How to Zoom In or Out in Excel (6 Possible Ways)

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In this article, you will learn how to perform zooming in and out in Excel using the keyboard shortcuts, the zoom slider, and the view tab. Moreover, there will be an easy VBA code to increment the zoom level by a specific margin.

When we need to view a large amount of data or if our display screen is not large enough to view a set of data, we need to zoom out in Excel.

Similarly, when the dataset is small or we need to work in detail, we need to zoom in in Excel for better visualization.

⏷Use Zoom Slider
⏷Apply a Combination of Keyboard and Mouse Wheel
⏷Apply Keyboard Shortcut
⏷Utilize View Tab
⏷Use Workbook Views
⏷Apply VBA Code
⏷Things to Remember
⏷Zooming in Excel: Knowledge Hub

1. Use Zoom Slider to Zoom In or Out in Excel

You can drag the zoom slider to the left to zoom out and to the right to zoom in.
Alternatively, you may click on the Minus sign to zoom out and Plus sign to zoom in.

Moreover, you can click on the zoom level percentage value.
Type a custom value to set a zoom level according to your needs.

This is the output of setting the zoom level to 88%.

2. Apply Combination of Keyboard and Mouse Wheel

To zoom in, hold down the Ctrl key and scroll the mouse wheel upward.
Similarly, to zoom out, hold down the Ctrl key and scroll the mouse wheel downward.

Using Combination of Keyboard and Mouse Wheel for Zooming in Excel

Click the GIF for a detailed view

3. Apply Keyboard Shortcut

Press Ctrl+Shift+Plus to zoom in.
Ctrl+Shift+Minus to zoom out.

4. Utilize View Tab to Zoom In or Out

There are three options in the View tab under the Zoom group.
Select Zoom to use custom zoom.
Choose 100% to zoom the document to 100%.
Zoom to Selection to zoom in on a particular selection in the sheet.

5. Use Workbook Views

There are four views available under the Workbook Views group.

Select the Page Break Preview; it will zoom out the Excel file.

The Page Layout view will split the sheet into several pages.

Lastly, select Normal, and it will zoom out again.

6. Apply VBA to Excel Zooming In or Out

We can use VBA to zoom in or zoom out the active Excel window as well. Apply the following steps to zoom in or zoom out using Excel.

Consider the following image. The current zoom level is 80% for the active window. Now, go to the Developer tab and click the Visual Basic option to open the Visual Basic Editor window.

Note: You can use Alt + F11 to quickly open the Visual Basic Editor window.

In the Visual Basic Editor window, click the Insert tab and select the Module option.

Enter the following code in the module. Here, we have two subroutines. The ZoomInActiveWindow subroutine zooms into the active Excel window and The ZoomOutActiveWindow subroutine zooms out the active Excel window.
Click the Save and Run button.

Sub ZoomInActiveWindow()
    On Error Resume Next
    increase_zoom = InputBox("Increase zoom level by:")
    If IsNumeric(increase_zoom) = False Then
        MsgBox "Enter a number please!"
        Exit Sub
    End If
    ActiveWindow.Zoom = ActiveWindow.Zoom + increase_zoom
End Sub

Sub ZoomOutActiveWindow()
    On Error Resume Next
    decrease_zoom = InputBox("Decrease zoom level by:")
    If IsNumeric(decrease_zoom) = False Then
        MsgBox "Enter a number please!"
        Exit Sub
    End If
    ActiveWindow.Zoom = ActiveWindow.Zoom - decrease_zoom
End Sub

After clicking the Run button, you will get a dialog box with both the subroutines. If you want to zoom in, then select the ZoomInActiveWindow subroutine, and if you want to zoom out, then select the ZoomOutActiveWindow subroutine. Here, I have selected the ZoomInActiveWindow subroutine.
Then, click the Run button.

After clicking the Run button, you will get an input box. Enter a number to increase the zoom level. Here, I have entered the value 7.
Then, click the OK button.

Since the previous zoom level was 80%, the current zoom level will be increased to 87% after clicking the OK button. Similarly, you can zoom out your Excel window by running the ZoomOutActiveWindow subroutine.

What Are the Things to Remember?

If you zoom in or out on a worksheet, then it will change only that worksheet. Other worksheets or opened files will not change.
You can zoom in or out in multiple worksheets, for that, you need to select all the sheets first and then do the zoom operation.
You can’t zoom in less than 10% and more than 400%.
If you have Named Range in your file, and zoom below 40%, it will show the name of the named range.

Download Practice Workbook

Excel Zoom.xlsm

Conclusion

This ends our article on zooming in Excel. We have shown various ways to zoom in or zoom out and various features of zooming in Excel. If you have any questions or suggestions about this, please feel free to comment below.