Getting A Closer Look

For those of you who are Mac users, you may find my story to be a helpful trick.

Between classes today I was hastily checking and responding to e-mails on my MacBook Pro. While doing so, I accidentally activated my Mac OS X’s Accessibility Feature. For those of you like me, completely unaware about this feature, it is a feature that allows Mac users to zoom in on various parts of their laptop screen.

Although it is a great feature for users who desire a close-up view of a graphic, wish to combat eye fatigue, or are sight-impaired, it initially set me in a panic. Not sure of what I had just done, I began trying to get my computer to return to normal through a series of trial and error processes. What I ultimately discovered was, if you hold down the control key and move two of your fingers simultaneously upward you will activate your computers zoom-in function. Portions of your screen will become no longer visible due to zooming-in. However, you can still view these areas by simply moving your curser to the edge of the screen where you would like to see further.

To restore your computer back to normal, hold down the control key and move two of your fingers simultaneously downward. Your computers zoom-out function will activate and you will once again be able to see your entire screen. One way to check if your screen is completely zoomed-out is by looking in the upper left and right corners of your menu bar. If you do not see the Apple and Spotlight icons, then you’re still partially zoomed-in.

Now that you are aware of the accessibility feature on your Mac computer, I hope that you take the time to try it out! After you understand how to access this feature, you may find that it is actually fun to tinker around with! Additionally, I have personally already found it to be an incredibly useful feature; you never know when you may need to get a closer look at something on your screen.