Speed reading on the computer screen

Like any other information junkie, my browser is full of open tabs of material that I would have liked to have read, but simply lost interest or took too long to read. It occurred to me that I would normally read books at a faster pace, but somehow the screen wasn’t conducive for speed reading. The answer came a couple of weeks ago. Looking for something to read at the beach, I found an old second hand book bought at the friends-of-the-library sale. It was Tony Buzan’s “Use Both Sides of Your Brain”. It reminded me that I was using the finger as an eye-guide, to steady the vision. This I did not do when reading on the computer.

A quick search on the net turned up little. There were some text flashing software which plays back text on a fixed point on the screen. It wasn’t what I was looking for. In the end, this is what I did:

1) Switched mouse pointers to large
2) Changed the Text Select pointer from a vertical beam to a a hand pointing with an index finger.
3) Increased font-sizes on the browser.
4) Adjusted browser window so that the length of a line of text resembles that of a book.

(I’d have loved to post a screenshot, but Windows refuses to capture the mouse pointer)

The net result was satisfying. I was able to emulate the pace of natural reading.

If you have tried this, or found other techniques that work, please let me know.