If your mouse has a wheel, you probably use it to scroll up and down through lengthy worksheets. You may not realize that you can also use it to change the zoom percentage for your view of the worksheet.

To do so, hold down the [Ctrl] key and move the scroll wheel. Rolling the wheel down decreases the zoom percentage and rolling it up increases the zoom percentage. Note that if you’re using Excel 2000, the zoom will only go up to 100 percent.

If you’d rather have your mouse wheel zoom by default, choose Tools | Options from the menu bar, switch to the General tab, and then select the Zoom On Roll With IntelliMouse check box. After you click OK, rolling the wheel zooms and rolling the wheel while holding the [Ctrl] key scrolls up and down the worksheet.

Adapt for Excel 2007

While this shortcut also works in Excel 2007, there’s an additional way to zoom in and out in 2007. You can use the Zoom slider in the bottom-right corner of the application. You can drag the slider up or down to adjust your zoom, or you can click on the plus and minus icons on either side of the slider to adjust the zoom by 10-percent increments.

Filed under: Microsoft Office Tutor