10+ methods to zoom in or out in Excel
Excel has a great visibility enhancement tool: the
zoom-in/zoom-out feature.
Zooming (in or out) in an Excel sheet is very useful.
You can zoom out (minimize the sheet size) down to 10% and zoom in (maximize
the sheet size) up to 400%.
Pic 1: default zoom: 100%
Pic 2: maximum zoom-out: 10%
Pic 3: maximum zoom-in: 400%
This post will demonstrate ten(!) methods of zooming (in or out)
1)
CTRL+Mouse wheel – Press
CTRL & scroll the mouse wheel. If you scroll the wheel upwards, it zooms
in. if you push it downwards, it zooms out. The main problem with this method
is that you cannot stop at an exact desired size.
2)
By customizing the
status bar you'll be able both to control the sheet's zoom and to display the
zoom percentage
Pic 4: Customizing the Status Bar
Dragging the zoom
slider on the rightmost corner of the screen. Sliding to the right – increases
the sheet’s size, whereas sliding to the left - decreases the sheet's size.
Same problem as in the previous method: it is difficult to stop at an exact
desired value.
Pic 5: Using the slider on the Status Bar
3)
Activating the Zoom
pane with the keyboard shortcut: ALT, W, Q
Here, you can either choose a
predefined value corresponding to the radio button. Or you can fit the
selection by typing your desired size ( a number between 10 and 400).
Choosing (or Typing) a number smaller than the actual sheet size will decrease
the sheet’s size, however a number greater than the actual sheet size will
increase the sheet's size.
Pic 6: ALT+W+Q and Choose the desired value
4)
Activating the Zoom
pane with the keyboard shortcut: ALT, V, Z
Same as the previous method.
Pic 7: ALT+V+Z and Choose the desired value
5)
Instead of the above-mentioned
two shortcut key methods, you can simply click the View tab, then click the
ZOOM icon within the zoom group (the leftmost icon) . This will open the same
pane as with shortcuts: ALT, W, Q (method 3) or ALT, V, Z (method 4)
Pic 8: accessing the zoom icon from the View tab
6)
Clicking the View
tab and then the 100% icon within the zoom group (second in this group). This
will reset the sheet’s size to the default 100%.
Pic 9: View tab - setting the default zoom
7)
If you prefer to use
the keyboard instead of the mouse, the same effect (resetting the sheet’s size
to the default 100%.) can be achieved with this keyboard shortcut: ALT, W, J
8)
Zoom to selection:
If you want to have maximum zoom on a certain range (400%), select the range and
then press:
ALT, W, G.
Or: Click the View Tab and then
the Zoom to Selection icon on the Zoom group (rightmost icon)
Pic 10: View – Zoom to Selection
The same result will be achieved if you add the “Zoom to Selection” icon to
your QAT.
9)
the keyboard
combination of ALT+CTRL++ zooms the
screen in, and: ATL+CTRL+- zooms out
10)
Add the Zoom in and
Zoom out commands to QAT
The Zoom In can increase the
size up to 200%.
The Zoom out can decrease the
size down to 25%.
11)
Add 2 icons/shapes
and assign a macro.
in order to increase the screen by 10% each time you click the icon, add this macro:
Sub Zoom_IN()
ActiveWindow.Zoom = ActiveWindow.Zoom
+ 10
End Sub
in order to decrease the screen by 10% each time you click the icon, add this macro:
Sub Zoom_OUT()
ActiveWindow.Zoom = ActiveWindow.Zoom
– 10
End Sub
Pic 11: Shapes & Macros to Zoom in/Zoom out
I have added 6 icons to my QAT.
From left to right:
* Zoom in – as explained in method 9
* zoom out – as explained in method 9
* “classic” zoom – this icon has 6 predefined
options:
200%, 100%, 75%, 50%,
25% and Selection. Choosing “Selection” will increase the sheet’s size to its
maximum = 400%
* zoom to
selection - will increase the sheet’s size to its maximum = 400%
* zoom “dialog” –
clicking this icon will display the same pane as in methods 3 & 4 (the
keyboard shortcut keys: ALT, W, Q or ALT, V, Z)
* “group” zoom –
clicking this icon will display the same three icons of the View->Zoom
group:
Zoom, 100% and Zoom to Selection.
Pic 12: Zoom icons on my QAT
Please note that the
third, fifth and sixth icons are identical. Only by hovering the mouse over the
icon, will you be able to notice the different functionality. This is,
undoubtedly, quite confusing.
To sum up: There are
many ways to zoom in or out the sheet’s size. As always, in Excel you can
achieve the same goal via more than one way:
- Clicking the icon on the ribbon
- Clicking the icons that were added to
QAT
- Using keyboard shortcuts
- Using the mouse
- Dragging the zoom slider
- VBA
