gumbyy

I know absolutely nothing about programming.

I have a program that annoys me because the text it displays in a text entry and output field is too small for me to read comfortably, and there's no way to change it in the menus. Is there a way for me to hack the exe file and increase that text size? I am pretty sure the text is Times New Roman because when I copied it to Wordpad, it copied as Times 12 pt.

I opened the app's exe file in Wordpad and found an entry that reads: Font.Heightð Font.NameTimes New Roman

That font height symbol is a character that I don't understand, I guess it's some kind of code.

I did download a freeware hex editor program and looked in the exe file for that Times New Roman line, but when I found it, that strange Font Height symbol was not visible.

Is there a simple way a non-hacker who knows nothing about programming can change this font to display at, maybe 18 pt. or 22 pt.? Thanks.

jamiemac2005

Hey, not only can we not help you with this because of forum rules and the obvious link to reverse engineering programs. But it can't simply be done... So onto another solution, what is the program? (If it's open source that's the best place to start) are there any alternatives? And have you tried asking the developers? (if it's small-scale)...

Also using something like SysInternals: ZoomIt to help you read items on the page is definately worth trying(it helped me a lot, my vision is little to be desired).

There are also certain programs which brag the ability to modify windows on the fly, in basic things like this(the disadvantage being you'd need to do this every time you use the program), if you like i'll look them back up... I thought Showin might be able to do it but it can't. So post back and i'll go looking again.

Cheers,
Jamey

gumbyy

Thanks for the reply Jamiemac. Well, I tried ZoomIt but it's not quite what I need. I don't want to draw on the screen, and ZoomIt does not seem to let me have a regular cursor to enter text in the enlarged text field.

The program I'm trying to fix is an old one, no longer in development, so I can't get the programmer to fix it for me. I am finding a lot of other screen zooming programs on Google, and plan to try some of them out to see if they will do what I need, i.e., let me enter text while the screen is zoomed.


I'd be very interested to hear about these programs. Thanks again, Jamey.

jamiemac2005

Hey again, i've been playing with AutoHotkey and have found that it can be used to target a windows control and modify its attributes, i've not yet been able to change the text size/weight but i now know it's possible programatically. So i'll get back to you if i work this out.

Cheers,
Jamey

gumbyy

Thanks Jamey, I hope you can get autohotkeys to do it. I still haven't found a screen magnifier that lets me enter text in the text field that it's magnifying.

jamiemac2005

unfortunately whilst you can modify controls, and create embolded fonts you can't change the size at which they display. Sorry for not having a better solution... what is the program?

Cheers,
Jamey