Zooming and Navigating in Microsoft Word 2007

by Dwight Davidson

Microsoft Word contains a number of features for zooming in and out of your work and also the moving from one part of your document to another. Let's begin by looking at zooming. In the bottom right of your screen on the taskbar, you will find some controls for zooming which offer several different functions. Firstly, you can click on the "Zoom Out" and "Zoom In" buttons and you'll notice that the zoom level increases or decreases in steps of 10%.

An alternative to using the "Zoom Out" and "Zoom In" buttons is to drag the "Zoom" slider left to zoom in or right to zoom out. Another way of moving the slider is simply to click anywhere on the zoom scale. The slider will then jump to that exact point and you page will be displayed at that exact zoom level.

It is also possible to click on the percentage displayed next to the slider to display the zoom dialog box. Here, you can either choose a preset zoom level or you can type any percentage between 10 and 500. You can also choose to display the entire width of the page or simply the entire width of the text ignoring any margins. Similarly, you can display the entire page or several pages at once.

The View tab of the Word Ribbon also has a zoom section. On the left, the zoom button offers another way of displaying the zoom dialog box. On the right, there is the option to display one page, two pages or the page width. Finally, clicking on the button marked 100% returns the view to actual size.

Yet another way of zooming in and out is to use a combination of the mouse and the keyboard. If the Control key is held down, you can use the scroll button on your mouse to zoom out or zoom in.

While on the subject of the scroll button, let's now turn to navigation. If the Control key is not held down, the scroll button naturally allows you to scroll up and down. You can also use the scroll bar: click on the scroll arrows to scroll up or down one line at a time or drag the scroll box. When you do so, you'll notice that the current page number is displayed as you drag.

Below the scroll bar, are the Browse Controls icons which, by default, enable you to move one page forward or back. However, the behaviour of these controls can be customised by clicking on the Select Browse Object button between the Browse arrows. This displays a pop-up menu where you can choose between different objects within Word. Whichever object is selected will determine how Word jumps through the document when the controls are clicked. As well as using these controls, you can use the keyboard shortcuts: Control-Page-down or Control-Page-up to move up and down according to the currently selected browse object.

About the Author:

Author is a developer and trainer with Macresource Computer Training, an independent computer training company offering Microsoft Word Classes at their central London training centre.