Wanted: One good zoom tool

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rick Altman
  • Start date Start date
R

Rick Altman

As PowerPoint is used increasingly by those in graphic design and its set of
tools and add-ons becomes more and more graphical, there is one aspect of
the program whose deficiency becomes more pronounced:

Its zoom tool

At least daily, I find myself yearning for the incremental zoom capabilities
of image-creation applications or the excellent shortcuts and marquee
zooming of CorelDRAW. From the outside looking in, I would think it not
terribly difficult to create an add-on that would bring better zoom controls
to PPT. What do those on the inside say? Is there such a product already
available?
 
Are you talking about zooming while working on a slide?

Get yourself a wheel mouse. Hold Ctrl and scroll the wheel. Instant zoom,
works in the slide pane, notes pane, thumbnail/outline pane....works in
Word, Excel, Outlook, Project....doesn't work in Acrobat or InDesign. :-)

Unless you meant something else.
 
That takes me halfway there, John -- thanks for offering it.

I also want to be able to zoom in on a particular area by creating a
marquee, and would like to be able to zoom out gradually with hotkeys. But
indeed, the scroll for zoom is one of the few times when I see the advantage
of a mouse over my track ball...



Rick A.
 
I also want to be able to zoom in on a particular area by creating a
marquee, and would like to be able to zoom out gradually with hotkeys. But
indeed, the scroll for zoom is one of the few times when I see the advantage
of a mouse over my track ball...
Click to expand...

You need a new trackball... http://www.kensington.com/html/1179.html
They're only $130... :-)

That won't get you marquee zoom, but you get some other nifty stuff.

John O
 
I got that very track ball on press evaluation...and then fired it.

It is not as responsive as the earlier generations (there is a noticeable
click delay), and the scroll is not convenient enough to be usable. Unless
you place the ball in the palm of your hand (which few do; most of us place
it between the first and second knuckle), you can't reach the scroll.

I was very enthused when I first saw it, but now I'm back to my old one...



Rick A.
 
Palm? Wow, that would wreck your arm pretty fast. The original ones were
great, too bad they couldn't add features without breaking it. :-)
 
Rick A.

A little known feature of powerpoint....

When zooming (with the Ctrl and mouse wheel)...if you select an object
first...then powerpoint will zoom in to that object

Cheers
TAJ Simmons
microsoft powerpoint mvp

awesome - powerpoint backgrounds,
free sample templates, tutorials, hints and tips etc
http://www.powerpointbackgrounds.com
 
Hello Rick,

PowerPoint does not have the specific capability that you are looking for
(although, as others have stated, it provides other ways of zooming with
mouse wheel to the center of current view or to the center of current
selection).

If you (or anyone else reading this message) think that additional zooming
or magnifying capabilities should be added either for editing when showing
presentations (without have to resort to an add-in or VBA), don't forget to
send your feedback to Microsoft at:

http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/suggestion.asp

As with all product suggestions, it's important that you not just state
your wish but also why it is important to you that your product suggestion
be implemented by Microsoft. Microsoft receives thousands of product
suggestions every day and we read each one but, in any given product
development cycle, there are only sufficient resources to address the ones
that are most important to our customers so take the extra time to state
your case as clearly and completely as possible.

IMPORTANT: Each submission should be a single suggestion (not a list of
suggestions)


John Langhans

Supportability Program Manager
Microsoft Office PowerPoint for Windows
Microsoft Office Picture Manager for Windows

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Use of any included script samples are subject to the terms specified at
http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.htm
 
I love the RnR Edit tool that is available on Steve Rindsberg's site as part
of the free PPT tools starter set. It allows you to zoom in or out in 10%
increments.
 
Back
Top