Make your Mac invincible
Zoomit from Microsoft Sysinternals is a nifty little screen-zooming and annotating tool for presentations. It's free, portable, and compatible with all versions of Windows from XP up as well as. Zoom It Zoom It is an on screen magnifier that's always available to give you a closer look at whatever you're doing on your Mac. The Zoom It magnifying loupe stays at your fingertips via simple keyboard shortcuts, but it never interferes with your work or stops you from using all.
- Zoom It's easy to download Zoom on your Mac computer for desktop use. The Zoom website automatically begins the download the first time you try to join or start a.
- Note: For Mac High Sierra (10.13.x), you will need to click on Allow too. Click the lock icon again to prevent any further changes. Installing the Zoom application. Visit our Download Center. Under Zoom Client for Meetings, click Download. Double click the downloaded file. It is typically saved to your Downloads folder.
- High-DPI displays are supported in Zoom version 3.5 or higher; Bandwidth requirements. The bandwidth used by Zoom will be optimized for the best experience based on the participant‘s' network. It will automatically adjust for 3G, WiFi, or wired environments. Recommended bandwidth for meetings and webinar panelists: For 1:1 video calling.
At times, even the most seasoned Mac users lose their way and google things that were supposed to be common knowledge, such as how to zoom in and out on Mac. But it's also less obvious than you think. You'll be surprised just how many ways there are to go about zoom in Mac.
So check out the handy guide to Mac zoom below and see how you could get more out of your time on Mac with these zoom tips and fixes.
Easy zooming with Setapp
Get one toolkit to zoom in and zoom out, and master zoom shortcuts in no time. Give it a try!
How To Master Mac Zoom In No Time
Zoom for Mac is a screen magnification feature that comes built-in with all Apple products. It allows you to zoom in (literally) on anything that appears on your screen in apps that support zooming, including web pages, photos, docs, and videos. Or you could also enlarge the whole screen using Accessibility Zoom for those especially hard-to-read system texts or images.
To activate zoom Mac users have keyboard shortcut commands, mouse scroll, and trackpad gestures to choose from. Let's explore all three.
How to zoom on Mac using keyboard shortcuts
The easiest way to employ zoom when you're in an app is to hold Command (⌘) and press the plus key (+) to zoom in, or the minus key (-) to zoom out. Simply keep holding the plus or minus key to continue zooming instead of additional tapping or repeating the shortcut. If you remember nothing else from this guide, just this one command could become quite handy in your daily life and stop you from guessing how to zoom in or how to zoom out on Mac.
If you want to zoom in on the whole screen, however, not just an app window (e.g. Safari) — you'll need to enable Accessibility Zoom, which was designed as a feature for the visually impaired and which allows you to zoom in on Mac to read small text and accurately configure settings with checkboxes.
To turn Accessibility Zoom on:
Go to System Preferences by clicking the Apple icon in the menu bar
Select Accessibility
Click on Zoom in the sidebar
Check the box next to 'Use keyboard shortcuts to zoom'
The option will activate these Accessibility Zoom shortcuts:
⌘ + Option + = for zooming in
⌘ + Option + - for zooming out
⌘ + Option + 8 for toggling zoom
⌘ + Option + / for toggling smooth images (which softens the appearance of pixels in images when they are magnified)
How to zoom in on Mac using trackpad gestures
If you prefer using trackpad to memorizing any kind of keyboard shortcuts, you can easily learn how to zoom in on Mac with trackpad gestures. But first check that your Mac has gesture support enabled in settings:
Go to Trackpad in System Preferences
Navigate to the Scroll & Zoom tab
Check the box next to 'Smart zoom'
Once you're all set with gesture support, zooming in on web pages, pictures, and documents can't get any easier:
Place two fingers on the trackpad, then push the fingers away from each other to zoom in on Mac, or move fingers close together to zoom out on Mac (repeat for additional zooming)
Another option is to simply double-tap the trackpad with two fingers to zoom in and double-tap again to zoom out
How to zoom on Mac using mouse scroll
Using screen zoom feature — when your entire screen gets magnified and not just something in the app window you're working with — is also possible if you'd rather work with your mouse. This way, to zoom in on Mac you'd have to hold one of the assigned modifier keys and scroll at the same time.
To activate this feature:
Open System Preferences from the Apple menu ➙ Accessibility
Select Zoom in the sidebar
Check the box for 'Use scroll gesture with modifier keys to zoom'
From the dropdown menu, choose a modifier key you'd like to use (Control, Option, or Command)
It also needs to be mentioned that this scroll gesture can be performed on a trackpad as well to zoom in and zoom out on Mac.
How to choose your Mac zoom style
There are three very different ways that Mac zoom can appear on your screen:
A whole screen zoom
A split screen zoom
A picture-in-picture style zoom, which resembles a rectangular magnifying glass
Decide which works best for you and set the style you prefer:
Open Accessibility in System Preferences
Select Zoom in the sidebar
Choose your new style from the dropdown menu next to 'Zoom style'
How to customize fullscreen zoom for Mac
In addition to choosing your preferred zoom style, there's also a number of other options you have at your disposal as to how much or little magnification you're most comfortable with, how the screen moves when it's enlarged, how system and app notifications appear on your screen, as well as a shortcut to detach zoom view from cursor temporarily.
You can view, enable and configure these by clicking Advanced in the Zoom Accessibility panel.
How to customize the picture-in-picture zoom for Mac
Selecting options for the picture-in-picture zoom is done in the same way as the fullscreen zoom described above. Here you can adjust the size of the window, decide on its location on the screen, as well as choose if you want it to be stationary or follow the cursor. Additional options include changing the look of your cursor from pointer to crosshair, inverting the colors inside the zoom window, and hot keys to temporarily detach zoom from cursor.
To set up your preferred configurations click Advanced when the picture-to-picture zoom is selected from the dropdown within the Zoom panel.
Now, if you're any serious about customizing how you enter information on Mac, including creating personal shortcuts, you must try BetterTouchTool.
Customize your actions on Mac
Get BetterTouchTool to make your computer obedient. Set up your own key sequences, mouse and trackpad gestures with ease.
BetterTouchTool is one of the most powerful utilities for Mac that lets you completely customize the way you interact with your computer. With BetterTouchTool you can automate virtually any task with your own shortcut and then assign it to the device of your choice — replacing the default options with your own key sequences, mouse gestures, trackpad movements, text, and Touch Bar triggers.
BetterTouchTool delivers:
Unparalleled Touch Bar customization: edit existing setup, create new functional buttons, or write your own custom widgets — such as a crypto currency tracker or weather forecasts, using each millimeter of space
Significant trackpad productivity boost: launch apps, change brightness, make windows snap to the side of your screen, or send display to sleep mode with a tap or gesture of your choice
Guided interface to create your custom action shortcuts: pick from more than a hundred gestures, align it with action you want to automate, assign shortcuts to an input device of your choice (Magic Mouse, normal mouse, keyboard, Touch Bar, trackpad, Siri, or Apple remote), and specify where you want your shortcut to work — the whole system or specific app only
Integrated clipboard manager and a handy screenshot tool
Chained actions to handle complicated tasks
Even better, you might never have to memorize any Mac shortcuts ever again, if you use Lacona.
Lacona will help you perform any tasks on your Mac without having to learn specific commands. Think of it as a desktop alternative to Siri that is integrated with all built-in Mac services and is powerful enough to let you run your entire Mac from a minimalistic pop-up window. You type commands in your own words and this intelligent app will:
Launch apps
Create reminders and schedule events
Find files
Make calls
Translate and find the meaning of words
Do instant calculations
Search the web
Plus, do an impossible number of other things that involve working with apps on your computer and using addons like IFTTT (if this then that) commands that allow you to link actions in one application with a consequent action in a different application
Mac zooming does present you with options, doesn't it? Try them all and see which ones suit your work style best.
Best of all is that you can check out incredible BetterTouchTool and Lacona mentioned above for absolutely free on a seven-day trial with Setapp — a platform of more than 160 powerful Mac apps handpicked for your increased productivity. Why not zoom in on some of them?
Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.
Read onSign Up
Zoomit from Microsoft Sysinternals is a nifty little screen-zooming and annotating tool for presentations. It's free, portable, and compatible with all versions of Windows from XP up as well as. Zoom It Zoom It is an on screen magnifier that's always available to give you a closer look at whatever you're doing on your Mac. The Zoom It magnifying loupe stays at your fingertips via simple keyboard shortcuts, but it never interferes with your work or stops you from using all.
- Zoom It's easy to download Zoom on your Mac computer for desktop use. The Zoom website automatically begins the download the first time you try to join or start a.
- Note: For Mac High Sierra (10.13.x), you will need to click on Allow too. Click the lock icon again to prevent any further changes. Installing the Zoom application. Visit our Download Center. Under Zoom Client for Meetings, click Download. Double click the downloaded file. It is typically saved to your Downloads folder.
- High-DPI displays are supported in Zoom version 3.5 or higher; Bandwidth requirements. The bandwidth used by Zoom will be optimized for the best experience based on the participant‘s' network. It will automatically adjust for 3G, WiFi, or wired environments. Recommended bandwidth for meetings and webinar panelists: For 1:1 video calling.
At times, even the most seasoned Mac users lose their way and google things that were supposed to be common knowledge, such as how to zoom in and out on Mac. But it's also less obvious than you think. You'll be surprised just how many ways there are to go about zoom in Mac.
So check out the handy guide to Mac zoom below and see how you could get more out of your time on Mac with these zoom tips and fixes.
Easy zooming with Setapp
Get one toolkit to zoom in and zoom out, and master zoom shortcuts in no time. Give it a try!
How To Master Mac Zoom In No Time
Zoom for Mac is a screen magnification feature that comes built-in with all Apple products. It allows you to zoom in (literally) on anything that appears on your screen in apps that support zooming, including web pages, photos, docs, and videos. Or you could also enlarge the whole screen using Accessibility Zoom for those especially hard-to-read system texts or images.
To activate zoom Mac users have keyboard shortcut commands, mouse scroll, and trackpad gestures to choose from. Let's explore all three.
How to zoom on Mac using keyboard shortcuts
The easiest way to employ zoom when you're in an app is to hold Command (⌘) and press the plus key (+) to zoom in, or the minus key (-) to zoom out. Simply keep holding the plus or minus key to continue zooming instead of additional tapping or repeating the shortcut. If you remember nothing else from this guide, just this one command could become quite handy in your daily life and stop you from guessing how to zoom in or how to zoom out on Mac.
If you want to zoom in on the whole screen, however, not just an app window (e.g. Safari) — you'll need to enable Accessibility Zoom, which was designed as a feature for the visually impaired and which allows you to zoom in on Mac to read small text and accurately configure settings with checkboxes.
To turn Accessibility Zoom on:
Go to System Preferences by clicking the Apple icon in the menu bar
Select Accessibility
Click on Zoom in the sidebar
Check the box next to 'Use keyboard shortcuts to zoom'
The option will activate these Accessibility Zoom shortcuts:
⌘ + Option + = for zooming in
⌘ + Option + - for zooming out
⌘ + Option + 8 for toggling zoom
⌘ + Option + / for toggling smooth images (which softens the appearance of pixels in images when they are magnified)
How to zoom in on Mac using trackpad gestures
If you prefer using trackpad to memorizing any kind of keyboard shortcuts, you can easily learn how to zoom in on Mac with trackpad gestures. But first check that your Mac has gesture support enabled in settings:
Go to Trackpad in System Preferences
Navigate to the Scroll & Zoom tab
Check the box next to 'Smart zoom'
Once you're all set with gesture support, zooming in on web pages, pictures, and documents can't get any easier:
Place two fingers on the trackpad, then push the fingers away from each other to zoom in on Mac, or move fingers close together to zoom out on Mac (repeat for additional zooming)
Another option is to simply double-tap the trackpad with two fingers to zoom in and double-tap again to zoom out
How to zoom on Mac using mouse scroll
Using screen zoom feature — when your entire screen gets magnified and not just something in the app window you're working with — is also possible if you'd rather work with your mouse. This way, to zoom in on Mac you'd have to hold one of the assigned modifier keys and scroll at the same time.
To activate this feature:
Open System Preferences from the Apple menu ➙ Accessibility
Select Zoom in the sidebar
Check the box for 'Use scroll gesture with modifier keys to zoom'
From the dropdown menu, choose a modifier key you'd like to use (Control, Option, or Command)
It also needs to be mentioned that this scroll gesture can be performed on a trackpad as well to zoom in and zoom out on Mac.
How to choose your Mac zoom style
There are three very different ways that Mac zoom can appear on your screen:
A whole screen zoom
A split screen zoom
A picture-in-picture style zoom, which resembles a rectangular magnifying glass
Decide which works best for you and set the style you prefer:
Open Accessibility in System Preferences
Select Zoom in the sidebar
Choose your new style from the dropdown menu next to 'Zoom style'
How to customize fullscreen zoom for Mac
In addition to choosing your preferred zoom style, there's also a number of other options you have at your disposal as to how much or little magnification you're most comfortable with, how the screen moves when it's enlarged, how system and app notifications appear on your screen, as well as a shortcut to detach zoom view from cursor temporarily.
You can view, enable and configure these by clicking Advanced in the Zoom Accessibility panel.
How to customize the picture-in-picture zoom for Mac
Selecting options for the picture-in-picture zoom is done in the same way as the fullscreen zoom described above. Here you can adjust the size of the window, decide on its location on the screen, as well as choose if you want it to be stationary or follow the cursor. Additional options include changing the look of your cursor from pointer to crosshair, inverting the colors inside the zoom window, and hot keys to temporarily detach zoom from cursor.
To set up your preferred configurations click Advanced when the picture-to-picture zoom is selected from the dropdown within the Zoom panel.
Now, if you're any serious about customizing how you enter information on Mac, including creating personal shortcuts, you must try BetterTouchTool.
Customize your actions on Mac
Get BetterTouchTool to make your computer obedient. Set up your own key sequences, mouse and trackpad gestures with ease.
BetterTouchTool is one of the most powerful utilities for Mac that lets you completely customize the way you interact with your computer. With BetterTouchTool you can automate virtually any task with your own shortcut and then assign it to the device of your choice — replacing the default options with your own key sequences, mouse gestures, trackpad movements, text, and Touch Bar triggers.
BetterTouchTool delivers:
Unparalleled Touch Bar customization: edit existing setup, create new functional buttons, or write your own custom widgets — such as a crypto currency tracker or weather forecasts, using each millimeter of space
Significant trackpad productivity boost: launch apps, change brightness, make windows snap to the side of your screen, or send display to sleep mode with a tap or gesture of your choice
Guided interface to create your custom action shortcuts: pick from more than a hundred gestures, align it with action you want to automate, assign shortcuts to an input device of your choice (Magic Mouse, normal mouse, keyboard, Touch Bar, trackpad, Siri, or Apple remote), and specify where you want your shortcut to work — the whole system or specific app only
Integrated clipboard manager and a handy screenshot tool
Chained actions to handle complicated tasks
Even better, you might never have to memorize any Mac shortcuts ever again, if you use Lacona.
Lacona will help you perform any tasks on your Mac without having to learn specific commands. Think of it as a desktop alternative to Siri that is integrated with all built-in Mac services and is powerful enough to let you run your entire Mac from a minimalistic pop-up window. You type commands in your own words and this intelligent app will:
Launch apps
Create reminders and schedule events
Find files
Make calls
Translate and find the meaning of words
Do instant calculations
Search the web
Plus, do an impossible number of other things that involve working with apps on your computer and using addons like IFTTT (if this then that) commands that allow you to link actions in one application with a consequent action in a different application
Mac zooming does present you with options, doesn't it? Try them all and see which ones suit your work style best.
Best of all is that you can check out incredible BetterTouchTool and Lacona mentioned above for absolutely free on a seven-day trial with Setapp — a platform of more than 160 powerful Mac apps handpicked for your increased productivity. Why not zoom in on some of them?
Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.
Read onSign Up
Update 7:23pm ET: As this post was being reported, Zoom developers reversed their previous position and issued an update that changes the contested behavior.
'Initially, we did not see the Web server or video-on posture as significant risks to our customers and, in fact, felt that these were essential to our seamless join process,' Zoom's Jonathan Farley wrote. 'But in hearing the outcry from our users in the past 24 hours, we have decided to make the updates to our service.'
The update makes the following changes:
Zoom For Macbook Free Download
- complete removal of the local Web server and
- an addition to the menu that allows users to remove the app
Zoom developers also added new details about a previously mentioned update, which is now scheduled for Friday. It will
- Automatically save first-time users' selection of the 'Always turn off my video' preference and
- allow returning users to update their video preferences and make video OFF by default at any time through the Zoom client settings
What follows is the story as it ran earlier:
One of the easiest ways to tell if someone is a practitioner of computer security is to look at their laptop. If the webcam is covered by tape or a sticker, they likely are. A recently published report on the Zoom conferencing application for Macs underscores why this practice makes sense.
Researcher Jonathan Leitschuh reported on Monday that, in certain cases, websites can automatically cause visitors to join calls with their cameras turned on. It's not hard to imagine this being a problem for people in their bathrobes or in the middle of a sensitive business conference since a malicious link would give no warning in advance it will open Zoom and broadcast whatever is in view of the camera.
Zoom developers almost certainly intended the behavior to make it easier to use the Web conferencing app. But unless users have properly tweaked their settings in advance, Lietschuh's findings show how miscreants can turn this ease-of-use against unwitting users. A proof-of-concept exploit is available here, but reader be warned: depending on your Zoom settings, your webcam may soon be transmitting whatever it sees to perfect strangers.
'This vulnerability allows any website to forcibly join a user to a Zoom call, with their video camera activated, without the user's permission,' Leitschuh wrote.
Leitschuh is mostly correct there. Clicking the link will automatically open Zoom and join a call. But as mentioned earlier, video is collected only when Zoom is configured to begin conferences with a camera turned on. Some media reports and social media commentators have said this behavior allows websites to 'hijack' a Mac webcam. I'd argue that's a stretch since (1) it's fairly obvious that Zoom is opening and broadcasting whatever the camera sees and (2) it's easy to immediately leave the conference or simply turn off the camera.
How To Use Zoom Meetings On Mac
What's more, preventing the video grab involves a one-time click to a box in the Zoom preferences that keeps video turned off when joining a video. But user beware: even when this setting is on, sites still can force Macs to open Zoom and join a conference.
That's not to say the threat Leitschuh disclosed is mere handwaving. It's not. But it underscores the near-impossible balancing act developers must strike. Make a feature too hard to use and people will move to a competing product. Make it too easy and attackers may abuse it to do bad things the developer never imagined.
In this case, Zoom developers should have warned that the ability to automatically join a conference with video turned on was a powerful feature that could be used to compromise users' privacy. Instead, the developers left it up to users to decide with no up-front guidance. (By contrast, audio is automatically turned off when joining a Zoom conference.) In other words, Zoom developers made this automatic webcam joining way too easy. In retrospect, thanks to Leitschuh's post, that's easy to see.
Zoom For Mac Uk
In a response to Leitschuh's disclosure Zoom's Richard Farley said the company will roll out an update this month that will 'apply and save the user's video preference from their first Zoom meeting to all future Zoom meetings.' Farley didn't say if Zoom will provide the guidance many users will need to make an informed choice.
An always-on webserver
Leitschuh's research uncovered another behavior by Zoom for Mac that is also unsettling to security-conscious people. The app installs a webserver that accepts queries from other devices connected to the same local network. This server continues to run even when a Mac user uninstalls Zoom. Leitschuh showed how this webserver can be abused by people on the same network to force Macs to reinstall the app.
This clearly isn't good. While the webserver is only accessible to devices on the same network, that still exposes people using untrusted networks. And if hackers were ever to come across a code-execution vulnerability in the webserver, the potential for abuse is even higher. Farley said Zoom introduced the webserver as a way to work around a change introduced in Safari 12 that requires users confirm with a click each time they want to start the Zoom app prior to joining a meeting.
'We feel that this is a legitimate solution to a poor user-experience problem, enabling our users to have faster, one-click-to-join meetings,' Farley wrote. 'We are not alone among video-conferencing providers in implementing this solution.'
Independent security researcher Kevin Beaumont said on Twitter that the BlueJeans video conferencing app for Mac also opens a webserver. There is no evidence that the behavior Leitschuh reported is found in Zoom for Windows.
Convenience is the enemy of security
Zoom Mac Mini
As is the case with the auto-on webcam when joining meetings, Zoom's implementation of a webserver is a convenience that comes at the potential cost of security. Neither behavior represents a critical vulnerability, but they do suggest Zoom developers could do more to lock down the Mac version of their app, particularly for users who may have less awareness of security issues.
And this is where precautions such as tape over a webcam come in. Users can never be sure developers have adequately safeguarded their apps against hacks or abuse, so the responsibility falls on end users to compensate. Other ways to protect against abuses of Zoom or other Web conference software is to use an app such as Little Snitch and configure it to give the conferencing software Internet access for only limited amounts of time. Another self-help protection is to configure macOS so that Zoom only has access to the webcam at specific times when it's needed.
Yes, these additional protections can be a bother. But they also underscore the fundamental tension between convenience and security.
