More Screen Zooming Tools

In a previous post, I gave a few options for how to zoom your screen during presentations for students.  Since then, I’ve come across a few others:

• In Windows 7, the built-in screen magnifier has been much improved.  You just have to hit the Windows key and + or – to do a full-screen zoom (the magnifier program will automatically start).  There are a variety of zoom modes, including full-screen, docked, and lens.  It works really well!
• Sysinternals has a cool, free utility called ZoomIt which, in addition to screen zooming, also allows you to draw and write notes on the screen.  It even comes with a built-in timer.
• Magnifiers.org has a whole boatload of other screen magnification utilities.

Zoom!

Intellimouse software zooming

A lot of students don’t like to admit that they can’t see the board.  Some don’t want to look dorky by wearing their glasses, while others just don’t care enough about seeing the board to bother.  Eventually you can figure out who is who and seat them accordingly (not to mention mandatory school vision testing).

On the board, you can also just write bigger (which is what most teachers learn to do, anyway), but what if you’re using a computer and projector?  Zoom the screen!  This is particularly useful when you want to show the class how to do something on the computer or just zoom in on a particular sentence on a website.

• On Windows, there is a built-in magnifier (under Programs -> Accessories -> Accessibility) which will work just fine, but I prefer to use the zoom feature of Microsoft’s free Intellipoint mouse software.  The latter acts more like an actual magnifying glass, and allows you to easily change the size and dimensions of the magnifier.
• On Macs, hold command-option-8 to activate the built-in magnifier, then command-option-+ and – to zoom in and out.  I haven’t actually tried this because I don’t use a Mac, but I’ve seen it and it looks pretty good.
• For any computer (including Windows and Mac), you can give the free & open-source program Virtual Magnifying Glass a try.