Web pages at About.com and at Discovery.com very small on my screen.

When going to some web sites the graphics are very small and the text is very difficult to read because it is so small. The web page takes up about 40% of my monitor screen instead of 100% of the screen.
I have Widows XP Pro Edition, a gigabyte motherboard, a Sony Multiscan E500 21" monitor and an ATI All In Wonder 9600 XT video card.
I've tried going to: Tools>Internet Options>Advanced (but could not find anything here), and to: Menu Bar>View>Text Size>Largest - the web page blinks but does not respond to my enlarging the text.
TIA, Frank C.

 

You can adjust the size of the text in Internet Explorer>View>Text size and clicking on different sizes until you find one you like ....or....

If you have a wheel mouse, hold down the Ctrl key and spin the wheel until you find a size you like.

As far as the page only using part of the window space, that's a function of the web site. The author set the page's width in number of pixels rather than percentage of the screen. The higher the resolution the monitor is set, the more pixels there will be displayed and therefore, the less space a set number of pixels will take up.

Most pages using a pixel number to set the width have it set to fill the window when the resolution is 800 X 600 which was the default resolution for Windows for years.

Unfortunately, your choices are to change the screen resolution or get used to the empty space on the right-hand side of IE's window.

To change the resolution: Control Panel>Display>Settings tab, move the Screen Resolution slider to the left to 800 X 600, click OK. The screen will probably go black momentarily. When it comes back, it'll ask if you want to keep the settings. If you like the way it looks, click Yes. If you don't like it, do nothing and it'll go black again and revert back to the original setting.

 

I tried what you are suggesting. I tried even before I posted the message. Over the previous years I have been able to adjust the page size by taking the steps you mention but these steps are not working now.
Its not just a matter of having a space not being used by my monitor screen-the lettering is so small I have to take a magnifying glass to read it-and I have a 21" monitor.
One thing about going to the Settings in the Display Properties window-if I go to the large size 800 x 600 then the Display Properties window is so big I cannot get to the bottom bar where the OK, Cancel and Apply buttons are, in order to select one of the buttons, but that is beside the point - I have tried setting the resolution lower (although not down to 800 x 600) but there was no change in the About.com and Discovery.com web pages.
TIA, Frank C.

 

Yes, thank you for reminding me of this screen. I just used these settings this morning. The web pages are larger and I do not need the magnifying glass but some web pages' text is still small. At least the text is readable so that I do not need to have my nose 1 inch from the screen. But still when I am on these web pages and select View>Text Size, some times there is a change in text size and sometimes there is not a change.
I think there is a related difference in the selections you make between the Screen Resolution and the DPI Settings. Depending on what Screen Resolution is selected determines what choices are given in the DPI Settings. With my Screen Resolution set at one setting (I can't remember which one now) I believe I had only one choice of DPI Settings but when I changed the Screen Resolution there are 2 choices on the DPI Settings screen. Is this correct or am I imagining things?
TIA, Frank C.