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Participant
January 23, 2019
Answered

Zoom tool (-) zoom out

  • January 23, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 1338 views

Adobe,

When I have my cursor in a text box and then hit the zoom tool with my mouse I can zoom in just fine. If I then hit the option key( to zoom out) the hand icon appears instead of the - symbol. I know I can zoom out in other ways but why has this useful feature been changed? Is it a glitch when previously using the cursor in a text box?

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Correct answer tromboniator

Hi, Susan,

You're not (in general) talking to Adobe here, but users helping each other.

Dragging the Zoom tool (right for zoom in, left for zoom out) only works if Animated Zoom is activated: Preferences > Performance > GPU Performance > Animated Zoom.

I do not recall previous performance, but you are correct, that the option key activates the Hand tool when the cursor is in text. I presume that is because the space bar, which normally activates the Hand tool, types a space in these circumstances, and apparently it has been determined that the Hand tool is more important than Zoom Out when text is selected.

I think your options are to activate Animated Zoom, use the plus and minus keys as Daniel has suggested, or press esc to get out of the text.

Peter

2 replies

tromboniator
Community Expert
tromboniatorCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
January 23, 2019

Hi, Susan,

You're not (in general) talking to Adobe here, but users helping each other.

Dragging the Zoom tool (right for zoom in, left for zoom out) only works if Animated Zoom is activated: Preferences > Performance > GPU Performance > Animated Zoom.

I do not recall previous performance, but you are correct, that the option key activates the Hand tool when the cursor is in text. I presume that is because the space bar, which normally activates the Hand tool, types a space in these circumstances, and apparently it has been determined that the Hand tool is more important than Zoom Out when text is selected.

I think your options are to activate Animated Zoom, use the plus and minus keys as Daniel has suggested, or press esc to get out of the text.

Peter

Participant
January 24, 2019

Thank you.

Sent from my iPhone

Daniel E Lane
Inspiring
January 23, 2019

What operating system are you on? And what version of Illustrator are you on? Option is working fine for me, but wondering what you are using just in case.

Something you can try, instead of using the zoom tool, you can just click CMD + +(Plus key) or CMD + - (minus key) and it will zoom in and out.

Also, you can just use the zoom tool by clicking and dragging left to zoom out, right to zoom in. Just left click and hold with the tool and drag back and forth.

Participant
January 24, 2019

It works fine if I do not click in a text box prior to hitting the zoom tool.

Sent from my iPhone