IT Tips - February 2015

IT Tips – February 2015

 

If only we had some snow up here in the Northeast… ;)

 

 

What’s Inside:

Tech Section

·         Zoom on your PC

 

 

Zoom on your PC

It happens all the time: you’re using your PC and you wish you had the eye of the eagle... or is it tiger… no… let’s go with eagle. What I’m saying is you want the eyes of a superior animal when the font on your PC is hard to see.

Fortunately, the developers of most programs also desire eagle vision. That is the only reason why you can zoom in and out of many places on your PC. That is a fact. Trust me…

This tip is also useful if you accidentally zoom in too far and you can only fit a few words on the screen.

 

So you’re going to show me how to enlarge/shrink things on my computer screen?

Precisely. I suppose that is more direct than animal vision metaphors…

I will go over this topic in two sections:

1.       A quick and easy way to zoom in/out in almost any program.

2.       Methods for zooming specific to common programs.

Let’s proceed!

 

General Zoom Shortcut

First and foremost, there is a quick and dirty way to zoom in/out of nearly any program. You just have to remember one word: controlscroll.

I know what you’re thinking. No, controlscroll isn’t really a word. It will make sense, though. I promise.

You can zoom by holding the Ctrl key on your keyboard while simultaneously scrolling with your mouse wheel! Hence, controlscroll!

It’s really simple:

·         Zoom in: Hold Ctrl and roll the wheel forward (scroll up).

·         Zoom out: Hold Ctrl and roll the wheel backwards (scroll down). 

Zoom in!

Zoom out!

 

What’s more, this shortcut doesn’t require a mouse with a scrollwheel. You just need to hold Ctrl and send the scroll signal to the computer. That means you can use the scroll gesture on your laptop touchpad as well.

What if I’m really cool and I have a Lenovo Yoga?

Lenovo Yoga’s DO make you cool and I’m not just saying that because I own one (kidding, of course I am).

Yoga users have an additional general zoom shortcut available to them: pinch gestures! You can use pinch gestures on your touchscreen just like you can on your iPhone!

The next few sections of this Tip will show you how to zoom using tools specific to certain applications. However, you should remember that the Ctrl + scroll method will work in place of these program-specific methods.

 

Zoom in Internet Explorer

OK, let’s go over a few application-specific zoom methods. Up first is everyone’s favorite web browser: Internet Explorer.

First, click on the little gear on the top right.

Next, mouse over “Zoom” and choose your zoom percentage.

   

you’ll also notice that Internet explorer has its own
zoom shortcut (ctrl + and ctrl -)]

 

 

 

Zoom in Outlook

Outlook has two different places that allow zooming: the preview pane and the email composition window.

First, we’ll go over zooming the preview pane as it’s very simple, albeit somewhat hidden.

You can zoom in and out of the emails in your Outlook preview pane by simply moving the slider on the bottom-right. 

 

You can drag the slider or click the + and -.

Now we’ll cover zoom when composing an email. This one is good to know because if you zoom here by accident, you’re going to think your font is all messed up. I.E. the font says 11 but the zoom makes it look like 25.

It may not catch your eye at first, but there is a “Zoom” button on the top of the email composition window (on the “MESSAGE” tab of the ribbon).

Click on this “Zoom” button and adjust the zoom as you see fit (most people will want 100% so your font size doesn’t get confusing).

You can choose 200%, 100%, 75% or a custom percentage.

 

Zoom in Word, Excel and PowerPoint

Finally, Word, Excel and the rest of the Office suite work just like the preview pane of Outlook.

Simply move the zoom slider up and down.

Have a great month, everyone!

-Keith

Please don’t hesitate to shoot me an email if you have a something that you think will make a good tip. You’ll get credit on the blog for your contribution and I might give you a high-five