Is there a key combo available that allows you to hold a key combo down
to temporarily open the magnifier, and when you release the keys, the
magnifier closes?

Something already a part of Windows would be the best option.

--
Ken
MacOS 10.14.6
Windows 10 20H2
Firefox 87.0
Thunderbird 60.9.1
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

Snowshed <kcomptutor@q.com> wrote:

> Is there a key combo available that allows you to hold a key combo down
> to temporarily open the magnifier, and when you release the keys, the
> magnifier closes?
>
> Something already a part of Windows would be the best option.

How would you select what area to magnify, and move around to magnify
other areas of the screen, if the magnified part wasn't draggable (which
means a toggle key combo, not a press-n-hold key combo)? How would you
zoom in/out if you had to keep your fingers on the press-n-hold keys?

Have you yet tried the already defined Windows key combos for Magnifier?

Winkey+Plus = on, and zoom in
Winkey+Minus = zoom out
Ctrl+Alt+mousewheel = zoom in/out
Winkey+Esc = off

No, I didn't have those memorized. I found them by going into Ease of
Access settings, and select the Vision category to find the Magnifier
settings there to notice the comments about the hotkeys.

To zoom in or out or move around the magnified screen, I can't see how
you can do those if your hand(s) are locked up by holding down a
press-n-hold key combo.

On 4/29/21 1:45 PM, this is what VanguardLH wrote:
> Snowshed <kcomptutor@q.com> wrote:
>
>> Is there a key combo available that allows you to hold a key combo down
>> to temporarily open the magnifier, and when you release the keys, the
>> magnifier closes?
>>
>> Something already a part of Windows would be the best option.
>
> How would you select what area to magnify, and move around to magnify
> other areas of the screen, if the magnified part wasn't draggable (which
> means a toggle key combo, not a press-n-hold key combo)? How would you
> zoom in/out if you had to keep your fingers on the press-n-hold keys?
>
> Have you yet tried the already defined Windows key combos for Magnifier?
>
> Winkey+Plus = on, and zoom in
> Winkey+Minus = zoom out
> Ctrl+Alt+mousewheel = zoom in/out
> Winkey+Esc = off
>
> No, I didn't have those memorized. I found them by going into Ease of
> Access settings, and select the Vision category to find the Magnifier
> settings there to notice the comments about the hotkeys.
>
> To zoom in or out or move around the magnified screen, I can't see how
> you can do those if your hand(s) are locked up by holding down a
> press-n-hold key combo.
>
I set my zoom not as a rectangle but the entire screen.

--
Linux Mint Cinnamon 20.1 64bit, Dell Inspiron 5570 laptop
Quad Core i7-8550U, 16G Memory, 512G SSD, 750G & 1TB HDDs
*I collect teddy bears.

Teddy-Bears <Bears@invalid.com> wrote:

> VanguardLH wrote:
>
>> Snowshed <kcomptutor@q.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Is there a key combo available that allows you to hold a key combo down
>>> to temporarily open the magnifier, and when you release the keys, the
>>> magnifier closes?
>>
>> To zoom in or out or move around the magnified screen, I can't see how
>> you can do those if your hand(s) are locked up by holding down a
>> press-n-hold key combo.
>>
> I set my zoom not as a rectangle but the entire screen.

You still have to move the mouse around to move the areas of the
magnified screen that is outside the boundaries of your monitor.

With the current hotkey of Winkey+Plus to activate or zoom out the
magnified view, that's too long a stretch for my right hand from the
sole Windows key on the keyboard to reach the Plus key, but that would
be needed to free up the other hand to move the mouse to move around
inside the magnified window, especially to get to screen areas outside
they physical boundaries of the monitor.

On 4/29/21 2:33 PM, this is what VanguardLH wrote:
> Teddy-Bears <Bears@invalid.com> wrote:
>
>> VanguardLH wrote:
>>
>>> Snowshed <kcomptutor@q.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Is there a key combo available that allows you to hold a key combo down
>>>> to temporarily open the magnifier, and when you release the keys, the
>>>> magnifier closes?
>>>
>>> To zoom in or out or move around the magnified screen, I can't see how
>>> you can do those if your hand(s) are locked up by holding down a
>>> press-n-hold key combo.
>>>
>> I set my zoom not as a rectangle but the entire screen.
>
> You still have to move the mouse around to move the areas of the
> magnified screen that is outside the boundaries of your monitor.
>
> With the current hotkey of Winkey+Plus to activate or zoom out the
> magnified view, that's too long a stretch for my right hand from the
> sole Windows key on the keyboard to reach the Plus key, but that would
> be needed to free up the other hand to move the mouse to move around
> inside the magnified window, especially to get to screen areas outside
> they physical boundaries of the monitor.
>
I pinned the magnifier to the taskbar so I can mouse it on then move around. This does have it's faults. And now that I know the
Winkey+Esc to turn off works, I may change it back to a window rather than whole screen.
Not picking OSes apart, but I like Linux's version of zoom. Alt+scroll to do just like Ctrl+scroll on a web page. There is no on/off.

--
Linux Mint Cinnamon 20.1 64bit, Dell Inspiron 5570 laptop
Quad Core i7-8550U, 16G Memory, 512G SSD, 750G & 1TB HDDs
*I collect teddy bears.

VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> writes:

[...]

> Have you yet tried the already defined Windows key combos for Magnifier?
>
> Winkey+Plus = on, and zoom in
> Winkey+Minus = zoom out
> Ctrl+Alt+mousewheel = zoom in/out
> Winkey+Esc = off

Very cool info and software. Great for presentations. Thank you!

On 4/29/21 12:33 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
> Teddy-Bears <Bears@invalid.com> wrote:
>
>> VanguardLH wrote:
>>
>>> Snowshed <kcomptutor@q.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Is there a key combo available that allows you to hold a key combo down
>>>> to temporarily open the magnifier, and when you release the keys, the
>>>> magnifier closes?
>>>
>>> To zoom in or out or move around the magnified screen, I can't see how
>>> you can do those if your hand(s) are locked up by holding down a
>>> press-n-hold key combo.
>>>
>> I set my zoom not as a rectangle but the entire screen.
>
> You still have to move the mouse around to move the areas of the
> magnified screen that is outside the boundaries of your monitor.
>
> With the current hotkey of Winkey+Plus to activate or zoom out the
> magnified view, that's too long a stretch for my right hand from the
> sole Windows key on the keyboard to reach the Plus key, but that would
> be needed to free up the other hand to move the mouse to move around
> inside the magnified window, especially to get to screen areas outside
> they physical boundaries of the monitor.

I know those key combos. I have mine set to "lens", which effectively
makes using it similar to a rectangular magnifying glass. And you can
set a default size and magnification, depending on your needs.

Macs do the same thing, plus a toggle if you enable it. When enabled,
press and hold the control and option keys down, and the magnifier is
tuns on. Let go of the keys, it turns off.

I'm hoping there's something similar in W10 without having to rely on
3rd party software.

--
Ken
MacOS 10.14.6
Windows 10 20H2
Firefox 87.0
Thunderbird 60.9.1
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

Snowshed <kcomptutor@q.com> wrote:

> I know those key combos. I have mine set to "lens", which effectively
> makes using it similar to a rectangular magnifying glass. And you can
> set a default size and magnification, depending on your needs.
>
> Macs do the same thing, plus a toggle if you enable it. When enabled,
> press and hold the control and option keys down, and the magnifier is
> tuns on. Let go of the keys, it turns off.
>
> I'm hoping there's something similar in W10 without having to rely on
> 3rd party software.

I'm sure there are better magnifier apps around. Microsoft provided a
basic tool. They also provide MS Paint, but it doesn't take much before
you need something much better. I use Paint.NET instead of MSPaint. I
use Notepad++ instead of Notepad. Those are sufficient for me, but
there are even more robust choices, like Gimp. It's unusual that
Microsoft has the only solution.

I glimpsed at Glass Brick. It has an option to turn zoom off after N
seconds, so you could probably set it to 0 or 1 for very quick turn off.

With Microsoft's Magnifier, the Winkey+Plus is too far to stretch with
one had. Winkey+Esc to turn it off is within the span of fingers on one
hand. Presumably you want one-handed hotkeys, so while you enable the
magnifier you can be doing something with your other hand, like moving
the lens around or moving the screen inside the magnifier view port.
Perhaps you could use AutoHotkey to define a one-handed key combo that
let you enable the magnifier while having that same hand close to the
Winkey+Esc turn-off combo. In fact, as I recall, you can define
AutoHotkey macros to fire on key-down and key-up events, so you could
define a hotkey that loads Magnifier when you downpress on the hotkey
and exits Magnifier when you release the hotkey.

"Snowshed." <kcomptutor@q.com> wrote:

> Is there a key combo available that allows you to hold a key combo down
> to temporarily open the magnifier, and when you release the keys, the
> magnifier closes?
>
> Something already a part of Windows would be the best option.

Magnifier running doesn't do anything until you tell it to. If you want to
zoom, you can hold control+alt and use the mouse wheel (forwards and
backwards). Have it follow your cursor.

VanguardLH wrote:

> Ctrl+Alt+mousewheel = zoom in/out

That's what I use. Then move the pointer around if what you want to see is
outside of your zoomed view.

Would be better if it were Control+Shift, or even just Control. Programs can
use something besides Control since programs usually use that combination to
control a more permanent zoom setting than momentary systemwide zooming. But
oh well.

Maybe AutoHotkey can change that.

On 4/29/21 4:51 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
> Snowshed <kcomptutor@q.com> wrote:
>
>> I know those key combos. I have mine set to "lens", which effectively
>> makes using it similar to a rectangular magnifying glass. And you can
>> set a default size and magnification, depending on your needs.
>>
>> Macs do the same thing, plus a toggle if you enable it. When enabled,
>> press and hold the control and option keys down, and the magnifier is
>> tuns on. Let go of the keys, it turns off.
>>
>> I'm hoping there's something similar in W10 without having to rely on
>> 3rd party software.
>
> I'm sure there are better magnifier apps around. Microsoft provided a
> basic tool. They also provide MS Paint, but it doesn't take much before
> you need something much better. I use Paint.NET instead of MSPaint. I
> use Notepad++ instead of Notepad. Those are sufficient for me, but
> there are even more robust choices, like Gimp. It's unusual that
> Microsoft has the only solution.

Or even a good solution! LOL

> I glimpsed at Glass Brick. It has an option to turn zoom off after N
> seconds, so you could probably set it to 0 or 1 for very quick turn off.
>
> With Microsoft's Magnifier, the Winkey+Plus is too far to stretch with
> one had. Winkey+Esc to turn it off is within the span of fingers on one
> hand. Presumably you want one-handed hotkeys, so while you enable the
> magnifier you can be doing something with your other hand, like moving
> the lens around or moving the screen inside the magnifier view port.
> Perhaps you could use AutoHotkey to define a one-handed key combo that
> let you enable the magnifier while having that same hand close to the
> Winkey+Esc turn-off combo. In fact, as I recall, you can define
> AutoHotkey macros to fire on key-down and key-up events, so you could
> define a hotkey that loads Magnifier when you downpress on the hotkey
> and exits Magnifier when you release the hotkey.

As usual, I'm looking for something "built-in" for the newbie level.
And in this case, although not a newbie technically, her vision is
absolutely horrible these days. I've already lowered the screen rez
forom 1920X1200 to 1440X900. Bigger monitor would also be better.

We are going to be experimenting with the narrator in the near future.
And I need to show her the basic screen reading features of the
magnifier.

--
Ken
MacOS 10.14.6
Windows 10 20H2
Firefox 87.0
Thunderbird 60.9.1
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

On 4/29/21 7:57 PM, John Doe wrote:
> "Snowshed." <kcomptutor@q.com> wrote:
>
>> Is there a key combo available that allows you to hold a key combo down
>> to temporarily open the magnifier, and when you release the keys, the
>> magnifier closes?
>>
>> Something already a part of Windows would be the best option.
>
> Magnifier running doesn't do anything until you tell it to. If you want to
> zoom, you can hold control+alt and use the mouse wheel (forwards and
> backwards). Have it follow your cursor.

I know how it works, I was hoping it would do what my Mac does.

--
Ken
MacOS 10.14.6
Windows 10 20H2
Firefox 87.0
Thunderbird 60.9.1
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

"Snowshed." <kcomptutor@q.com> wrote:

> John Doe wrote:
>> "Snowshed." <kcomptutor@q.com> wrote:

>>> Is there a key combo available that allows you to hold a key combo down
>>> to temporarily open the magnifier, and when you release the keys, the
>>> magnifier closes?

>> Magnifier running doesn't do anything until you tell it to. If you want to
>> zoom, you can hold control+alt and use the mouse wheel (forwards and
>> backwards). Have it follow your cursor.
>
> I know how it works, I was hoping it would do what my Mac does.

Well then you don't know how it works.

Mac sucks. That's why you're here.

It would be quite cool to have a single toggle key (using AutoHotkey) that
toggles Control and Alt down and up. I might be using the Apps key for some
macro, but it's not memorable so it can be used for that. Hit Apps (or
whatever key), then freely use the mouse scroll wheel and pointer position to
zoom and move focus around. When finished, hit the key again.

Anybody know AutoHotkey code to do that?

"Snowshed." <kcomptutor@q.com> wrote:

> As usual, I'm looking for something "built-in" for the newbie level. And
> in this case, although not a newbie technically, her vision is
> absolutely horrible these days.

The most common cause is easily resolved with modern cataract surgery, by
replacing the lens. She might go from practically blind to near 20-20
vision.

> I've already lowered the screen rez forom 1920X1200 to 1440X900. Bigger
> monitor would also be better.

Settings > System > Display > Change the size of text...

Also... WinTools "System Font Size Changer" It's dinky but it works. You
might not be able to handle such utilities, but who knows.