Unleashing the Power of Power Zoom!
One of the common challenges that InCopy users face, is the efficient navigation of documents in both Galley/Story views as well as Layout view. Layout view can be particularly challenging because if you are working in a facing page document the pages bounce between left and right hand pages and the lack of a Pages panel in InCopy makes it even more challenging. To address this, some users take advantage of the scroll wheel on the mouse or the scroll bars located at the right and bottom edges of the document window. I personally find this method to be on par with getting a root canal.
Document Navigation in Layout View
Out of the 5 tools available in InCopy, two of them are specifically dedicated to navigating a document in Layout view. Those tools are the Hand tool and the Zoom tool .
The Zoom tool allows a user to zoom in on a document for closer inspection, typically to edit text and to avoid squinting when reading it. Once zoomed in, the Hand tool can become a replacement for the scroll bars because a user can simply click somewhere in the document and drag to the area that they want to see (much much easier than those scroll bars).
Dragging with the Zoom tool to zoom in on an area.
Once zoomed in, the hand tool makes it easy to navigate within the page.
Now the Fun Stuff!
As helpful as these navigation tools are, there’s one feature that many users don’t know about which is Power Zoom. Power Zoom is accessible after you’ve zoomed in on an area of a document and have the Hand tool active. You initiate Power Zoom by clicking and holding with your mouse for a second with the Hand tool active anywhere in the document. With the mouse still held down, You’ll enter Power Zoom which initially displays a birds-eye view of the document with a red rectangle displayed.
With the mouse still held down, you can now move the red rectangle to a different area of your document to change the area of focus. Now, simply release the mouse and InDesign zooms in on the new area of the document. Do this as often as you need to to view the area of the document that needs attention.
When Power Zoom is initiated, you are presented with a birds-eye view of your document. Move the red rectangle, release the mouse and you’r zoomed in to a new area of the document.
Some users stumble upon the Power Zoom feature by accident when they pause while using the Hand tool and don’t quite understand what’s happening. Once you understand how it works however, Power Zoom can be an incredibly efficient way to navigate your InCopy document in Layout view. Give it a chance and you’ll never want to go back to those pesky scroll bars again! Let us know how you like Power Zoom and share you favorite navigation tips and tricks with us using the comments section below.