Zoom out doesn’t work

RD
Posted By
Robert_Dees
Apr 21, 2004
Views
863
Replies
21
Status
Closed
My Zoom out tool has suddenly stopped working. I can still zoom in on a picture, and when I press "ALT," the + changes to a -, just as before, but when I click, nothing happens, the picture does not zoom back down. I’ve tried uninstalling and reinstalling, to no effect.
I’m running Photoshop 6.0.1 on WinXP with a Pentium4 and 512MB of Ram. Nothing has changed since it was working fine.
Thanks

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DM
dave_milbut
Apr 21, 2004
reset your prefrences per the faq.
RD
Robert_Dees
Apr 21, 2004
Dave,
Thanks. Now can you tell how to find the relevant FAQ? I have a hard time using Adobe’s FAQs as it appears as a long list–I haven’t figure out how to search it for a specific issue.
Thanks,
CW
Colin_Walls
Apr 21, 2004
Well it really isn’t that hard …

Here it is: Mathias Vejerslev "How to delete/reset Photoshop preferences" 2/11/03 1:04pm </cgi-bin/webx?50>
RD
Robert_Dees
Apr 23, 2004
Following Mathias’s suggestion of deleting the preferences file had no effect. It still won’t zoom out.
Any more ideas?
DM
dave_milbut
Apr 23, 2004
are you all the way out? what’s the zoom level at?
RD
Robert_Dees
Apr 23, 2004
No, I’m not all the way out. Even after one zoom, about 8.33% increase per click, it won’t go back down.
DM
dave_milbut
Apr 23, 2004
all files or just one specific file?

how about some details on the file(s) in question. scanned or hand created? image mode? bit depth? pixel dimentions? file size? etc. anything you can think of to make us get the picture better.

on an odd chance it might be a video driver related issue, you can test that by going into control panel> settings> advanced> troubleshooting and turning down video hardware acceleration to 0. If the problem goes away, it’s a video driver issue and you need to update (or sometimes roll back) your driver.
RD
Robert_Dees
Apr 25, 2004
Dave,
It seems to do this will all types of files–135 MB tiff files that are scans of photos; 150 kb jpegs created from the scanned tiffs; 300-500 kb photos downloaded from my digital camera.
I don’t know what bit depth or pixel dimensions are.
On the driver issue, you wrote to go into control panel>settings–which settings? I don’t have a category for that, under either classic or category view.
thanks,
RD
Robert_Dees
May 6, 2004
Dave,
Did you get my response? Any ideas?
Robert
DM
dave_milbut
May 6, 2004
sorry robert. if trashing the prefrences doesn’t work, i don’t know what will. you’re holding the alt key when clicking with the magnifying tool right? how about switching the default option from zoom in to zoom out in the options bar when you select the mag tool.
RD
Robert_Dees
May 7, 2004
Dave,
Yeah, I’m holding down the ALT key, the symbol in the circle changes from + to -, but when I click, nothing happens. Even weirder is that the same problem started at about the same time both on my desktop and on my laptop. I can get it to zoom down by right-clicking, then selecting "zoom out".
How do I "switch the default option from zoom in to zoom out in the options bar"? Thanks,
Robert
DM
dave_milbut
May 7, 2004
in the option bar there’s a mag glass with a plus and one with a minus. the one w/+ is zoom in default, the other is zoom out. also play with the check boxes. i have "resize windows to fit" checked.

one more thing. also in the option bar (under the file menu) click the dropdown. then select the flyout menu (right facing black arrow in upper right) from there select "reset tool".
DM
Don_McCahill
May 7, 2004
Is there a possibility that something else on your system is stealing the Alt key (actually, it is stealing the Alt-Click, because the Alt key does change the icon).
MV
Mathias_Vejerslev
May 7, 2004
See also the FAQ ‘Alt key trouble’.
RD
Robert_Dees
May 7, 2004
Mathias,
How do I search the FAQ?
Thanks,
Robert
DM
dave_milbut
May 7, 2004
robert do you have something like trillian loaded? that can "steal" the alt key for it’s own use.

the faq is at the top of the topic list in this forum. here’s a link to the topic mat refrenced:

Mathias Vejerslev "ALT key trouble" 12/7/00 5:00pm </cgi-bin/webx?50>
MV
Mathias_Vejerslev
May 7, 2004
Robert,

You search the FAQ by going to it, then clicking the Forum Search link at either top or bottom or screen. Enter your search criteria to search within FAQ only.
RD
Robert_Dees
May 21, 2004
Dave,
I’ve determined that the problem must be a non-functioning ALT key, or rather the ALT-click, as the ALT key alone seems to not work only in Photoshop. It works fine in MS Word, when, for example, I CTRL/ALT D to insert an endnote.
I don’t know what a "trillian" is, and I have not installed either of the programs mentioned in Mathias’s FAQ–I generally don’t install much new stuff on my computer. The one new thing I installed on both my desktop and laptop in the last few months is Canto’s Cumulus 6. Is there any other way to get the ALT-click to work?
Thanks,
Robert
DM
dave_milbut
Jun 4, 2004
you need to determine which app is stealing the alt key then shut it off.
RD
Robert_Dees
Jun 4, 2004
Dave,
I finally did, but only after (1) deciding I was going to have to pay for Adobe tech support, (2) being told that Adobe does not offer tech support, even paid, for version 6, so I would have to upgrade first, (3) shelling out $180+ for the upgrade, and finding out I still had the same problem, (4) paying $50 for Adobe tech support, who told me to go into start/run/msconfig/startup, and figuring out there which program was causing the problem. Turns out its Wahrig.digital, a German-language dictionary, which uses the same key combination. I just had to change their hotkey to another combination, and now both programs work fine.
DM
dave_milbut
Jun 4, 2004
robert, glad you got it sorted out. sorry you had to pay! sorry it took so long to respond, i was on vaca.

dave

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