For a long time, Microsoft Word has provided a slider for zooming in and out on documents; however, there have never been convenient zooming keyboard shortcuts. That is about to change.
In the Microsoft 365 Insider program, which was previously known as the Office Insider program, Microsoft announced that it is currently testing zoom keyboard shortcuts. Similar to the majority of web browsers and the Word web app, pressing Ctrl and the minus key will zoom out, and pressing Ctrl and the plus key will zoom in. Holding down Control while scrolling your mouse wheel will also zoom in and out. The shortcut Ctrl+0 will return to 100% zoom. On Mac computers, those shortcuts will also work if you use the Command key instead of the Control key.
“In the case of keyboard shortcuts, the industry standard has diverged from Word’s initial implementation of these features,” the company stated in a blog post. “Indeed, users expect that Ctrl + +/– will zoom in and out, so when this doesn’t work, the experience can be frustrating. The Word team has heard about this problem from users, so we’re updating keyboard shortcuts as a direct response to this feedback. Accessibility is a priority for Word, and we want to make the zooming experience as seamless as possible.”
The updated zoom controls are another step in that direction, and Microsoft is also working on a keyboard shortcut for Word that allows for the paste of text without formatting. This shortcut will follow the now-standard Ctrl+Shift+V shortcut (Cmd+Shift+V on Mac). Since the new zoom and paste shortcuts replace other actions that were set to those keys, there will also be settings options to revert everything to how it was before.
People in the Microsoft 365 Insider program who are using Word version 16.0.15831.20174 or later on Windows and Word version 16.67.1113.0 or later on Mac are able to use the new zoom options. It ought to be released to everyone as soon as any bugs are resolved.