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Windows
Downloadable Guide
Windows Magnifier
Magnifier is built into Windows and free to use. This guide shows you how to turn it on, zoom in and out, and switch between its three views — full screen, docked and lens — so you can pick the one that suits you. It also covers inverting screen colours, smoothing text and images, and using Magnifier to read documents and menus aloud.
Read the guide
How to enable
Go to the Windows key → Settings → Accessibility → Magnifier → Magnifier toggle the Off to On. Once activated a box will appear:
The following are quick access keys:
‘Windows’ key + ESC: To turn off
‘Windows’ key + Plus key (+): To turn on
How to use
Magnification
The following are hotkeys to control magnifier functions:
‘Windows’ key + Plus key (+): Zoom in
‘Windows’ key + Minus key (-): Zoom out
Ctrl + Alt + mouse wheel: Zoom in or out
There are different views you can use whilst zoomed, they are as follows:
Zoom type: Full Screen
Ctrl + Alt + F: This will zoom into the full scree. To navigate the screen, scroll your mouse pointer to the edge of the screen and it will move around the zoomed full screen.
Zoom type: Docked
Ctrl + Alt + D: This will place a strip along the top of the screen. Withing this strip, the information your mouse is pointed at will be magnified.
Zoom type: Lens
Ctrl+ Alt + L: This is like holding a magnifying lens on the screen. The information in a small area around your pointer will be magnified to the selected level.
Zoom type: Switch between views
Ctrl + Alt + M: This will switch between the 3 view modes for quicker comparison
More options
Within the Accessibility menu in settings, you can click on the View button to bring up more options for the magnifier modes. These are different for each mode:
Full Screen
Lens
Docked
These can be adjusted to suit your preference.
Appearance
There are also options to invert the colours on the screen. This can be switched on and off by pressing: Ctrl + Alt + I
Within the settings for the appearance, you can turn on smoothing of the edges of imaging and text. This will make both text and images look clearer when magnified.
Reading
The toolbar which popped up once the magnifier was enabled has a section for reading aloud to you.
If you press the play button whilst in a word document, it will read aloud from where your cursor is. You can skip forward a sentence and back using the right and left arrow keys.
If you are on a menu you can use the click to play.
The following are the reading hotkeys:
Ctrl + Alt: Reading shortcut (can be changed to: Caps lock, Insert, Caps lock or Insert. Go into Settings → Accessibility → Magnifier → Reading)
Reading Shortcut + Enter: Start/ pause/ resume reading
Any key: Stop reading
Reading shortcut + Left mouse click: Read from mouse point
Reading shortcut + H: Read previous sentence
Reading Shortcut + K: Read next sentence
You can also change settings from the toolbar like voice, and reading speed.
