by Tony Rushin
My eyes are one of my weaknesses. I’m sure my family, friends and co-workers could produce a laundry list of my other weaknesses but let’s stick with my eyesight for the purposes of this tip. Learning a simple shortcut to quickly zoom-in has been wonderful. Learning how to quickly zoom-back to 100% has been equally wonderful. But what about those people with great eyesight who never want to zoom in? Or those people (and, I’m finding, there are many) who unintentionally zoom-in when they accidentally bump the wrong keys? I’ve uncovered a way to do without – or disable – this shortcut so read on.
First, a disclaimer: if you’re still running XP then none of this will work (be aware that Microsoft will no longer support XP starting in April, 2014).
Zoom In / Zoom Out
Simply hold down the ctrl key while using the mouse wheel to zoom in or zoom out.
Note: these functions work with your browser (Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc), with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio (and probably more), with PDF documents and, most likely, with many other programs. Try it with your favorite program and see for yourself.
Reset
To quickly reset to 100%, press ctrl + 0.
+
Note: this works with all of the browsers and with PDF documents but, unfortunately, doesn’t work with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Visio.
Disable Mouse Wheel Zoom
Some people have great eyesight and never need or want to zoom. I’m envious. Sometimes people who always use the mouse wheel to scroll up or down (personally, I prefer using the space bar shortcut in Richard’s May tip) accidentally hit the ctrl key and unexpectedly zoom way in or out. This is extremely disorienting, irritating and unproductive. If you want to permanently disable this function (you can still zoom in or out by using several different non-shortcut methods), download and install this Disable Mouse Wheel Zoom utility from Microsoft.
I’d love to hear your feedback on this tip!
Network 1 Consulting is a 15-year-old, IT Support company in Atlanta, GA. We become – or augment – the IT department for professional services companies: law firms, medical practices and financial services firms. Our IT experts can fix computers – but what our clients really value are the industry-specific best practices we bring to their firms. This is especially important with technology, along with regulations and cyber threats, changing so rapidly. We take a proactive approach to helping our clients use technology to gain and keep their competitive advantage.
