Nifty Zooming

If you zoom in and out of your documents quite a bit, you may get tired of using the pull-down Zoom control on the toolbar. If you have one of the mice that has a small wheel between the left and right mouse buttons, you can do a neat trick. All you need to do is hold down the Ctrl key as you turn the small wheel. Each click up or down increases or decreases the zoom factor by 15%.

You can use this method of zooming for any magnification between 10% and 100%. If you want to zoom over 100%, you must use the Zoom control on the toolbar, or use the Zoom option from the View menu.

If you like this feature so much that you want to use it all the time, you can instruct Excel to always use the mouse's wheel to zoom. Follow these steps:

1. Choose Options from the Tools menu. Excel displays the Options dialog box.
2. Make sure the General tab is displayed. (Click here to see a related figure.)
3. Select the Zoom On Roll with IntelliMouse check box.
4. Click OK.

If you are using Excel 2007, you should follow these steps:

1. Click the Office button, then click Excel Options. Excel displays the Excel Options dialog box.
2. Click the Advanced option at the left of the dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.)
3. In the Editing area, select the Zoom On Roll with IntelliMouse check box.
4. Click on OK.

Now you can zoom by rolling the mouse wheel, or scroll through the worksheet by holding down the Ctrl key as you turn the wheel.