Mapping and visualization > Navigating and interacting with maps > Navigating maps and layout pages
Quick ways to navigate maps and pages |
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Release 9.3
Last modified September 11, 2008 |
Print all topics in : "Navigating maps and layout pages" |
You can use keyboard shortcuts and your mouse for quicker navigation with maps and layout pages. For example, you can pan, zoom, or recenter the map without having to go to a toolbar and click a different tool.
Navigating with your mouse
Using the wheel mouse makes it easy to zoom and pan anytime you like without changing the tool you are currently using.
These shortcuts work in data view and layout view. In layout view, they apply to the page by default. You can hold down Shift and perform any shortcut to apply it to the data frame instead of the page (the active data frame in the case of rolling the mouse wheel, or the data frame you clicked in the case of clicking or dragging the mouse wheel).
| Mouse wheel action | ArcMap navigation function |
| Roll wheel back and forth | Zoom in and out |
| Hold down Ctrl and roll | Zooms in and out but with finer increment. Use for small adjustments. |
| Click mouse wheel (or middle mouse button) | Center map at location where you clicked |
| Hold down mouse wheel (or middle mouse button) and drag | Pan |
| Hold down Ctrl and click mouse wheel | Center and zoom in at location you clicked |
| Hold down Ctrl and drag with the mouse wheel | Zoom in |
Rolling the mouse wheel is applied to whichever part of the user interface the pointer is currently over. In this way, you can just move the pointer over the map and roll the wheel to zoom in or out, regardless of which window or dialog box has keyboard focus.
You can reverse the zoom in/zoom out convention used by the mouse wheel on the General tab of the ArcMap Tools > Options dialog box.
You can use the middle mouse button on a three-button mouse instead of the mouse wheel for all the shortcuts except for rolling to zoom in and out.
Temporarily changing any tool into a navigation tool
Hold down the following keys to temporarily turn the tool you are currently using into a navigation tool:
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Z = Zoom In
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X = Zoom Out
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C = Pan
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B = Continuous Zoom/Pan (Drag with left mouse button zooms in/out, drag with right mouse button pans.)
These shortcuts work in data view and layout view. In layout view, they apply to the page by default. Hold down Shift as well as the key to apply it to the data frame you click on instead of the page.
Recentering the map with one click
You can quickly recenter the map when you use the pan tools.
- Click with the Pan tool
recenters the data frame at the location you clicked.
- Click with the Layout Pan tool
recenters the page at the location you clicked.
Continuous Zoom/Pan tool
The Continuous Zoom/Pan tool 
can be added into any toolbar in the ArcMap user interface from the Pan/Zoom category of the Tools > Customize dialog box. This tool is especially useful if you want to have a dynamic zooming and panning capability but don't have a mouse with a wheel.
- You can temporarily turn any tool into this tool by holding down the B key on your keyboard. The Continuous Zoom/Pan tool does not have to be added into your ArcMap user interface for this to be available.
- You can reverse the zoom in/zoom out convention on the General tab of the ArcMap Tools > Options dialog box.
- When this tool is active, you can recenter the map by clicking with the right mouse button, in addition to panning the map by dragging with the right mouse button.
- The Continuous Zoom/Pan tool works on the page when you are in layout view. Hold down Shift to operate on a data frame when you are in layout view.
Other navigation shortcuts
- When the Zoom In tool, Zoom Out tool, or Pan tool is active, F6 toggles among these three tools. F6 also toggles among the corresponding three layout tools when you are in layout view.
- The arrow keys scroll the map in the direction you press unless a graphic or map element is selected, in which case they nudge that element.
- The Home and End keys also scroll the map left and right. Page Up and Page Down scroll the map up and down.
- The + and - keys zoom in and out, the same as the Fixed Zoom In and Fixed Zoom Out buttons.
- The < and > keys go back to the previous extent or forward to the next extent, the same as the Back and Forward buttons.
- The Insert key takes you to the full extent, like the Full Extent button.
- Hold down Alt and click the name of a layer in the table of contents to zoom to the extent of that layer.
Navigating with context menus
Right-clicking the map in data view gives you a menu containing a set of commonly used commands. The menu includes some commands that operate at the location you right-clicked, enabling you to perform an operation once without changing your current tool.
This menu doesn't appear if you right-click the map in data view when you are using certain tools such as some of the editing tools that have their own specialized context menus. However, you can customize the existing context menus of those commands to include any of the navigation commands.
You can also access the navigation context menu when you are working with a viewer window. A viewer window lets you pan and zoom the contents of the window independently of the main ArcMap window. All the commands are available except for Go Back To Previous Extent and Go To Next Extent.
You can also customize this menu to add commands to it as shortcuts, but remember that some commands only work in particular menus. For example, the commands in the context menu you get when you right-click a layer in the table of contents won't become enabled if you add them to other menus.
Learn how to customize a menu
Learn about viewer windows