, slow. I consider that my use of the internet is public, both email and surfing, I don't mind this, after all I am interfacing with people with no privacy when I use PPRuNe, I'll meet up with them at a Bash. Tor is useful when you get the message 'this site is blocked in your country'. This doesn't happen that often.

Spread two fingers on the pad?

Great idea, but doesn't work on our laptop!

- Ed