Customising your browser
Although we don't recommend you make too many changes to the way your browser is set up (just in case it interferes with your ability to access our services), there are some changes that you can easily make that may help you to browse our websites.
Note: The instructions below cover the set up for Internet Explorer on Windows and Firefox (for Windows and Mac). Other browsers will have similar features but the options may be in a different location.
Microsoft Internet Explorer (Windows)
If you have difficulty reading any text on screen, you can quickly and easily resize:
- on the View menu, choose Text Size
- increase or decrease to suit your needs
Top tip: If you have a mouse with a scroll wheel, you can quickly change the font size by holding down the CTRL key and moving the wheel back and forth.
Note: If you increase the font size, some page layouts may go slightly out of line. This cosmetic side-effect should be weighed up against the benefit of clearer text.
To permanently apply font and colour changes:
- on the View / Tools menu, click Internet Options
- on the General tab, select Accessibility
- click the three boxes to show ticks
Changing the default font
Using a sans serif font (such as Arial), rather than a serif font (such as Times New Roman) can make text easier to read.
- on the View / Tools menu, click Internet Options
- on the General tab, click Fonts
- in the Proportional and Fixed-width font lists, select the fonts you would like to use
Note: The majority of Nationwide's websites already use sans-serif fonts and you may not need/want to chance this in your browser.
Changing text and background colour
Website authors and designers often specify particular fonts, typefaces and background colours for their pages, and the combinations can sometimes make the text difficult to read. You can override these settings by choosing your own preferred, clearer colour scheme - black text on a yellow background gives a high contrast:
- on the View / Tools menu, click Internet Options
- on the General tab, click Colors
- click on the tick box labelled Use Windows Colors
- click Text, and select the colour you want. Click OK
- click Background, and select the colour you want to use. Click OK
To hide images on web pages
If you are accessing our services on a slow internet connection (perhaps you are travelling and not using your normal faster connection) or there appears to be a temporary slowdown with your Internet Service Provider (ISP), you might want to switch off image-loading. Our websites should work perfectly well without images displaying (but if not, please let us know) and will speed up page loads.
- on the View / Tools menu, click Internet Options
- on the Advanced tab, scroll down to Multimedia
- click on Show pictures to remove the tick
- click on Apply, and then click on OK
To change the size of the window
- click Full Screen on the toolbar
There are more options to make websites easier to read, such as removing animation and expanding text. To look at the other options
- on the View / Tools menu, click Internet Options
- select the Advanced tab
- choose the options you would like
Firefox
Firefox offers a number of accessibility options similar to Internet Explorer. In addition, Firefox lets you resize text beyond the 2-up, 2-down steps that Internet Explorer offers (making it a better choice of browser if you are visually impaired).
To change font size:
- go to View Menu
- choose Text Size and select Increase or Decrease
Top tip: If you have a mouse with a scroll wheel, you can quickly change the font size by holding down the CTRL key and moving the wheel back and forth.
Note: If you increase the font size, some page layouts may go slightly out of line. This cosmetic side-effect should be weighed up against the benefit of clearer text.
To stop images loading:
- go to Tools > Options (on the Mac choose Firefox > Preferences)
- select the Content tab
- uncheck Load Images