Oliver Jobson

Shortcut: how to zoom in and out in Excel, Word 2016 for Mac

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photo of person typing on computer keyboard

I used to be able to quickly zoom in and out in Excel 2012 for mac. I think I created a custom keyboard shortcut to do this in the old version of excel by using the ‘cmd’ and ‘+’/’-‘ keys ( setup in the OS X Keyboard preference panel), but after upgrading to Office 2016 this short cut stopped working in Word and other apps. You can’t even re-create the shortcut because the menu command isn’t there anymore.

 


To quickly and easily change the zoom in
Excel, Word or PowerPoint simply hold down ‘ctrl’ key and scroll up or down using your mouse or trackpad.

I thought I would post this keyboard shortcut here as it isn’t actually listed in the official Excel Mac 2016 keyboard shortcuts guide but it isn’t intuitive and it took me ages to eventually figure it out. It also works in Word and PowerPoint (probably all Office 2016 apps for the mac). Surely I can’t be the only one who didn’t know about this keyboard shortcut… or can I? :/

Update: Turns out a lot of people were searching for this! First off, yes it isn’t a true keyboard shortcut, you have to have one hand on the mouse, which isn’t optimal.

Commenters have also pointed out that if you are using a mouse instead of the trackpad then you might find you have to hold down the control + option keys (ctrl + alt on newer mac keyboards) to use the scrolling zoom keyboard shortcut in Office. Otherwise scrolling when holding down ctrl alone may enable the OS accessibility zoom (akin to pinching with the trackpad).

The other point to note is the inconsistent behaviour of Office apps: Word and Excel respond differently to PowerPoint. Scrolling down in PowerPoint will zoom in, but Excel and Word will zoom out. I have no idea why Microsoft have decided to create variation in their UI like this, but if anyone knows a fix please leave a comment!

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18 responses to “Shortcut: how to zoom in and out in Excel, Word 2016 for Mac”

  1. Roberto avatar
    Roberto

    Very useful tip! Thank you for sharing that.

  2. Frank avatar
    Frank

    thanks for the post. this does work and I was aware of this from using excel on windows where this shortcut is commonly used. sadly, this is not a keyboard shortcut as the user is forced to move one hand to the trackpad/mouse to make this shortcut work. wish there was a real KEYBOARD only shortcut that didn’t force me to move my hand — especially with such a repeatedly used command

  3. happy avatar
    happy

    I recently installed MSO 2016 + latest patchset. The ctrl+scroll you mention conflicts with my accessibility setting for full screen zooming (System Preferences > Accessibility > Vision > Zoom).

    But without changing anything, I discovered that trackpad pinch to zoom in/out works fine for Word, Excel, and Powerpoint on my MBP.

    Happy again.

  4. Sean avatar
    Sean

    Thank you so much Happy and Oliver! I use the accessibility zoom and was wondering what had happened to my Excel 2011 shortcut 🙂

  5. Dave avatar
    Dave

    Not sure what conflicting setting I have, but I CANNOT zoom within the office apps while holding control. If I enable zooming with control in the accessibility settings, it literally zooms the entire UI and not just the active app.

  6. oliver avatar
    oliver

    Odd – it works for me. I’m now on the new 64 bit apps in the latest version of office. What version are you using?

  7. Jens avatar
    Jens

    Great. Thank you. One hint for other users: Be aware that there can be a conflict between „Bedienungshilfen“ (accessibility?) and Excel. To fix that, you just have to change the shortkey in accessibility to (let’s say) the alt key.

  8. miha avatar
    miha

    It also DOESN’T work for me – Ctrl scroll – nothing happens. Only pinching works.
    Really annoying, since this is one of the most used features in all office programs.

  9. Jim Van Zandt avatar
    Jim Van Zandt

    I’m annoyed that the scroll and zoom gestures for Word are reversed. The gestures are consistent for PowerPoint: wheel up scrolls toward the beginning of the document) and ctrl+wheel up zooms in. Both of these follow the “move the viewpoint” convention. But in Word, ctrl+wheel up zooms out, which follows the “move the document” convention instead.

  10. oliver avatar
    oliver

    On older version of the Office Apps you might need to hold down both ‘Command’ and ‘control’ keys to enable zoom via mouse scroll.

  11. oliver avatar
    oliver

    Which version are you using? It works consistently (‘control’ + scroll-up for zoom-in) in my version of 2016 office 15.27.

  12. oliver avatar
    oliver

    True enough. If you find one please let me know!

  13. Jeffrey avatar
    Jeffrey

    Sean and Dave – If you hold down control and then scroll on the mouse, the macOS accessibly zoom takes over. However, if you press and hold BOTH control and option in Word/Excel 2016 for Mac, it will just zoom the Word/Excel document. At least, it does on my system. I’m running macOS Sierra (10.12.3) and Microsoft Word v15.31. Hope that helps!

  14. Saul avatar
    Saul

    MacBook Pro. High Sierra ver 10.13.4.
    Excel 2011 ver 14.7.7
    In my laptop I can zoom in and out of a document scrolling 2 fingers up or down (or diagonally) while holding the control button.

    “Do what you can with keyboard shortcuts/gestures in a Mac.
    For what you can’t, there is Keyboard Maestro”…
    Saul

  15. Roger Fonts avatar
    Roger Fonts

    To use only the trackpad with pinch out / pinch in for zooming in Word, or to use a keyboard shortcut, you can go to Word/tools/customize keyboard, then look for ViewZoomIn and ViewZoomOut in “All Commands” category. Assign a keyboard shortcut and you won’t need to use the trackpad or mouse wheel. In my case, I extensively use BetterTouchTool for almost all apps, so I assigned in Word pinch in/out to this shortcut so I can zoom in/out with this gesture.

  16. Oliver Jobson avatar
    Oliver Jobson

    Thanks for your comment and that app suite looks interesting. Yes – that would work for Word, but it’s a pain that it is not consistent across the whole office Suite.

  17. Catherine avatar
    Catherine

    I have been miserable trying to use Office 365 version of Word for Mac because something, cannot figure out what, causes the document to zoom way in when I touch the mouse. Then I have to use the moues to point to the zoom adjustment bar at the bottom right of the document. Annoying as heck. But using Ctr + Option and scrolling on the mouse does move zoom out, much easier than mousing down to the teeny tiny bar. Thank you!

  18. Oliver Jobson avatar
    Oliver Jobson

    You’re welcome! Glad it worked for you.

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