Move and zoom using only the mouse

[Davide78]

Hi, I'm asking you just to be sure if it's possible to navigate a file using only the mouse... maybe I have a wrong initial setting, when I open a file I always have the Hand (move) command activated (mouse pointer in the shape of a hand).
It is actually very convenient to zoom, just hold down ctrl and scroll with the mouse to zoom, when you release ctrl you go back to Hand (move).
Sometimes, however, my left hand is busy holding the point on a sheet of paper or on the calculator and it would be convenient for me to alternate pan and zoom using only the mouse, but is there a way?
I think that you have to use the "follow with zoom" command, but I'm asking anyway because I've often discovered certain unexpected features and conveniences on this forum!
Thanks and sorry for the banality of the request!

[PHK]

Hold down the left mouse button whilst using the Hand tool should work for you. Or I may have optioned it to work like that but forgotten that I had. But that means you can, too.

[Davide78]

Thanks for the feedback! I think it would be enough to find a setting (if it exists) that allows you to zoom out with the mouse wheel instead of scrolling the document, but I don't see it

[PHK]

Thanks for the feedback! I think it would be enough to find a setting (if it exists) that allows you to zoom out with the mouse wheel instead of scrolling the document, but I don't see it

For me, the mouse wheel works two ways now: scrolling through pages with just the wheel and zooming magnification with [ctrl]-wheel. Does yours not?

[Davide78]

Exactly, maybe I explained myself badly...I would like to know if there is a setting that allows me to zoom without having to press the ctrl key.
Even reversing the two commands you described would be enough for me when I need it, namely:
- scrolling through pages with [ctrl]-wheel
- zooming magnification with just the wheel

[PHK]

Thanks for the clarification, Davide, I get it.

I don't see anything, either, in the commands to achieve your desired set up. Then, I thought there might be something in the mouse software that might allow users to flip those functionalities. So I looked at the software for my mouse which is a Logitech MX Ergo but there does not seem to be a way of doing that. But you might want to look at the software for your mouse (assuming not the same as mine) to see if there is a capacity for customizing how the wheel works. Sorry I cannot offer any better advice.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello,

I am sorry to have to confirm currently there is no way to change the handling in this area. It has come up many times, and our Dev team is aware of the demand, but its implementation is still not a high priority.

Personally (If I could), I would like to see normal scrolling when only the wheel is being used, and if you are are holding the LMB then the scroll wheel works as a zoom action instead, alongside an option to invert the default handling for those who want it. (maybe even allow for LMB+RMB+scroll to perform L/R scrolling, to do everything with one hand!).
As a frequent tea-drinker, I also like to have the option to perform standard tasks like this one-handed.

If you have some examples of other software's which make good use of mouse wheel scrolling (beyond adobe, who I know offers a checkbox for it), I would be keen to hear about them so I can site them in a follow-up report to the Dev team.

Kind regards,

[Mathew]

• Firefox: Wheel moves up and down the page, CTRL-wheel zooms.
• Bluebeam rather annoyingly uses just the wheel for zoom, and CTRL-wheel to change pages (actually that program can be erratic because sometimes CTRL-wheel will also zoom.) So I get messed up switching between pdf programs - constantly switching pages when I mean to zoom in!

Would be great to have an option so we can choose.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello Mathew,

Bluebeam aims more at people coming from e.g. architectural drawings, and Cad software I believe use the mouse wheel on it's own for zooming in, maybe that's why this is their default as well!

However pretty much any browser or other PDF viewer I can think of (or any other software that works with long documents) would default to the mouse wheel being for scrolling up/down the document and for zoom (which is the operation less frequently needed) to use a modifier key like Ctrl.

Kind regards,
Stefan

[Davide78]

Since you have now become, by merit, my only reference in the world of PDF, the analogies of operation with other programs that I can give you are usually inspired by Autocad, not by your competitors. I add that many questions I ask you concern analogies of consultation of documents equivalent to the use in Autocad (planimetric documents, multi-page schematic files, etc.)

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello Davide78,

Yes - and we appreciate the feedback, however for the majority of people who do not work on architectural plans the current behaviour of the mouse wheel is better. I will ask our devs on their opinion on offering this as a switchable option, but I can not make any promises that it will be approved.

Kind regards,
Stefan

[Davide78]

Of course, it is right that the operation is designed to satisfy the greatest number of users!
I always ask because I assume that the program has solutions for some of my problems that I can't find by myself (as has often happened)!
Everything you implement will be appreciated, and even if this request is not fulfilled, as long as I can I will use your program because it speeds up many work activities for me
Best regards

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello Davide78,

And we greatly appreciate all user feedback, and as you have noticed - we try to implement the majority of feature requests that do make sense, but sometimes something might be too niche, hence my 'warning' above that I can not make any promises. Our devs will look at this request likely a bit later this week, and if there's any movement from their side I will post again here in the topic!

Kind regards,
Stefan

[Yorgi]

Note to Stefan and PDF Xchange: It would be great if there was a toggle that could allow setting the behaviour of the mouse scroll wheel to be reversed (ie wheel = zoom and Ctrl+wheel = scroll). We have many users of PDF Xchange in my industry of Architecture and Engineering, and in these industries, most CAD applications use the mouse wheel to zoom by default. I also use Bluebeam when required by client stipulations and that software has the mouse configured to zoom with the mouse wheel and then Ctrl+wheel = scroll. It makes it very frustrating when switching back and forth to remember which function is active in each app. Please consider adding this as it would be very helpful to have the option to switch the function around for those of us that need it. Thanks.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, Yorgi

Thank you for adding your support to the discussion above. This is what Stefan and Davide have been discussing up until now, and by extension is the topic I mentioned in my initial post here. It is a known demand, but at this time, we cannot make any promises for a change. I am very sorry that I cannot give you the promise that you are looking for, but know that the Dev team will look into it when we can find the time.

Kind regards,

[LoganAC34]

Note to Stefan and PDF Xchange: It would be great if there was a toggle that could allow setting the behaviour of the mouse scroll wheel to be reversed (ie wheel = zoom and Ctrl+wheel = scroll). We have many users of PDF Xchange in my industry of Architecture and Engineering, and in these industries, most CAD applications use the mouse wheel to zoom by default. I also use Bluebeam when required by client stipulations and that software has the mouse configured to zoom with the mouse wheel and then Ctrl+wheel = scroll. It makes it very frustrating when switching back and forth to remember which function is active in each app. Please consider adding this as it would be very helpful to have the option to switch the function around for those of us that need it. Thanks.

This is right on what i want - just swap functionality for zooming/scrolling. I don't know why this seems like a hard thing to implement and would seemingly please everyone since everyone gets their option. Make just scroll wheel = scroll by default, then the toggle being on would make ctrl+wheel = scroll and just scroll = zoom.

It seems this option has been asked for 16 years now:
viewtopic.php?t=5299 (Jan 31, 2009)
viewtopic.php?t=26193 (Jun 18, 2016)
viewtopic.php?t=45712 (Mar 14, 2025 (this post))

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, LoganAC34

Priorities is the root of the issue here. We have a very small dev team, and cannot always allocate the people to do everything in a timely manner. In many cases popularity can be a benefit, but it is not the sole factor determining what gets implemented. I am sorry that this has gone on so long, but at this point I cannot promise a change is coming any sooner.

Kind regards,

[LoganAC34]

Hello, LoganAC34

Priorities is the root of the issue here. We have a very small dev team, and cannot always allocate the people to do everything in a timely manner. In many cases popularity can be a benefit, but it is not the sole factor determining what gets implemented. I am sorry that this has gone on so long, but at this point I cannot promise a change is coming any sooner.

Kind regards,

That's kind of a bummer because it seems to me if it's not a priority now after 16 years, then it'll never be a priority. Honestly, I was trying out this program to see if i wanted to use it permanently, but this little thing will probably make me find some other replacement or go back to Adobe since its something that'll annoy me 100% of the time.

In you're older replies in the second post I linked above makes it seem the idea was initially shot down/pushed back because of trying to make the implementation more complicated than it needs to be. You mentioned "We could however take the 'easy way out...'"; can you not do that now? It seems the easy way is what everyone in those posts wants and nothing more and won't disrupt current functionality. You can always implement "the functional route" later.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, LoganAC34

I will be quite honest, much of the phrasing I used 6 years ago was somewhat immature, and sometimes lacking in context. I do apologize if this gave the impression that it was easier than it is.
While the method mentioned there might be slightly easier from a development standpoint, it is still not an overall "easy" implementation. There are various interactions that need to be flipped to reflect and respect this handling.

I am very sorry if this is a deal-breaker for you, but I cannot offer an empty promise that it will come tomorrow. I prefer to be honest with anyone on the forums where possible. If we happen to over-deliver on my under-promises, that is great for everyone. If we don't manage to do so, then disappointment is minimized, instead of agitated.

Kind regards,

[LoganAC34]

Hello, LoganAC34

I will be quite honest, much of the phrasing I used 6 years ago was somewhat immature, and sometimes lacking in context. I do apologize if this gave the impression that it was easier than it is.
While the method mentioned there might be slightly easier from a development standpoint, it is still not an overall "easy" implementation. There are various interactions that need to be flipped to reflect and respect this handling.

I am very sorry if this is a deal-breaker for you, but I cannot offer an empty promise that it will come tomorrow. I prefer to be honest with anyone on the forums where possible. If we happen to over-deliver on my under-promises, that is great for everyone. If we don't manage to do so, then disappointment is minimized, instead of agitated.

Kind regards,

Fair enough, and I understand you can't promise anything now since I'm sure you don't make the decision to add features. I was just trying to hopefully raise the priority of this feature by sharing the frustration and highlighting how important it could be for others, especially since it was sidelined for many years and for seemingly because of making it bigger than it needed to be. I just want the functionality in its simplest form. I didn't mean to imply there wasn't some difficulty in implementing it as i'm sure there is with all coding work, just that I wasn't as as hard as other features. I understand now that the "easy way" was not as easy as I originally thought. I was/am frustrated, but I did not intend to come across as rude and I apologize if I did.

That said, I still stand by my point. If the functionality has not been added after people asking for many years, I have little reason to believe it will ever be added. I wish whoever makes the decision to add features reconsiders adding this feature and in its simplest form.

Thanks for taking the time to reply back.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, LoganAC34

No worries, I did not read your reply as rude, I just thought I might offer some clarification on what "past Dan" was thinking.

In any case, I wholeheartedly agree on a personal level. There are many features that see quite a bit of desire/requests that unfortunately do get pushed back (I would know, as I have personally made about 60% of the feature requests in the past few years). Most often this is done with good reason, and (less often, but still not uncommon) something may be overlooked because it is intended to come as part of another project that is in the works, and delayed. In all cases it is saddening to see, but knowing how many developers we have to work with, it is understandable.

I too hope we can find the time to review and reconsider what is being implemented, and when. For now though, all I can do is put in a small nudge to request a priority increase, and reiterate the last decision we have any news about.

Kind regards,

[KyrieEleison]

Not sure the rules on Necroing a thread, but just gonna post a reply here in support of a toggleable feature for this...

I greatly prefer Bluebeams zoom with the mouse wheel, as for the erratic behavior it depends on the type of view that you are using in bluebeam for what the middle mouse wheel will do... Continuous page view iirc it scrolls. Single page view it will zoom.

I'm not sure if that would be easier to implement?

But having gotten used to bluebeam, CAD/CAM, and RTS games... The scroll wheel is always used for zooming and it's a frustrating habit to break for this software... Being able to flick my screen a bit seems to help as I just keep it zoomed in most of the time.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, KyrieEleison

I don't think it counts as Necroing if the last post was only 6 days ago, but I don't think we have any rules against it anyway.

In any case, thank you for adding your voice here, I will make a note, and hopefully we can see the priority raised.

Kind regards,

[Puerstinger_Klaus]

Hello!

I want to make my note too due to include the possibility to zoom only using the mouse wheel without pressing the "Crtl" button.
Im my company (construction business) we changed to pdf x-change as a powerfull toll. Due to the circumstance that we work most times with plans (pdf-files), the zoom-function is essential.

It would be great if this possibility would be integrated in an upcoming version.

Best regards,
Klaus

[Sean - PDF-XChange]

Hi Puerstinger_Klaus,

Thanks for adding your input here - the development team will consider it when they handle this request.

Kind regards,

[swallabarca]

Hello, I was going to have the same request. I want to move from another popular PDF markup application to use PDF XChange full time. However, not being able to zoom with just the mouse wheel is probably the only reason I don't make the switch. It seems like a small thing, but it makes a huge difference. Thank you!

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, swallabarca

So far this ticket has not observed a high priority.. I am sorry to say we do have many projects on the go, so I cannot promise a change soon. Also, for reference, this is the ticket number for the suggestion:
RT#3378: FR: Make an option to use the mouse wheel for zoom

Nonetheless, I have this time explicitly requested our Dev Team Leader re-evaluates the priority of this request, as this is (by my count), one of the most highly requested features in the past few years.

Kind regards,

[Mithun]

Hello,

In PDF-XChange Editor, zooming requires Ctrl + Mouse Wheel, and there is no option for scroll-only zoom.

All CAD software like AutoCAD, Tekla Structures, and others use mouse wheel zoom without Ctrl, which makes navigation faster and more intuitive.

This has been requested by users for a long time. Adding this option would greatly improve usability and help users like me work more efficiently.

Please consider including this in an upcoming update.

Thanks.
Mithun

[Sean - PDF-XChange]

Hi Mithun,

Thanks for your input here - the team will consider it will they come to this ticket.

Kind regards,