This is how to change Word’s Zoom to your preferred Zoom settings instead of the defaults.
Ray R writes …
“I have been having some vision problems lately and have found that using Word’s zoom dialog to increase the displayed font size without changing it in the document or email (I use Word as my email editor in Outlook) has been very useful. But most of the time the fixed option of 200% is too much. I have found that 130 or 150 percent is about right. Is there a way to change the fixed options in the zoom dialog? “
We’re not aware of any way to adjust the default settings in the Zoom dialog nor the slider on the bottom right of the Word status bar.
Custom Zoom button
One alternative is to make your own toolbar buttons (Word 2003 and before) or Quick Access Toolbar buttons in Word 2007 and later that are linked to a very simple Word macro.
Here’s the code:
Sub ZoomFixed()
' ZoomFixed Macro
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Zoom.Percentage = 123
End Sub
Change the ‘123’ value to whatever zoom percentage you want – 130, 150 or whatever.
If you have multiple preferences you can make two macros and attach to different buttons:
Sub Zoom130()
' ZoomFixed Macro
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Zoom.Percentage = 130
End Sub
Toggle two Word Zoom settings
To get more complex try something like this to switch between two preferred Zoom percentages.
Sub ZoomSeveral()
If ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Zoom.Percentage < 130 Then
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Zoom.Percentage = 130
ElseIf ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Zoom.Percentage = 150 Then
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Zoom.Percentage = 130
ElseIf ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Zoom.Percentage >= 130 Then
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Zoom.Percentage = 150
End If
End Sub
This will switch to 130% zoom if the current zoom setting is less than 130%. If zoom is 150% it will switch to 130%. For any other zoom above 130% it will switch to 150%.
With one click of the button, the zoom will jump to one of your preferences (130% or 150%) then toggle between the two.
More broadly, check out the Accessibility options in your version of Windows for other options to help see what is on the screen.
Side to Side – a touchy way to view Word documents