Have you ever noticed things are bigger or smaller on other people’s computer screens even though they have the same size monitor you do? Your monitor’s screen resolution settings determines how large text and images appear on screen. Screen resolutions are measured in pixels, literally the dots that form to make letters and graphics on your screen. The more dots you have in the picture, the better the picture looks. The native resolution is the highest resolution your monitor can support. So, if your monitor supports up to 1920 by 1200, that is its native resolution. The native resolution is the setting that your computer is going to look the best at because it is showing the image exactly the way it was made, pixel for pixel. When you set the resolution to a lower setting, the computer has to do some complicated math to make it look like it is supposed to. Based on the setting you choose, it may have to make 2 pixels for each real pixel, 3 pixels, 4 pixels etc. When your video card has to calculate fractions of pixels to make the resolution work, the image gets blurry and uncomfortable to use.

If the text and graphics on your screen is too small or too large to view comfortably or appears stretched or blurry, you can change the resolution by following these instructions for Windows XP. 

1. Right click on an empty area of your desktop and select Properties in the context menu.
2. The Display Properties window will open. Click on the Settings tab.
3. Move the Screen resolution slider to change the resolution of your monitor.
4. To test a setting, Click the Apply button. The screen will go blank for a moment and a message will appear asking if you want to keep the setting.
5. Click the OK button to close the window and apply the setting.

Moving it towards Less increases the size of text and images on the display but you will see less information on screen. Moving it towards More will allow you to view more information on screen but text and images will appear smaller. Some resolutions may appear to be stretched out or blurry so you may want to try a few out. You can always go back and change it again. The display will produce an optimal image when the slider is all the way over to the More side. This is the “native resolution” of the monitor.

Here are links with the instructions on how to change your screen resolution in Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Mac OS X 10.4 through Mountain Lion. Wondering why I didn’t include a link for instructions for iOS, Android and Chrome? It’s simple. There aren’t instructions for those operating systems, because you can’t change the screen resolution in them unless you jailbreak, root, or hack them.

Today we’re starting a new regular feature on Deemable Tech called Tech Tip Tuesday. Every week, (or roughly every week) we’ll bring you a quick tip that will make your life with technology easier. Now, if you are a power user, these tips might be below your grade level. Don’t let that stop you from at least taking a glance each week. Chances are they’ll be a few that even you didn’t know about, every now and then.

Today’s Tech Tip Tuesday is a very simple trick that will make your life easier, especially if you have to search through long documents or websites in your job. Have you ever found yourself scanning a website, but you can’t seem to find the sentence that you are looking for? The next time that happens to you, press the Control button on your keyboard which is usually labeled “Ctrl”, then, while you are still holding that button down, press the F key. If you are in Internet Explorer, a menu like the following will appear:

Conveniently, your cursor will move to the “Find:” field. Type a word or short phrase that you know is in the sentence that you are looking for. For example, let’s say you were reading an article about the iPhone 5, and you wanted to find the part where the author talked about the new Lightning connector. You could press Ctrl-F and search for the word “lightning.”

The web browser will automatically take you to the first instance of the word, or phrase, in the article, and it will tell you how many times the word appears in the article. It will also highlight every instance of the word in the article so you can find them visually. You can click the Next button to take you to the next instance, or the Previous button to take you to the last instance.

If you type in a word or phrase that doesn’t appear in the article, either because the word isn’t actually in the article or you misspelled it, the Find menu will say, “No options found.” Make sure that you are spelling the word correctly, or try a different word.

This tip works on all current web browsers, and on most other Windows and Mac programs. On the iPhone you can do the same thing in Safari by typing the word you are looking for in the Search field at the top, then scrolling to the bottom of the suggested searches. Tap the last option under the heading labeled “On This Page.”

Try this tip out the next time you are searching for something on a long website. It’ll save you a lot of time.

Did this Tech Tip help you? Have a suggestion for a future Tech Tip Tuesday? Let us know in the comments down below!