New Zoom shortcuts in Word

(Originally posted March 9, 2023 By ~ Ali Forelli)

Hello, Microsoft 365 Insiders! I’m Ali Forelli, a Product Manager on the Word team who works on accessibility features. I’m excited to share that new shortcuts in Word for Windows and Word for Mac make it easier to zoom in and out of pages!

New zoom shortcuts in Word

New zoom shortcuts in Word

As remote work has become more widespread in recent years, reading and consuming information across a variety of devices and screen sizes has become more common.

Previously, people would sit in a conference room with a projector to present documents, work at a desk with multiple monitors, or easily access and review printed content. Today, more and more users are consuming most of their content on smaller personal screens, such as laptops, tablets, or phones. With these new shortcuts, the Word product team is making it easier than ever for users to zoom their documents to the appropriate level for their screens.

How it works

Many of you are using Ctrl key+/– You can zoom in and out in Word for the browser and the web. And you’ve asked for this feature to come to Word for Windows and Mac, too. Check it out!

While the mouse/key focus is on the document:

• use Ctrl key + – Reduce
• use Ctrl key + + Enlarge
• use Ctrl key + 0 To return to 100% magnification
• use Ctrl key + scroll Zoom in and out

memo: In Word for Mac, use: Command Instead key Ctrl key key.

Putting feedback into practice

Word has been around since 1983 (Word turns 40 this year!). This long heritage sets a precedent for established user expectations. While the engineering team continues to develop new features for improved user experiences with new and more advanced technologies, there is not always an opportunity to modify existing behaviors.

When it comes to shortcuts, the industry standard is different than what Word initially implemented. In reality, users expect: Ctrl key + +/– Since zooming in and out is possible, it can be frustrating when it doesn’t work. The Word team has heard from you about this issue, and we’re updating the keyboard shortcuts in direct response to that feedback. Accessibility is a priority for Word, and we want to make the zoom experience as seamless as possible.

Other changes to shortcuts

With these new Zoom shortcuts, some existing shortcuts have changed. Below is a table of the full list of changes.

memo: If you use the Ctrl + Shift + + shortcut, the superscript functionality will remain intact.

Would you like to restore your previous shortcut settings?

To restore your keyboard shortcut assignments to their original settings, go to: Customize your keyboard shortcuts Help documentation. Below is a table of command names you may want to reset.

memo: Optional and non-breaking hyphen commands are: Common symbols This is the category of the Keyboard Customization dialog box. All other commands can be found in All commands category.

effectiveness

Zoom shortcuts in Word are available to Beta Channel users who are running:

• Windows: Version 16.0.15831.20174 or later
• Mac: Version 16.67.1113.0 or later

(2/20/24) Update: Since I published this post, many of you have told me that optional hyphens and non-breaking hyphen shortcuts are important to your workflow. Instead of inserting them through the symbol dialog, we’ve added new shortcuts for quicker access. To use the new shortcuts, Beta Channel users should run:

• Windows: Version 2402 (Build 17328.20108)
• Mac: Version 16.82 (Build 24021813)

Features are released over time to ensure everything works smoothly. They are released slowly to a larger number of Insiders, highlighting features you may not have. Sometimes we remove elements based on your feedback to make them even better. This is rare, but we also have the option to completely remove a feature from the product, even if you, as an Insider, had the opportunity to try it out.

feedback

Please share your feedback directly in Word. help > feedbackWe’d love to hear your opinions!

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