First Published 20 June 2026	Last Updated 9 Aug 2026	Difficulty level :   Easy

Stage 1 of the long awaited zooming feature was recently released to the Current Channel and will soon roll out to the Monthly Enterprise Channel. See the first page of this article.

Stage 2 is now available in the two insider channels (Beta and Current Channel Preview) and includes additional functionality.
This article outlines what has been changed in this second stage. As with all recently released features, some items are still being worked on and some bugs are possible.

Zooming in design view and layout view for all objects will follow in Stage 3 later this year.

UPDATE 2026-08-09:
Further enhancements to the zooming feature have been released to the Beta Channel in the last few days. These provide several options to give users greater control over how the zooming feature is implemented in Access apps and for each form. The changes are explained in the third part of this article: Fine Tuning the Zooming Feature



What's New in Stage 2

The first stage of the zooming feature supported zooming for:
•   Datasheet View in tables, queries and forms
•   Form View in single forms, split forms and navigation forms
•   Print Preview in reports

With Stage 2, zooming is now also supported in:
a)   Continuous forms (including subforms)
      Zooming can be done using any of the standard methods - zoom slider, ribbon menu dropdown, keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+Alt+'Plus' / Ctrl+Alt+'Minus') and Ctrl+Mousewheel

b)   Popup forms
      Zooming can only be done using the keyboard shortcuts or Ctrl+Mousewheel.
      As popup forms are independent of the Access user interface, neither the Zoom ribbon dropdown nor the slider can be used.

      When a popup form is opened on its own, the zoom slider does not appear and the zoom ribbon menu is disabled.

      However, care is needed when a popup form is opened on top of a standard form. The zoom slider and ribbon menu are both available BUT will apply to the active standard form.
      The keyboard shortcuts and mousewheel actions will apply to the topmost popup form as that has the focus.

c)   Report view
      Zooming can be done using any of the standard methods - zoom slider, ribbon menu dropdown, keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+Alt+'Plus' / Ctrl+Alt+'Minus') and Ctrl+Mousewheel

      Initially, you MAY see some minor display glitches using report view at 10%. The Access team is aware of this issue and a fix will be released soon.

Other changes in this second stage include:

d)   Zoom range extended
      The range is now 10% to 1000% (previously 50% to 500%). Both the zoom slider and ribbon menu dropdown have been updated.

      The extended range may be particularly useful to assist those with limited vision. However, I have already found 1000% zoom very useful on a Word Cloud chart.
      In a Word Cloud, the font size is proportional to the frequency of occurrence with the least common items displayed with 1pt font.
      Even at 500% zoom, the smallest text was unreadable. However at 1000% zoom all the text was legible.

Word Cloud chart at default 100% zoom	Section just below 'Chloe' zoomed to 1000%.

e)   VBA support added
      VBA support is so far only available in the two insider channels. This now includes the following items:

      Forms & Reports
      •   Me.Properties("Zoom") = zoomPercent (any integer between 10 & 1000)
      •   Forms("Form Name").Properties("Zoom") = zoomPercent (forms only)
      •   Reports("Report Name").Properties("Zoom") = zoomPercent (reports only)

      All object types (tables, queries, forms, reports)
      •   Application.SetOption("Default Zoom Level"), zoomPercent (this changes the default zoom level for all objects).
           For example:   Application.SetOption(Default Zoom Level"), 125
      •   Screen.ActiveDatasheet.Properties("Zoom") = zoomPercent (zooms the currently active datasheet table, query or form)
           NOTE: ActiveDatasheet doesn't work for popup datasheet forme. For those, use Forms("Popup Datasheet Form Name").Properties("Zoom") = zoomPercent

      Using VBA code, it is possible to zoom any form (including popups) using an ActiveX slider control or a combobox. For example:


      One of the main limitations of the zooming feature is that the form dimensions are not resized when the form is zoomed. However, code can be used to overcome this.

      Code in the combo AfterUpdate event can be used to both zoom the form controls and resize the form according to the zoom value selected.

Dim sngZoom As Single
Dim lngWidth As Long, lngHeight As Long

Private Sub cboZoom_AfterUpdate()
    
    sngZoom = Me.cboZoom / 100
    Me.Properties("Zoom") = Me.cboZoom
    
    Me.InsideWidth = lngWidth * sngZoom
    Me.InsideHeight = lngHeight * sngZoom
End Sub

Private Sub Form_Load()

    lngWidth = Me.InsideWidth
    lngHeight = Me.InsideHeight

End Sub

      75% Zoom using combo


      125% Zoom using combo


      The use of code is particularly useful for resizing form dimensions when zooming form controls.

      Default Zoom Level
      Code can also be used to change the default zoom value for the current database. For example:


      All datasheet tables and queries together with all forms and reports will then open at the specified zoom percentage. It is not necessary to restart the database for this change to take effect.

f)   Disable Zoom option
      ADDED to Beta Channel version 2608 20326.20000 released 2026-07-29 and Current Channel Preview version 2608 20326.20034 released 2026-08-03

      It is now possible to disable the Zoom feature at the application level from Access Options | Current Database:

Zooming enabled (default)	Zooming disabled

      When the Disable Zoom checkbox is selected, the database must be restarted for this change to take effect.
      The Zoom ribbon menu is then disabled, the zoom slider is removed from the status bar, zooming keyboard shortcuts and mousewheel actions do not work.
     Zooming code also has no effect when disabled.

      NOTE:
      If zooming is disabled when the default zoom value <> 100%, the zoom value reverts to 100% so no zooming occurs.



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Colin Riddington	Mendip Data Systems	Last Updated 9 Aug 2026

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