This may be common knowledge, but it's new to me: You can over-ride the font size specified in cascading style sheets. I've always been annoyed by web designers who feel compelled to use 8-point fonts, and do so by using CSS. This type of font size specification is not affected by IE's View * Text Size command. The solution:

Choose Tools * Internet Options, click the Accessibility button, and put a checkmark next to 'Ignore font sizes specified on web page.' When that setting is in effect you can zoom the text on any page (including the Ctrl+Mouse Wheel method). Checking out those Accessibility settings had never occurred to me.

My eyes turned 50 a few months ago, and they are beginning to show their age. Now I don't have to browse the web with reading glasses nearby.