Scrolling and navigating

There are many ways to navigate around the document.

Scrolling with keyboard #

Up, Down, Left, Right refers to arrow keys.

k, j, h, l : scroll up / down / left / right
Up, Down : scroll up / down
n, Left : go to next page (aligns top of page with top of window)
p, Right : go to previous page (aligns top of page with top of window)
Shift + Down, Shift + Up : scroll forward / backward by a page
Space, Shift + Space : scroll forward / backward by a page
Home, End : go to first / last page
g, Ctrl + g : go to page (text field in toolbar or dialog if toolbar not shown)

Scrolling with mouse and touch pad #

click on scrollbar to scroll up or down by page
Shift + click on scrollbar : scrolls to that position
scroll up / down with mouse scroll wheel or touch pad scrolling gesture
press Alt while scrolling : scrolls faster (by half page instead of by line)
mouse over scrollbar : scrolls faster (by half page instead of by line)
hold the right mouse button and drag : pan the page (a click without dragging opens the context menu)

Reading zoomed-in pages without the keyboard #

When a page is zoomed past the window you usually care about one band of it — the music staves, the text inside wide scan margins — and want the next page to open at that same place. Two advanced settings do that:

RememberViewOffsetOnPageTurn = true : next / previous page keeps the view where it is instead of jumping to the top of the new page. It applies to page turns you ask for (n / p, click-to-turn, the toolbar arrows). Wheeling off the bottom of a page still opens the next page at its top, since that is you reading on, not turning a page.
MouseWheelTurnsPage = true : one wheel notch is a page turn rather than a scroll. Alt + wheel still scrolls, so you can always reach the rest of the page; Shift + wheel (horizontal) and Ctrl + wheel (zoom) are unchanged.

Turn on both and the wheel becomes a page turner while the view stays parked where you put it. To switch the mode on and off without editing the settings file, bind it to a key or a toolbar button with CmdToggleBoolSetting:

Shortcuts [
    [
        Cmd = CmdToggleBoolSetting MouseWheelTurnsPage
        Key = w
        Name = Wheel Turns Page
        ToolbarText = Wheel Turns Page
    ]
]

Zooming and changing view #

With keyboard #

+, - : zoom in / out
Ctrl + +, Ctrl + - : zoom in / out
Ctrl + y : dialog to set custom zoom level (between 8.3% and 6400%)
c : toggle continuous view
Ctrl + 0 : set zoom to fit whole page (or pages in multi-column view)
Ctrl + 1 : set 100% zoom
Ctrl + 2 : set zoom to fit width of page (or pages in multi-column view)
Ctrl + 3 : set zoom to fit content (like fit whole page but we auto-remove borders)
Fit Height (View / Zoom menu or command palette): scale so the page fills the window height (may scroll horizontally)
Ctrl + 6 : single page view i.e. single column
Ctrl + 7 : facing view i.e. 2 columns (pages)
Ctrl + 8 : 2 columns (pages) but offset by one page

For comic books and manga (right-to-left reading, double-page spreads, LimitToWindowWidth), see Comics and manga.

With mouse #

Ctrl + mouse scroll wheel : zoom in / out
hold the right mouse button + mouse scroll wheel : zoom in / out (same as Ctrl + wheel; the context menu does not open if you zoomed)
Ctrl + touch pad scroll gesture : zoom in / out
pinch zoom gesture on touch screen
with ClickEdgeToTurnPage = true (advanced setting): click the left fifth of the page area for the previous page, the right fifth for the next page (sides reverse in manga mode)

Also mention in comics doc briefly.

Zoom levels #

Zooming in and out steps through a fixed list of zoom levels. This is the built-in list, and also the value of the ZoomLevels advanced setting that reproduces it:

ZoomLevels = 8.33 12.5 18 25 33.33 50 66.67 75 100 125 150 200 300 400 600 800 1000 1200 1600 2000 2400 3200 4800 6400

Setting ZoomLevels replaces the built-in list rather than adding to it, so the way to change the steps is to copy the line above and edit it. Fit Page, Fit Width and Fit Content are always available regardless of the list.

Ver 3.7+: the largest level in the list is also the highest zoom that can be set at all, in the Custom Zoom dialog (Ctrl + y) and everywhere else. So to zoom further than 6400% — into a large map, say, where the detail is in the file but the old limit hid it — add the levels you want on the end:

ZoomLevels = 8.33 12.5 18 25 33.33 50 66.67 75 100 125 150 200 300 400 600 800 1000 1200 1600 2000 2400 3200 4800 6400 12800 25600 51200 102400

Levels up to 1000000 (10000x) are accepted; anything larger is ignored. How far a particular document can be zoomed also depends on its size: all of its pages are laid out on a single canvas measured in pixels, so a long document stops zooming in earlier than a short one does.

Navigating history #

Certain actions add navigation point. You can go back and forward in the history of navigation points (similar to browser back button) with:

Alt + Left, Backspace : go back in history
Alt + Right, Shift + Backspace : go forward in history

After following an internal hyperlink (footnote, TOC entry), use Alt + Left to go back. See Hyperlinks.

Actions that add navigation point:

explicitly going to a page (g, Ctrl + g)
clicking on links within documents
going to a page via Bookmarks tree view
navigating via favorites (Ctrl + b)

Navigating between tabs #

Ctrl + Tab / Ctrl + Shift + Tab : next / previous tab. Ver 3.6+: Smart Tab Switch (tab list while Ctrl is held). To get pre-3.6 immediate strip-order switching on those keys, rebind them to CmdNextTab / CmdPrevTab — see Tabs and windows
Ctrl + Page Down : next tab (strip order, no popup)
Ctrl + Page Up : previous tab (strip order, no popup)

Moving tabs #

v.3.6+

Ctrl + Shift + Page Down : move tab right
Ctrl + Shift + Page Up : move tab left

Navigating between files #

Shift + Control + Right : go to next file in current folder
Shift + Control + Left : go to previous file in current folder

You can assign your own keyboard shortcuts. Here are related commands:

CmdScrollUp, CmdScrollDown
CmdScrollLeft, CmdScrollRight
CmdScrollUpHalfPage, CmdScrollDownHalfPage
CmdScrollLeftPage, CmdScrollRightPage
CmdScrollDownPage, CmdScrollUpPage
CmdGoToNextPage, CmdGoToPrevPage
CmdGoToFirstPage, CmdGoToLastPage
CmdNavigateBack, CmdNavigateForward
CmdOpenNextFileInFolder, CmdOpenPrevFileInFolder

Tab commands:

CmdNextTab, CmdPrevTab, CmdNextTabSmart, CmdPrevTabSmart

Zooming and view commands:

CmdZoomIn, CmdZoomOut
CmdZoomCustom
CmdZoomFitPage
CmdZoomActualSize
CmdZoomFitWidth
CmdZoomFitContent

SumatraPDF documentation