Adjusting to a smaller screen
This summer, many of our teachers are having their Toshiba R10s swapped out for Toshiba M700s. This fall, we’re downsizing our student computers – Toshiba A8s just a couple of years ago to mostly Intel Classmate Convertibles (with one grade of Toshiba M700s remaining from a pilot last year). In doing so, users will get lighter, less expensive machines, but they’re giving up some screen real estate. (Note: As a former English teacher, I have no problem giving kids a paperback with much less screen real estate and fewer accessibility options than these computers. For those of you making similar transitions, I’ve noticed that most of our faculty tend to protest less when I ask them the dimensions of the books they read and the font size of their newspapers/magazines.)
The screen size/resolution changes:
- R10 – 14.1 inch w/1024 x 768 pixels
- M700 -12.1 inch w/1280 x 800 pixels
- A8 – 15.4 inch w/1280 x 800 pixels
- Classmate Convertible – 8.9 inches w/1024 x 600 pixels
With this apparent shrinkage of display, I’m trying to have some ideas for folks coping with a smaller screen to maximize the screen real estate available. We don’t have any students or faculty “visually impaired” or requiring special adaptations, but I want to respect the fact that we have a number of folks with corrected vision or hoping to avoid eye strain.
Here’s my list of basic adaptations so far:
- Start with a dark desktop image so desktop icons have a good contrast. (See instructions for changing.) If a solid background isn’t appealing, choose an image that’s darker and contrasts well with your icons.
- Increase the size of your icons so they’re easier to identify. This is especially handy on touch screen tablets in swivel mode. (See instructions for changing.) Note: The Classmate comes with an app called Blue Dolphin – a dark background, large icon interface great with touch screen or traditional use. It accomplishes #1 & #2 automatically.
- Increase default font size to large. (See instructions for changing.) I’d avoid extra large. The increase in default font, especially to extra large, may cause readability issues, especially for files with larger names.
- Use large icons on your Start menu. (See instructions for changing.)
- When using Office applications, especially Word, increase document size to at least 125% or page width. Do the same in other apps, such as Acrobat. This doesn’t change the actual page size, but it does make the page easier to navigate for most users. Using the page width option means you don’t lose the margin around the edges, so you don’t lose text.
- While on the Internet, you can usually increase the font size in your browser. There are a number of ways to do this, but hitting Ctrl and + simultaneously seems to increase font size in most browsers, including IE and Firefox. Ctrl and – decreases font size. Ctrl and 0 (zero) returns to the default size.
- Use F11 to browse the Internet full-screen (no menu or address bars visible).
- Hide the taskbar when you’re not using it using Autohide.
I avoid (but sometimes choose as a last resort):
- Changing screen resolution. This causes issues when using projectors ans many applications. It often degrades overall visual quality and makes the display fuzzy.
- Increasing the size or appearance of the cursor. With touch screen and tablets, larger cursors seem to impede navigation. You’ll also need to recalibrate once you’ve made the change.
- Moving the taskbar. (Although helpful to some users, it’s a real pain to navigate if something goes wrong – especially if I have to fix it!)
I’d appreciate suggestions for further tips. What works for your users? I’ll happily revise this post and reTweet!
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