I want to recommend the Opera web browser to anyone who requires extra assistance with surfing the Internet, or using a computer whenever a browser is required.
The designers have gone to a great deal of trouble to provide facilities in case people need them. You can both reduce the size of the display, (to 20%), and increase it – to a massive 1000%. Being honest, it is very unlikely that full magnification will be often used, as moving such a huge page around to see the part you want becomes a problem.
There are different controls for changing the size. The simplest to use are the “+” and “-” keys on the numeric keypad. The “+” key increases magnification by 10% every time you press it, and the “-” key decreases it by the same amount.
The next easiest to use must be the Status Bar, which displays the current screen magnification down at bottom right, and allows you to change it by simply selecting a new value from a drop-down list.
Then we have the “View” control in the main menu. As well as giving you a choice of magnification, (Zoom), you are also able to select -
“Small Screen”, which gives you a display similar to that of a mobile phone,
“Full Screen”, which hides all the menu bars – (use “F11″ to get back), and
“Fit to Width”, which is for me a Godsend, as I simply hate sideways scrolling.
For most commands there are keyboard combinations as alternatives, but you need to learn these.
There is more.
The Opera browser, when “Voice Enabled”, will read your pages for you. To set up Voice, an extra installation is required. This is only available when directly connected to the Internet. For those that require the facility, it is very helpful.
The tutorials available on the Opera website are excellent, and there should be little problem in getting everything set up to anyone’s liking.
As a further bonus, the browser normally opens with the “Speed Dial” page visible. This is where you set up links to your favourite websites, (up to 9 of them), and can select any of them with a single mouse-click.
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