How YOU can change look of forum

BillyBoy wrote on 9/23/2003, 9:41 PM

Every time the forum "look" changes, some don't like it. Well, you can change the look yourself. I'm going to use the KISS principle, so don't expect anything fancy. Just a simple basic change on the text look and size. I've done this myself because its hard for me to see with my Bell's Palsy. So larger bolder text is easier on my eyes for now.

Phase One
Assumes you're using Microsoft's Explorer Browser. The latest Windows version is 6. The following applies to that version. If you have a different version you may have to hunt for the options that follow.

Open the Sony Media software forum page so you see all the threads. Now click on Tools at the very top of your browser window. Next click on Internet Options. Now click on Accessibility. If you like the new color scheme do not check the first option. Do check the remaining three options. You now have your browser set to ignore web page fonts and fonts sizes and you told it to use your own custom style sheet which we'll make in a following step. Press OK.

Hit your browser refresh. Look at the forum just with this one change. Good enough stop. If not, keep going.

Phase Two
Click on fonts. Pick one you like. Try Microsoft Sans Serif. If you are using a lap top or have trouble seeing try Arial or Arial Black. Click OK.

Again stop, hit refresh, see if these changes are enough. If not, keep going.

Phase Three

Click on Start/all programs/accessories/wordPad

Type the following between the dots exactly as shown:

................................................................

<style type="text/css">
p
{font: 14px arial}
</style>

................................................................

Now click on file, save as and give the little style sheet you just created a name like vegas.css

Phase Four

Click on Tools, Internet Options/Accessibility. Click on the browse button. Locate the Style Sheet you just made in the above step. Click Open. Hit Browser Refresh.

That's all you need to do. You can get much fancier with your style sheet if you wish. If you want larger or small type just change that one line in the Style sheet and or see what effects of changing edit account works best with the style sheet.

The downside is the changes you made will effect ALL web pages, so you'll have to remember to switch the style sheet mode off and on if you don't want it for regular web browsing.

Comments

Thomas wrote on 9/23/2003, 11:13 PM

Hi BillyBoy,
being a mole as well, this is what I have been seeking for since the very first change to the sony style... I found the fonts quite unreadable.
Thanks,
Thomas

John_Cline wrote on 9/23/2003, 11:43 PM

Of course, you could just get into the "Edit Account" section and select a larger font size.

John

BillyBoy wrote on 9/24/2003, 12:04 AM

Using only edit account limts what you can do. By also changing the font size and family you have more options. You really don't even need the CSS, just picking a fat heavy font like Arial Black and by checking ignore font sizes and styles should change the look enough for almost everyone I would think. For example Arial Black is very easy to see on lap tops and if your eyes aren't what they used to be. Of course it all depends on your screen resolution too.

johnmeyer wrote on 9/24/2003, 12:24 AM

BillyBoy,

Great tip. I thought I knew everything about IE6, but I missed this one. My eyes have really gone downhill in the past two years. This helps a lot. I had mostly been using the settings in the Control Panel Display setting, which affects all applications. This just affects IE. Very good.

rmack350 wrote on 9/24/2003, 12:49 AM

Excellent suggestions and excellent instructions.

If you are using your web browser to proof web pages this could cause trouble. Might be worthwhile to get a copy of Mozilla to view the forum. That way you'd have a separate browser to use with accessibility options tweaked.

Another option would be to make your own local home page and put a reminder on it to doublecheck your accessibility settings. That way you see it once in a while.

It seems to me, and maybe I'm imagining this, that the forum isn't using quite so much blue as it was yesterday. It's a little easier to read. Or maybe It's just that I'd set my font pref to "larger".

Rob Mack

seeker wrote on 12/20/2003, 6:20 PM

John,

"Of course, you could just get into the "Edit Account" section and select a larger font size."

I tried that and it had no effect. I went from Normal all the way up to Largest and the font still stayed the same -- annoyingly small.

-- Seeker --

BillyBoy wrote on 12/20/2003, 6:23 PM

If you're using Microsoft's Explorer browser try some of the suggestions further up in this thread. They helped me when my eyesight was horrible due the Bell's Palsy thing. if anyone is wondering I'm, about back to 80% or so back to where I was. Almost 6 months and counting.

seeker wrote on 12/20/2003, 6:30 PM

Hi BillyBoy,

I want to add my thanks to those of others for posting this information. I just found your message while doing a Search on "forum text size". On my 15-inch monitor at 1024x768 these forums were difficult to read. I couldn't get any effect by Editing my Account's Text Size. Guess I need to read up on Internet Explorer 6.

-- Seeker --

Maverick wrote on 12/21/2003, 12:22 PM

A liitle OT but relevent, I think, is that I have noticed that since Sony took over each time I come back to the forum all previously read thread or parts of are marked as unread again. This never haoppened before and I haven't changed any cookie settings.

Cheers.

Chienworks wrote on 12/21/2003, 1:39 PM

I'm using Netscape 7.1 and i've noticed that if i change the font size in my account settings then it takes effect and works for the rest of my session. However, the next time i start up the browser the font is back to the default size even though it's still listed as "larger" in my account settings. If i save the settings again then the font indeed becomes larger again ... until the next time i start up the browser. Since i have all cookies erased when the browser closes this makes me think that some of these settings are now saved in cookies instead of just the account settings.