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Change your Screen Size

You can easily change the size of your screen which will increase or decrease the amount of useable space you have on  your desktop.It will also change the way things look on the screen.  Ironically a bigger screen size will mean that  letters and pictures and icons will look smaller and may be more difficult to see.  A smaller screen size on the other hand will make letters look larger and icons look bigger. Why would you want to change your screen size?   Sometimes, if you are moving information (files) between folders, a larger screen size will help you see all the files contained in all the folders you want to look in.   Sometimes,  you may find yourself wanting to copy a large amount of text   from  one document into another and having the extra room can make that easier.  Sometimes,  when you are surfing the net you will find a statement like this one:

This page looks best in 800 x 600 resolution

This simply means  that the developer of the web page has designed it to display properly with a screen size of 800 pixels (a dot of light on the screen) wide and 600 pixels tall.  if you  view his page with a different screen size  (geek speak resolution) you will see everything that is there, but it may just be arranged differently. You may have to use the little bars with arrows (scroll bars) to see all of the  page or the text may look larger or smaller than the developer intended.  So how do we do this?

• Right click in the middle of your screen where there are no little pictures (icons).   It should give you a menu that pops up (which is why it is called a popup menu) that looks like this:                            
                                                                                           

• Select "Properties" by moving the arrow (cursor) over it.  It will light up like this one is.  The colors may be different but that is ok.

• Left click  "properties" to get a screen display similar to this one:
                                                                        

• Left click the tab in the upper right corner marked "Settings"and the display will change again.  It will look something like this:
                                                                    

• You can  now change your screen size by a Left click on the "Screen area"  slider bar.  Most common sizes are:

  • 640 x 480 smaller screen size larger icons and text

  • 800 x 600 medium size ... standard for many monitors

  • 1024 x 768 a little larger (my personal favorite)but can be difficult to read text on monitors less than 17 inches

Other screen sizes are out there too. Make your changes and Left click "Apply".   Be aware that not all monitors support all the sizes that the slider may show you. Not to worry... depending on which version of Windows you are  using, the  computer will either automatically restore the previous settings, or you  can start in safe mode and change the settings back to where they were if you have chosen settings that are not supported.  Have fun!  Experiment with a few sizes to see which you like best.

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Looking for more great tips and tricks to get your computer to behave?   Visit the Newbie Club for great links, free lessons, and more --- all in down to earth no nonsense language.