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Scrolling, zooming and navigating
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Move around a document with the keyboard, mouse or touchpad, change zoom and page layout, and jump back and forth between tabs, files and earlier positions. Page navigation is in the Go To menu and zoom is in the Zoom menu. Layout is in the View menu.
Scroll with the mouse wheel or arrow keys, and zoom with Ctrl + wheel or + / -.
  • Scroll: arrow keys, j / k, mouse wheel, right-mouse drag
  • Turn pages: n / p, Space / Shift + Space, Home / End
  • Go to page: g or Ctrl + g
  • Zoom: + / -, Ctrl + wheel, pinch
  • Fit: Ctrl + 0 (page), Ctrl + 2 (width), Ctrl + 3 (content)
  • Layout: Ctrl + 6 / 7 / 8 (single, facing, book), c (continuous)
  • Back / forward: Alt + Left / Alt + Right
  • Free pan: scroll any part of a page to the center

Scroll with the keyboard #

Up, Down, Left, and Right refer to the arrow keys. Left / Right change pages only when the page fits the window width; otherwise they scroll. In manga (right-to-left) mode they are swapped.
  • k, j, h, l : scroll up / down / left / right
  • Up, Down : scroll up / down
  • n, Right : go to next page (aligns top of page with top of window)
  • p, Left : 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)
The Go To menu has Next Page, Previous Page, First Page, Last Page and Page….

Scroll with a mouse or touchpad #

  • click the scrollbar to scroll up or down by a page
  • Shift + click the scrollbar : scroll to that position
  • scroll up / down with the mouse wheel or a touchpad 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)

Scroll a page corner to the center (free pan) #

Scrolling normally stops when a page edge meets the window edge, so a detail in the corner of a page can only be viewed in the corner of the screen. Toggle Free Pan adds half a window of scroll room on every side, so any part of a page can be dragged or scrolled to the center.
  • Command Palette: Ctrl + K, then Toggle Free Pan (CmdToggleFreePan; no default shortcut).
Fit Page / Fit Width and where a page lands when you navigate to it are unchanged. Free pan is remembered per document.

Turn pages with the mouse wheel #

When a page is zoomed past the window you usually care about one band of it (music staves, 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 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 turns pages while the view stays 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
    ]
]

Zoom with the keyboard #

  • +, - : zoom in / out
  • Ctrl + +, Ctrl + - : zoom in / out
  • Ctrl + y : dialog to set custom zoom level (between 8.3% and 6400%)
  • 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 Ctrl + K, Zoom: Fit Height command in Command Palette): scale so the page fills the window height (may scroll horizontally)

Zoom with the 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 + touchpad scroll gesture : zoom in / out
  • pinch-to-zoom gesture on a touchscreen
  • 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)

Change page layout #

  • c : toggle continuous view (View → Show Pages Continuously)
  • Ctrl + 6 : single page view i.e. single column (View → Single Page)
  • Ctrl + 7 : facing view i.e. 2 columns (pages) (View → Facing)
  • Ctrl + 8 : 2 columns (pages) but offset by one page (View → Book View)
For comic books and manga (right-to-left reading, double-page spreads, LimitToWindowWidth), see Comics and manga.

Go back to where you were #

Certain actions add navigation points, and you can go back and forward through them:
  • Alt + Left, Backspace : go back in history (Go To → Back)
  • Alt + Right, Shift + Backspace : go forward in history (Go To → Forward)
After following an internal hyperlink (footnote, TOC entry), use Alt + Left to go back. See Hyperlinks.
Actions that add navigation points:
  • 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)
  • starting a search (Ctrl + f), which adds the view the search started from, once per search, so Backspace returns there after find-as-you-type and Find Next moved through matches

Switch 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)

Move tabs #

v.3.6+
  • Ctrl + Shift + Page Down : move tab right
  • Ctrl + Shift + Page Up : move tab left

Open the next file in the folder #

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

Tips #

  • Use Alt + wheel to scroll by half a page.
  • Use Ctrl + 3 on scans with wide margins; it fits content and removes borders.
  • Press Alt + Left or Backspace to return to where you were before a search or a link.
  • Combine MouseWheelTurnsPage and RememberViewOffsetOnPageTurn to read zoomed-in pages with the wheel only.
  • Use free pan to center a detail that sits in a page corner.

Zoom levels #

Zooming in and out steps through a fixed list of zoom levels. Below is the built-in list, which is 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. To change the steps, 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. To zoom further than 6400% (e.g. into a large map where the detail is in the file), 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, and anything larger is ignored. How far a document can be zoomed also depends on its size. All its pages are laid out on a single canvas measured in pixels, so a long document stops zooming in earlier than a short one.
You can assign your own keyboard shortcuts to these commands.
Scrolling and navigation:
  • CmdScrollUp, CmdScrollDown
  • CmdScrollLeft, CmdScrollRight
  • CmdScrollUpHalfPage, CmdScrollDownHalfPage
  • CmdScrollLeftPage, CmdScrollRightPage
  • CmdScrollDownPage, CmdScrollUpPage
  • CmdGoToNextPage, CmdGoToPrevPage
  • CmdGoToFirstPage, CmdGoToLastPage
  • CmdNavigateBack, CmdNavigateForward
  • CmdOpenNextFileInFolder, CmdOpenPrevFileInFolder
Tabs:
  • CmdNextTab, CmdPrevTab, CmdNextTabSmart, CmdPrevTabSmart
Zoom and view:
  • CmdZoomIn, CmdZoomOut
  • CmdZoomCustom
  • CmdZoomFitPage
  • CmdZoomActualSize
  • CmdZoomFitWidth
  • CmdZoomFitContent

See also #

SumatraPDF documentation
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Scrolling, zooming and navigating
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