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Failing eyesight demands Email programs-with Dark type!

Avatar Georgia Cheer
My Mother's eyesight has become more problematic and in particular she thrives on her iMac reading emails, Pinterest and eBay BUT we changed her over to Apple Mail (from Entourage) as her email this year but that program uses TONS of grayed lettering, hidden commands (symbols in gray to forward, reply, etc) and the left 2 columns are NOT big type only when she clicks on a particular email will it open the email big enough to read on the right window. Does anyone recommend how to make the whole interface of Mail bigger and darker or...another email program that uses all dark type. This grayed out type with small symbols makes me frustrated too!
Any simple ideas on making browser type bigger as I'm not real sure what boxes to tick in Accessibility. She is not good at remembering key commands for zooming but anyone who has ideas please inform!! :-)

Re: Failing eyesight demands Email programs-with Dark type!

Avatar Euan Williams
If you don't mind a little experiment and exploration, try opening System Preferences > Accessibility where all the controls you might need are available. You may have to compromise with a combination of settings, and no one guarantees perfect success - but there's a lot of useful stuff there.

On a basic level you can try using
cmd = for magnification, and
cmd - for zooming out.

If your Mother uses a trackpad or a 'flat-top' Apple mouse, spreading or drawing together two fingers are very useful gestures, for details with micro videos see System Preferences > Trackpad.

In the Finder, click on Help and look for Accessibility.

Re: Failing eyesight demands Email programs-with Dark type!

Avatar Mick Burrell
It sounds to me as if she's using the "modern" (as iPad) layout. Apple don't intend you to read the message in the message list - after all, you can only display up to five lines - but to highlight one for reading on the right.

You could try changing her to the classic layout where you can alter the font size for the message list but there are no preview lines of the message, the message is read underneath or in its own window by double clicking the one you want.

I take it it's not a s simple as altering the screen contrast? Or run through the display calibration in System preferences - using her eyes to judge of course.

Re: Failing eyesight demands Email programs-with Dark type!

Avatar Georgia Cheer
Thank you Euan and Mick. Yes she reads the selected email on the right side pane. She has altered the screen contrast already. I was told Mozilla had an email program that might be useful but I haven't yet had time to investigate. My Mom is very (VERY) attached to a very old mouse... a trackball type, remember, huge ball on top. That is what she likes using. We got her a normal mouse but she kept clicking different sides of it which sent the mouse shooting across the screen or changing pages altogether so back to the trackball she went. I may have to go to other 'sight challenged' methods such as adding a screen attachment to her iMac screen for seeing through. Will do the best I can with my limited time to find a solution. Thank you again for the suggestions.

Re: Failing eyesight demands Email programs-with Dark type!

Avatar Mick Burrell
The Mozilla program is Thunderbird. It's a nice client and I know one or two people who use it. I did myself for a time. I don't think she'll find it any clearer and certainly not as "friendly" as what she's used to. Do try the Classic mode - it's only one click in Mail Preferences under Viewing and then use the fonts icon to set them to her preferred size.
 
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