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Participant
June 12, 2025

Default Alt+Wheel zoom behaves differently in Composition window in v25.3.0

  • June 12, 2025
  • 26 replies
  • 6910 views

[Note: I know they just announced that 25.2 is available for download, but Creative Cloud just gave me 25.3, so I'm not really sure what's going on (and maybe I'm not the only one)]

 

Version: 25.3.0 (Build 71)

Platform: Windows 11

 

Steps to reproduce: Hold mouse over composition window, hold down Alt and turn scroll wheel

Expected result: Composition window zooms centred on mouse cursor location

Actual result: Composition window zooms centred on centre of window

 

For the 3-4 years I've been using AE, I've been holding down Alt and scrolling my mouse wheel in order to zoom toward whatever my mouse cursor is hovering over, both in the Composition window and in the Timeline.

 

But after I updated to 25.3 yesterday, in the Composition window, Alt+Wheel now zooms in and out on the centre of the window and the Wheel without a keyboard modifier zooms in and out at the cursor point (which I only discovered by experimentation).

But the Timeline zoom control hasn't changed: it still uses Alt+Wheel to zoom at the cursor point. (The scroll wheel with no keyboard modifier does nothing at all in the Timeline).

 

So, besides changing a long-standing keyboard/mouse shortcut for no apparent reason*, there are now two different ways to do the same thing in different places, which is very poor UX design. I now have to think about where my cursor is and remember to use/not use Alt based on that. This will waste much more time than having to use the Alt key ever did, and cause much more distraction than just leaving things as they were.

 

I'm hoping there's a way to change this, but I really feel that this should not be the default behaviour. If it's going to be, then they need to change the Timeline (and everywhere else that scrolls with the mouse wheel) to match.


*Yes, I default to zooming based on mouse location, and I'm sure many others do too, but holding down Alt is neither difficult nor time-consuming

26 replies

Participant
July 11, 2025

Having the same issue. No amount of fiddling with the magnification settings in Preferences > Previews restores the behavior prior to this update where scroll wheel alone pans and scroll wheel+alt/option zooms... not even selecting the "legacy" option. It appears that in an effort to introduce new options, old ones were removed or broken.

Participant
July 6, 2025

Participant
June 27, 2025

chcę pobrać after effects

Participant
June 27, 2025

I'm having the same issue. Admittedly, I do prefer the Smooth Zoom when pinch zooming on a trackpad. However, since I'm using a Magic Mouse most of the time, I can no longer zoom by holding the ALT key. Keen to see this one solved!

Participant
June 27, 2025

I'm having a similar issue. The 'Alt-Scroll' pans instead of zooms. Toggling the settings in the magnification section doesn't resolve this - I can either have Pan or Zoom and not Pan - (Alt)Zoom like I could yesterday.
I cannot figure out why it is behaving like this

JohnColombo17100380
Community Manager
Community Manager
June 12, 2025

Hi @Wilson5E7C,

Thank you for reporting this issue. In 25.3, we've introduced a new Smooth Zoom in the viewer panels, which includes new defaults for the zoom behavior.

 

In Preferences > Previews, there is new section for Magnification, where you can change the default behavior of zoom to be centered on either the mouse or the comp center. Does toggling this settting resolve the issue you're seeing?

 

Thanks again,

- John, After Effects Engineering Team