Walkthrough
April 16, 2006
IMPORTANT NOTE FOR USER UPGRADING TO 0.3.1: Due to the large number of users experiencing performance and rendering issues with the global zoom options (ie the View->Image Zoom menu item), this feature is now disabled by default. If you would like to use these functions you will need to enable them from the Image Zoom options dialog. Please see the help page for assistance with Image Zoom configuration.
Image Zoom Features
Image Zoom integrates into your browser in a such way that you may not know about all the features that it provides. By completing this small introduction to Image Zoom, you can see exactly what features image zoom is adding to Firefox, Thunderbird or Mozilla.
Scroll Wheel Zooming
Now that you have image zoom installed, try zooming the firefox logo. Follow the instructions below which assume you have the default mouse options set.
Note:
- You may need to disable "autoscrolling" to use the middle mouse button with image zoom.
- Using Mouse features can have unpredictable results when using with other mouse enabled extensions.
- Answers extension conflicts with mouse scrolling in Image Zoom. Contact authors for a fix or disable answers extension to use mouse zooming.
| Hold down the right mouse button and scroll the mouse wheel back and forth to zoom in and out |  |
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| Hold down the right mouse button and click the left mouse button to fit the image to the screen | ||
| Hold down the right mouse button and click the middle mouse button to restore the image to its original dimensions |
Context Menu Zooming
By clicking on an Image in a webpage with the right mouse button, you can show the context menu which will have Image Zooming options. These items give you simple access to various zooming functions and their display in the context menu is configurable from the options. Try it out on the image to the right. "Image Fit" is particularly useful if you have a very high resolution image on a web page or in an email and you would like reduce it to the size of your screen.
Note: Image zoom does not work with background images or HTML inputs that appear as images
Page Zooming
In the "View" Menu, just under "Text Size" you should see a menu item called "Image Zoom". This sub menu contains items that allow you to zoom all image in your web browser. The zooming is persistent across page loads and you can even tie the image zoom to your current text zoom settings("Zoom with Text"). That means you can change your text size by using ctrl++, ctrl+- and ctrl+0 and the images on the page will all zoom to the same factor as the text. You can configure the default setting for your browser to use in the Image Zoom Options dialog
Note: "Zoom with Text" currently doesn't work if you zoom text using ctrl+scrollwheel
Help is Available
Don't forget that Help is available through the forums. You can search through the forums for an answer as chances are someone like you has had a similar problem before. If you can't find a solution, post a question. I don't promise to be able to fix every problem, and sometimes I may take a while to respond as I am busy with my day job, but I will try my hardest to keep the image zoom users happy.
Hidden Features
Well right now there is only one hidden feature. Be aware that this feature is hidden for a reason. The reason being that this feature may slow down your browsing experience on certain sites containing a lot a pictures. If you wish to use it that is fine but just be aware that if your browser slows down it is most probably due to this feature.
OK, with that out of the way, the hidden feature will autofit any images larger than your browser screen. This works well on some sites but not so well on others. This is particularly useful in Thunderbird when someone sends you a huge photo, this feature will automatically shrink the photo to the size of your client screen. To enable this feature, you need to set the preference in about:config for "imagezoom.showAutoFitInMenu" to true. A new option will then appear in your View->Image Zoom menu to "Autofit Images". This feature is not officially supported at this stage so don't write to me and say that its broken.
Thankyou
I hope that you enjoy using it as much as I have enjoyed creating it