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Participant
October 31, 2007
Question

Using mouse wheel to zoom and pan

  • October 31, 2007
  • 3 replies
  • 22664 views
I was wondering if there would be a way to make a javascript that would load at Photoshop's startup that would allow the user to zoom in and out using the mouse wheel (instead of using it for scrolling), and to use that same mouse wheel as a third button (when you push on the mouse wheel) or any third button on a three button mouse to pan in your image. I'm a 3ds max user and I love the way the navigation work in that software so it'd be great to be able to do that for Photoshop and Illustrator and get rid of those useless key shortcuts that we need to use to zoom and pan.

For the pan fonction, I guess if there was a way to simply say "when the third mouse button is pressed, press the space button, until the mouse button is released" it could work. But then it would force the panning to stop when the mouse goes offscreen, unlike in 3ds max where you can pan for whatever distance you want, even if you have the loop throught the screen ten times.

For the zoom function, if scolling up could simply "push" the keyboard shortcuts to zoom in/ zoom out it could work, but I don't know if that's possible. And then we'd have to disable the scrolling up and down in the document.

Anyways, if anyone has any ideas about that let me know! I've been looking for that for such a long time!
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3 replies

Participant
April 23, 2008
Julian hello, I was very glad to find this post as I am in exactly the same position wanting to zoom and pan with the scroll wheel. I cannot seem to find the "Zoom with scroll wheel" option in preferences. Which preference heading is it under?
If you ever sort out how to pan with the scroll wheel I would be grateful to know how.
Thanks, Lengai
Participant
March 21, 2011

Zooming with scrollwheel checkbox is under Preference>General>Options (on the right panel).

Participant
November 1, 2007
Hi George,

You understood me perfectly. Wow, I've been waiting for that "Zoom with scroll wheel" for hundreds of years and it was already there...! I can't believe I never saw that. And for the pan with the third mouse button, I guess I could configure my Wacom mouse that came with the tablet, I don't really like using that mouse over the tablet but, I guess I could get used to it.

Thank you so much for those tips!!!
Inchindown
Inspiring
November 1, 2007
Not sure if I am misreading your post, but there is an option in the preferences that allows you to choose Zoom With Scroll Wheel. With this option active you hold the ALT key to scroll.

My Logitech mouse has a tilt wheel on it and this works fine in Photoshop. It doesn't loop through the screen but it does pan left and right with no problem. On this mouse the scroll wheel can also be pressed, and can be programmed to almost any key, I use for double click.

Forgive me if I've misunderstood your question.