How to Zoom in and out in Excel (Change It Fast)

Hi there – Excel experts like you understand how important it is to zoom in and out of an Excel window as and when needed, right?

Microsoft Excel is one of the best spreadsheet software based on how seamlessly it stores tons of data. But with too much data, scrolling through and finding just the right information might become a hell of a task if you cannot appropriately zoom in and out in your Excel window.

This guide combines all the possible ways to zoom in and out in Excel.

Check these ways out by reading the guide till the end 👇

Table of Contents

Zoom in and out in Excel from the Status Bar

Talking of zooming in and zooming out in Excel, the first way that strikes the mind of most of the Excel users is the zoom scale on the status bar that looks like this.

On the status bar of your Excel workbook, look down at the right bottom to find the Zoom slider. You can slide it towards the right to zoom in to Excel. To zoom out, slide it towards the left 🔍

Also, there is a minus and a plus sign towards the ends of this bar. You can also click on these buttons to zoom in and zoom out.

Clicking on the minus/plus button once zooms the screen out/in by 10%. At the exact center of this bar, the Excel window will be zoomed in at 100%.

This is one of the most convenient and readily accessible ways to zoom in and out in Excel.

Zoom in and out in Excel from the View Tab

In this section, I am going to take you to the most viewed but least used group of buttons from the View tab.

The Zoom group has the following three buttons 3️⃣

• Zoom:

Clicking on this button will launch the following zoom scales from where you can select a certain percentage to which you want the window zoomed.

If you do not want to zoom to any of these pre-defined magnification percentages, you can write in any Custom percentage in the Custom box.

Similarly, if you want the Excel window zoomed to a certain selection of cells, you can select that cell range check the Fit Selection button, and press okay.

• 100%:

Clicking on the 100% button will set the zoom percentage / zoom setting for your Excel window to 100%.

Since 100% is deemed an appropriate magnification percentage (not too zoomed in and not even too zoomed out), if you quickly want to resize your screen to it, just click on this button from the Zoom group 🎯

• Zoom to Selection:

Then you have the Zoom to Selection button in the Zoom group.

If you select a cell range that you want to fit in your window like here.

Clicking on the Zoom to Selection button will zoom into these cells to the percentage to which they fit into the Excel window.

Like here:

Excel has zoomed the window enough so that only the selected range of cells appear on the screen.

This is exactly how the Fit Selection button from the Zoom options discussed above also works 🥽

Zoom in and out in Excel using the Cursor

You can always zoom in and out in your Excel window using your mouse wheel.

All you must do is, press down the Control key on your keyboard and scroll the scroll wheel of your PC.

Scrolling it up will zoom in to the window 🖱

And scrolling it down will zoom out of the window.

Laptop’s cursor too

If you are working from your laptop, it will not have a scroll wheel but just a touchpad (trackpad or glide pad) on it that you use to move the cursor around.

You can zoom in and out in Excel using it too 💻

However, to do that:

Step 1) Go to Settings on your PC.

Step 2) Go to Devices.

Step 3) Select Touchpad > Touch and Zoom > Check the box for Pinch to Zoom.

Once you have enabled the said functionality for your touchpad, you can easily use it to zoom in and out of your Excel window as follows:

Step 4) Place your any two fingers on the keyboard in the position of a tip pinch.

Step 5) Spread your fingers apart to zoom in to the window.

Step 6) Pinch your fingers together to zoom in.

Once your fingers are adapted to zooming in and out your Excel window using this shortcut so conveniently, you’ll never want to go back to other ways of doing the same ✌

Pro Tip!

If you have a laptop or PC that offers a touch screen, you can use the same “Pinch in to zoom”pinching in and pinching out gestures on the screen to zoom in and out of your Excel window.

The method remains the same. Spread your fingers apart to zoom in and pinch your fingers together to zoom out.

Zooming in and out directly from a touch screen is a vibe and its the same as you do it on your cell phone.

Zoom in and out in Excel using the Keyboard

For keyboard wizards, leaving behind the keyboard and moving to the mouse is always cumbersome, and if you’re one too, here’s how you zoom in and out on Excel using your keyboard ⌨

Step 1) Press the Control key + Alt key + the plus key on your keyboard to zoom in to the Excel window.

Pressing this key combination once will zoom in to the Excel window by 15%.

Or keep it pressed until you’ve reached your desired magnification.

Step 2) Press the Control key + Alt key + the minus key on your keyboard to zoom out of the Excel window.

Pressing this key combination once will zoom out of the Excel window by 15%.

Conclusion

These are all the techniques out there that you can use to zoom in and out in Excel seamlessly and conveniently.

From using the cursor to the scroll wheel to keyboard shortcuts, there are multiple ways how you can adjust the zoom level of Excel. If you enjoyed learning these different ways of zooming and zooming out in Excel, you’d love the following Excel tutorials too 😍

• How to Make Cells Bigger in Excel (Width & Height)
• Excel Won’t Scroll? ALL 5 Fixes: Step-by-Step (2024)
• Full Guide to the Status Bar in Excel + Customization (2024)