OS 8 and 9

The ‘ CloseView ‘ magnifier enables text to be increased to a very large size. It is, however, restricted to a small portion of the screen, the area that is magnified is outlined with a black box that follows the mouse pointer.

This page shows you how to start ‘ CloseView ‘ and details some of its features.

• Open ‘ CloseView ‘ using the following steps:
• Click the ‘ Apple ‘ menu (no keyboard shortcut).
• From the ‘ Control Panels ‘ sub menu select ‘ CloseView ‘ (no keyboard shortcut) which will launch ‘ CloseView ‘
• From here you can turn ‘ CloseView ‘ on and off, set the magnification scale for example x2, invert the colours of the screen to white text on a black background and turn the ‘ CloseView ‘ keyboard shortcuts on and off.
• With the ‘ Keyboard Shortcuts ‘ on you can use the ‘ CloseView ‘ commands from within any program at any time.
• ‘ Alt ‘ + ‘ Apple ‘ + ‘ K ‘ Turn CloseView on or off.
• ‘ Alt ‘ + ‘ Apple ‘ + ‘ X ‘ Turn magnification on or off.
• ‘ Alt ‘ + ‘ Apple ‘ + ‘ + ‘ Increase magnification.
• ‘ Alt ‘ + ‘ Apple ‘ + ‘ – ‘ Decrease magnification.

Mac OS X

• Make sure you are in ‘ Finder ‘ – press ‘ Apple ‘ + ‘ Tab ‘ if necessary to cycle through open applications until you return to ‘ Finder ‘.
• Click on the ‘Apple ‘ menu or press ‘ Ctrl ‘ + ‘ F2 ‘.
• Click on ‘ System Preferences… ‘ or press the ‘ down ‘ arrow key to highlight it and then press ‘ Enter ‘.
• Click on the ‘Universal Access ‘ icon or press ‘ Tab ‘ repeatedly (you might need to press ‘ Ctrl ‘ + ‘ F7 ‘ first) to cycle through the icons until the ‘ Universal Access ‘ icon is highlighted with a blue border and then press the ‘ Spacebar ‘.
• Click on the ‘ Seeing ‘ tab or press ‘ Ctrl ‘ + ‘ F7 ‘ (once or twice) to highlight one of the four tabs for example ‘ Keyboard ‘ and then press the left or right arrow key to select the ‘ Seeing ‘ tab (highlighted in blue).
• Click on the ‘ Turn on Zoom ‘ button or press ‘ Tab ‘ to highlight the Turn on Zoom ‘ button and press the ‘ Spacebar ‘.
• To zoom in press ‘ Alt ‘ + ‘ Apple ‘ + ‘ + ‘ (plus), this zooms to your maximum level of magnification set in ‘ Zoom Options… ‘ . The ‘ preview rectangle ‘ (black bordered box) shows the area of the screen that you will see at maximum zoom. To step back or zoom out press ‘ Alt ‘ + ‘ Apple ‘ + ‘ – ‘ (minus). Move your mouse around the screen to view the magnified page.
• To change the Maximum and Minimum Zoom settings click on ‘ Zoom Options… ‘ or press ‘ Tab ‘ until ‘ Zoom Options… ‘ is highlighted and then press the ‘ Spacebar ‘.
• Click on the’ Maximum Zoom:’ gauge bar to increase or decrease the Magnification level or press ‘ Tab ‘ (you might need to press ‘ Ctrl ‘ + ‘ F7 ‘ first) to highlight the ‘slider’ on the gauge bar and use the ‘ left ‘ and ‘ right ‘ arrow keys to increase or decrease the maximum magnification level.
• Click on the’ Minimum Zoom:’ gauge bar to increase or decrease the Magnification level or press ‘ Tab ‘ (you might need to press ‘ Ctrl ‘ + ‘ F7 ‘ first) to highlight the ‘slider’ on the gauge bar and use the left and right arrow keys to increase or decrease the minimum magnification level.
• When you have finished click on the ‘ Done ‘ button or press ‘ Tab ‘ until it is selected and then press ‘ Enter ‘ .
• Finally click the ‘ Close ‘ (red) button at the top of the ‘ Universal Access ‘ window or press ‘ Apple ‘ + ‘ W ‘ to close the window and return to the Finder desktop.
• To turn magnification on or off at any time press ‘ Alt ‘ + ‘ Apple ‘ + ‘ * ‘ (asterisk).

Find out how to magnify your screen in these other operating systems:

Linux, Windows.

Back to Accessibility.