What is the name of the area at the bottom of the Excel screen that shows the zoom level?

PeopleImages / Getty Images

The zoom feature in Excel changes the scale of a worksheet. When you want to see more or less of a worksheet, use Zoom to increase or decrease the magnification.

The information in this article applies to Excel 2019, Excel 2016, Excel 2013, Excel 2010, and Excel 2007.

Choose Your Zoom Method

There are three different ways to zoom in on a worksheet:

• The Zoom slider located on the status bar.
• The Zoom tool found on the View tab of the Excel ribbon.
• The Zoom on roll with IntelliMouseoption.

Use the Zoom Slider

When you want to quickly change the magnification of a worksheet, use the Zoom slider. You'll find the Zoom slider in the bottom right corner of the Excel window. To use the Zoom slider, drag the slider to the right or to the left.

To zoom in, drag the slider to the right. Everything on the worksheet gets larger and you see less of the worksheet.

To zoom out, drag the slider to the left. Objects in the worksheet get smaller and you see more of the worksheet.

An alternative to using the slider is to select Zoom Out or Zoom In located at either end of the slider. The buttons zoom the worksheet in or out in increments of 10%.

Adjusting the zoom level does not affect the actual size of a worksheet. Printouts of the current sheet remain the same, regardless of the selected zoom level.

Set a Custom Zoom Magnification

On the View tab, the Zoom group contains three options to quickly adjust your view of the spreadsheet: Zoom, 100%, and Zoom to Selection.

Select Zoom to open the Zoom dialog box. The Zoom dialog box contains pre-set magnification options ranging from 25% to 200%, as well as choices for custom magnification and zooming to fit the current selection.

Zoom With Shortcut Keys

Keyboard key combinations that zoom in and out of a worksheet involve using the ALT key. These shortcuts access the zoom options on the View tab of the ribbon using keyboard keys rather than the mouse.

Here are the zoom shortcut keys:

• ALT+W+J: Activates the 100% zoom option on the ribbon.
• ALT+W+G: Activates Zoom to Selection on the ribbon.
• ALT+V+Z: Opens the Zoom dialog box.
• ALT+W+Q: Opens the Zoom dialog box.

When you're working in the Zoom dialog box, press one of the following keyboard shortcuts to change the magnification level:

• 0+Enter: 200% zoom
• 1+Enter: 100% zoom
• 7+Enter: 75% zoom
• 5+Enter: 50% zoom
• 2+Enter: 25% zoom

Using these keyboard keys to activate the Customzoom option requires additional keystrokes in addition to those needed to open the Zoomdialog box.

After typing ALT+W+Q+C, enter numbers such as 33 for a 33% magnification level. Complete the sequence by pressing Enter.

Zoom on Roll With IntelliMouse

If you frequently adjust the zoom level of worksheets, you might want to use the Zoom on roll with IntelliMouse option.

When activated, this option allows you to zoom in or out using the scroll wheel. The option is activated using the Excel Options dialog box.

1. Select File.

2. Select Options to open the Excel Options dialog box.

3. Select Advanced in the left-hand panel of the dialog box.

4. Select Zoom on roll with IntelliMouse in the right panel to activate this option.

Zoom out to Display Named Ranges

If a worksheet contains one or more named ranges, zoom levels below 40% display these named ranges surrounded by a border. This provides a quick and easy way to check their location in a worksheet.

Thanks for letting us know!

Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day

Subscribe

June 09, 2021/ Chris Newman

There a many reasons why you might need to adjust your zoom levels while working in Excel. You might need to hone in on some numbers, ensure a dashboard fits perfectly, or zoom out to 35% so you can see all your named ranges. Whatever you need at the time is, it is very useful to understand the different ways you have access to adjusting the zoom levels in Excel. Let me walk you through five methods you can use to get to that perfect zoom percentage.

Zoom With Excel’s Status Bar

At the very bottom right of Excel’s application window, there are a couple of buttons available to you so that you can adjust the zoom levels. This is by far the most utilized method to adjust the zoom by Office users.

Plus/Minus Buttons - adjust the zoom in increments of 10%

Slider - Drag the slider right or left to adjust the zoom in increments of 1%

Percentage Button - This launches the Zoom dialog box which gives you various options to manually adjust the zoom

Zoom With A Keyboard Shortcut

Most programs utilize the keyboard shortcut for zooming in/out with the Control and the plus/minus signs. Unfortunately, Excel assigns these two keyboard combinations to other functions (I assume these were assigned well before the zooming functionality was the standard keyboard shortcut for PC applications).

For a long time, Excel was without any zoom keyboard shortcut, but the release of Excel 2016 changed that. The keyboard shortcuts for Excel are:

• Zoom Out: CTRL + ALT + Minus Sign

• Zoom In: CTRL + ALT + Plus Sign

NOTE: These keyboard shortcuts zoom in and out by increments of 10%.

Zoom With A Scroll Wheel

If your mouse has a scroll wheel you have the ability to zoom in and out of your spreadsheet in increments of 15%. Simply hold down your CTRL key on your keyboard and scroll your wheel up and down. The up direction will zoom you in and the down direction will allow you to zoom out.

Zoom With Excel’s Ribbon

In Excel’s Ribbon, you can access the Zoom group of buttons by navigating to the View tab.

• Zoom Button - Launches Zoom Dialog Box

• 100% Button - Resets zoom to 100%

• Zoom To Selection Button - Adjusts the zoom based on the current range of cells selected so they all are visible on the screen

With A VBA Macro

You’ll notice the built-in methods to toggle the zoom in Excel have rather large increments (10%-15%). But what if you would like a bit more precision? Unfortunately, there currently it’s an option available for us to control this in the Excel Options dialog box. So what do we do if Microsoft doesn’t give us a feature we want? We build it ourself of course!

Below are two VBA macros you can add to your Personal Macro Workbook to increment your zoom up and down by any amount. These can easily be added to your QAT (Quick Access Toolbar) or assigned your own keyboard shortcut to call on a second’s notice.

VBA Code To Zoom In

Sub ZoomIn()
'PURPOSE: Zoom in on the ActiveSheet by a given increment

Dim Increment As Integer

'Desired Zoom Increment (Whole Number Represents %)
  Increment = 5

'Adjust the zoom percentage
  On Error GoTo MaxZoomReached
  ActiveWindow.Zoom = ActiveWindow.Zoom + Increment
  On Error GoTo 0

  Exit Sub

'ERROR MESSAGE
MaxZoomReached:
  MsgBox "Cannot zoom in any further", vbExclamation

  End Sub

VBA Code To Zoom Out

Sub ZoomOut()
'PURPOSE: Zoom out on the ActiveSheet by a given increment

Dim Increment As Integer

'Desired Zoom Increment (Whole Number Represents %)
  Increment = 5

'Adjust the zoom percentage
  On Error GoTo MaxZoomReached
  ActiveWindow.Zoom = ActiveWindow.Zoom - Increment
  On Error GoTo 0

  Exit Sub

'ERROR MESSAGE
MaxZoomReached:
  MsgBox "Cannot zoom out any further", vbExclamation

  End Sub

I Hope This Helped!

Hopefully, I was able to explain all the options you have to zoom in and out while working/viewing your spreadsheets. If you have any questions or suggestions on how to improve this article, please let me know in the comments section below.

About The Author

Hey there! I’m Chris and I run TheSpreadsheetGuru website in my spare time. By day, I’m actually a finance professional who relies on Microsoft Excel quite heavily in the corporate world. I love taking the things I learn in the “real world” and sharing them with everyone here on this site so that you too can become a spreadsheet guru at your company.

Through my years in the corporate world, I’ve been able to pick up on opportunities to make working with Excel better and have built a variety of Excel add-ins, from inserting tickmark symbols to automating copy/pasting from Excel to PowerPoint. If you’d like to keep up to date with the latest Excel news and directly get emailed the most meaningful Excel tips I’ve learned over the years, you can sign up for my free newsletters. I hope I was able to provide you some value today and hope to see you back here soon! - Chris