How to use scroll wheel to zoom without side effects

[default4t8irutoapiu]

By default I can't find a way to zoom using my scroll wheel, only by using [ctrl +/-].

I can enable scrolling with my mouse wheel with [preferences -> general -> zoom with mouse wheel].

If I enable zoom with mouse wheel then I have to use [shift] to veritcal scroll and [ctrl] to horizontal scroll. That would be fine except that [shift - scroll] causes illustrator to take large (~6cm) steps vertically which is very choppy.

What's the solution here? I want to be able to smoothly scroll in X & Y both and to be able to zoom with the mouse wheel. I found this kind of navigation relatively easy in Inkscape and was expecting a more fluid out of the box experience switching to Illustrator.

[Monika Gause]

Scrolling uo and down should be with ALT

Shift multiplies the speed of scrolling.

[default4t8irutoapiu]

Not the case in my new installation. ALT-scrollwheel does nothing, scrolling without ALT scrolls up and down by a small amount. Is there a way to go in and fix these settings somewhere?

[Monika Gause]

What kind of system and hardware is it? I tried that out with a Mac and my logitech mouse (just a plain mouse, nothing fancy)

[default4t8irutoapiu]

It's Windows 11, it's inside a VirtualBox VM, but all the keys work as normal, single pressing ALT is the normal keyboard shortcut to bring up the file menu and works as usual, so I don't think there's any weird keyboard mapping going on due to the VM.

[Monika Gause]

Any chance you can run a test without the VM?

[default4t8irutoapiu]

Unfortunately not, I run Linux as my primary OS (PopsOS/Ubuntu), so the VM is necessary to run Illustrator at all (I sincerely wish Adobe didn't shun Linux). Until recently I've used Inkscape for all my vector graphics work, and it work well on Linux. I'm trying to get in line with other people in my group using Illustrator.

It's useful to at least know that ALT-scrollwheel is the expected way to achieve vertical scrolling, that gives me something to work towards in debugging.

[Bobby Henderson]

Does animated zoom work on your computer system? I press down with the left mouse button while pressing Ctrl+Spacebar on the keyboard. The Ctrl+Spacebar keyboard shortcut brings up the magnifier tool. Left click and dragging with the mouse button will smoothly zoom the view of artwork in or out depending how you drag. The spacebar key alone brings up the hand tool to pan the view. I have a scroll wheel on my mouse, but I never use it for zooming or panning purposes in Illustrator. The animated zoom keyboard shortcuts work so much more precisely.

[Anubhav M · Accepted solution]

Hello @default4t8irutoapiu,

Thanks for reaching out. Would you mind switching to FullScreen Mode (HOST+F) for the Guest OS and disabling Mouse Integrations (HOST+I) to check if it helps?

Looking forward to your response.

Thanks,

Anubhav

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