Today’s tip is more of a presentation trick than an AutoCAD one, but if some of you give lunch-and-learns or other demos, you may find it handy. (Confession: I’m also writing this post because I turned this feature on during a live demo last week…and forgot how to turn it off. Maybe if I write it down, I’ll remember next time!) At any rate, this handy built-in Windows feature is a magnifying glass. It enlarges a portion of your screen by 200-1600% – below is a sample of 200% magnification. You can turn on this feature by pressing and the “plus” sign (+) simultaneously, or from the Control Panel. At that point, the magnifying lens pops up, along with a toolbar. It’s got buttons for zooming in and out; a “Views” menu where you can choose between Lens (which follows your cursor around), Full Screen (which magnifies the entire desktop), and Docked (which puts a static zoom window on the screen); and a Settings dialog. It can be a little tricky to grab some of those buttons on the toolbar until you get used to the magnifier, so you can also use + “plus” and + “minus” to zoom in and out. Also, if you don’t use the toolbar for a little bit, it gets hidden behind a magnifying glass: Click on that to bring the toolbar back. Now, what you really need to know is how to turn this thing OFF. During my presentation last week, I finally located the toolbar and got rid of it, but you can also just use + ESC. Wish I’d remembered that then!

Go to the original post...