Tip of the Week #125: Scroll-Wheel Tricks

Volume 3, Issue #125 Past Issue Archive
May 22, 2009
Scroll-Wheel Tricks If your mouse has a scroll wheel, you’re probably familiar with scrolling up and down while scanning web pages and other document. If you’re one of those people who’ve never used your scroll wheel, you can try it by opening up long web page or document and simply spin that little wheel in the middle of your mouse.

I think a lot of people probably know that trick but did you know
that it can do other things too?

Super Fast Zooming

In Microsoft Office documents, you can quickly change the zoom level by holding the CTRL key while you scroll the mouse wheel. This is faster than using the menus, and let’s you size it visually rather than having to blindly guess what zoom % will look they way you want it.

Warp Speed Scrolling

In many places, including Office documents and web pages, clicking the scroll wheel once will change your cursor to a double-sided arrow like the one shown below. Once you see this, you can simply move your mouse up and down for speed scrolling.

In large spreadsheets, you can also use this trick to move left and right, in addition to up and down.

Forward/Backward Web Browsing

On the web you can use SHIFT + Scroll as an alternative to your browsers Forward and Backward buttons.

How do you use your scroll wheel? Drop me a note and let me know.

Have a great holiday weekend!
Mike

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