How can I make the text on my screen larger?

Hello....
I have a laptop. Normally I lock my mouse pad, but I forgot that it was on. I use a wireless mouse 99.9% of the time... so now, somehow my hand and mouse pad has made my text on webpages extremely small. How can I fix this?
Thanks! I am running windows 7

how do I make benbats(game on iGoogle homepage) larger there is no zoom index numb er in the right corner of my page today .It was there yesterday.

i used to have a font or whatever there called at the bottom right of my screen, now its gone to where i can enlarge my desktop screen to make my words bigger, now when i try to enlarge my words the only thing that gets bigger is the icons how can i fix this i can barley read me e-mail

I have Windows 7 and all my text on the web pages is so darn small. The toolbar size is fine just everything underit is terribly tiny.

so simple . press ctrl and + & you can enlarge screen to huge proportions. To reduce just press ctrl and =. Hope this helps

@Josephus
That works for browsers and possibly some other programs but not all programs.

Have made text size larger and the short cut was great for websites but still cannot read emails. The subject heading is large but the actual text message is tiny. Any suggestions very welcome

@John
You'd need to be more specific about which email program you are using.

Dear Leo, Like many others my eyesight is failing. Your tip on how to enlarge text is just the ticket. I no longer cry eveytime I open my computer. May you be blessed.
W. Heckroodt. Snr.

i am unable to read my screen, and therefore wondering if you could help me make all items large

Actually that's exactly what ther article you just commented on describes.

23-Nov-2011