Zoom In/Out in Excel

Excel is one of the platforms widely used to analyze the data and further present that data to decision-makers. Therefore visibility of that data is an important concern. By default, your window is displayed at 100% in MS Excel. However, excel extends the capability to change the zoom percentage from 10% (smallest window size) to 400% (largest size).

Zooming doesn’t affect or alter the font size; therefore, it won’t change the printed output.

At the bottom right side of the Excel window panel, you will find the zoom bar typically in ‘minus’ and ‘plus’ symbols. Using these icons, you can quickly zoom in or zoom out the Excel document. Though there are other methods in Excel via which you can zoom in or zoom out the document. We will learn all the different ways one by one in this tutorial.

Ways to Zoom your Excel workbook

There are different ways to zoom in your Excel document.

Method 1: Zoom in Using zoom slider

If you want to increase the size of your excel workbook, you can zoom in and increase the percentage upto 400% by moving the zoom slider to the right. Follow the below steps to directly zoom in from the excel status bar.

1. Open your workbook. Point your mouse cursor to the plus symbol located in the right hand side of excel status bar.
   
2. Move the bar to the point you want to zoom in on the excel workbook. Unlike in the below image, we have zoomed it to 200%.
   

Note: Zooming in will only alter the view of the document.

Method 2: Zoom Out your Excel workbook

You can zoom out your document by moving the zoom slider to its left side. You can have a maximum of 10% zoom out. Unlike in the below image, we have zoomed out to 20%.

Method 3: Zoom to a specific percentage

Follow the given below steps to zoom a specific percentage in your workbook:

1. Open your excel workbook.
2. From the Excel ribbon bar, click on view -> zoom.
   
3. The following window will appear. Either select any zooming percentage from the magnification section or choose the custom option and on its checkbox, enter any number between 10 and 400.
   
4. Click on OK to execute the zoom out percentage. You will notice your sheet has been zoomed in.
   
5. If you try to enter a number smaller than 10 or greater than 400, Excel will immediately throw an alert box stating “The number must be in the range of 10 to 400.”
   

Method 4: Zoom in specific range of cells

To zoom some selected cells, follow the given below steps:

1. Select the range of cells that you wish to zoom out.
   
2. From the Excel ribbon bar, click on view -> zoom to Selection.
   
3. As you can see below, Excel will automatically zoom it out to its maximum limit i.e, 400%.
   

Excel Shortcuts to Zoom In and Zoom Out

The advantage of using Excel is it provides shortcuts for almost every feature. It provides various mouse and keyboard shortcuts to zoom in and zoom out on your Excel sheet. It also allows the users to create their custom zoom buttons to access this feature quickly.

For Windows

Check out the following great strategies for zooming in and out using the mouse or the keyboard in Excel.

1. Zoom in and zoom out your Excel workbook using your mouse
   To use this shortcut, make sure that your mouse has a wheel in its central part. Press the ‘Ctrl’ button on your keyboard while rolling the mouse wheel forward (to zoom in) or backward (to zoom out) direction.
2. Zoom in and zoom out your Excel workbook using a keyboard (only for 2016 or later versions)
   If your system has Excel 2016 or a later version, you can use the keyboard shortcut to quickly zoom in or zoom out.
   • To zoom in press Ctrl + Alt + plus sign (+)
   • To zoom out press Ctrl + Alt + minus sign (-).
3. Add zoom buttons to your customized Quick Access Toolbar
   You can also create a customized Quick Access Toolbar and add zoom buttons to it by following the below given steps:
   
   1. From the Excel ribbon bar, click on the File tab.
      
   2. The file menu will appear. Click on Options.
      
   3. The Excel options window will be displayed. From the left side of the pane, click on Quick Access Toolbar.
      
   4. At the top of the window, you will find Choose commands from the drop-down window. From the drop-down, choose the’ select All Commands’ option.
      
   5. Now, you can add the button(s) in your Quick Access Toolbar. In our case, we have added Zoom (with the magnifying glass).
      
   6. Click on the Add button. If you want, you can also add the Zoom In and Zoom Out options.
      
   7. Once done click on Close.

   This will add the zoom option to your Quick Access Toolbar and later using keyboard shortcut you can use them.

For MAC OS

Different operating systems have their own keyboard shortcuts. But with MAC OS, there is no such default keyboard shortcut to zoom in and zoom out your Excel worksheets. Though there are some system-level shortcuts that you can use zoom in and zoom out:

• To Zoom out in your MAC OS press Option Command –
• To Zoom in in your MACOS press Option Command +
• To Toggle zoom in your MACOS press Option Command 8