Zoom Feature for Query Text and Results Text in SQL Server Management Studio

By: Ashish Kumar Mehta | Updated: 2011-05-06 | Comments (14) | Related: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | > SQL Server Management Studio

Problem

While looking through new features and improvements in SQL Server 2012, an improvement I came across was how to zoom in and out for both the Query Window and the Results Pane in SSMS. This is a very useful change which Microsoft has made, thereby making it easier for displaying T-SQL code and results to an audience while doing presentations, demo etc. In this tip we will take a look at how easily you can use this new feature in SQL Server 2012.

Solution

The Old Way

In previous versions of SQL Server, whenever you wanted to increase the display size for text, the only option was to increase the font size in the Text Editor. You can do this by selecting Options from the Tools menu as shown in the snippet below.

the old way to increase the display size in sql server

In the Options dialog box expand Environment and select the Fonts and Colors tab. In the "Show settings for" drop down, you need to chose the "Text Editor" option and choose the appropriate Font and Size and finally click OK to save the change. In order to see this change take effect, you need to close and re-open SQL Server Management Studio.

change the font and size in ssms

The New Way

In the new version of SQL Server 2012 Microsoft has made it very easy to change display settings in the Query Window and the Results Pane. Let's go through an example which demonstrates how one can easily use this feature.

In order to increase the font size in the Query Window, you can select the appropriate percentage value from the drop down list as highlighted in the below snippet in the Query Window.

in sql server denali change the display settings in query window and the results pane

In order to increase the font size in the Results Pane, you can select the appropriate percentage value from the drop down list as highlighted in the below snippet in the Results Pane.

select the appropriate percentage value in the results pane of ssms

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About the author

MSSQLTips author Ashish Kumar Mehta

Ashish Kumar Mehta has been contributing to the MSSQLTips.com community since 2009 with over 60 tips.

This author pledges the content of this article is based on professional experience and not AI generated.

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Article Last Updated: 2011-05-06

Comments For This Article

Friday, May 10, 2019 - 10:10:24 AM - Greg Robidoux	Back To Top (80027)
There is nothing you need to click on to bring up the menu, just click on the drop down to select the size.

Friday, May 10, 2019 - 9:26:45 AM - someone

Back To Top (80026)

You show a picture of the new menu item, but you don't tell how to bring up the menu.

I tried right clicking, etc. etc.

Thanks,

Monday, December 17, 2018 - 2:55:27 PM - BW	Back To Top (78515)
Changing one changes the other.

Monday, February 19, 2018 - 5:32:11 PM - John	Back To Top (75246)
Pinch to zoom also works on most trackpads, as I inadvertently discovered in a demo today. :-/

Wednesday, January 24, 2018 - 11:00:21 AM - Miss D.

Back To Top (75031)

Maybe this is a feature to some, but for me it has been an annoyance. Am I the ONLY person who does CUT and PASTE with the CTRL key?

If my finger DARES to linger on that control button while I'm trying to scroll through SQL code, ZOOM IN, ZOOM OUT... and then I need to stop everything and reset it to 100%. So incredibly annoying, and so rude of Microsoft not to make that an option. I like my type size, never had an issue going in through options to change it if I needed, and this is definitely a "solution where no problem existed".

I suppose it is because Microsoft does not want us USING SMSS for editing, and their suggestion is to use Visual Studio to edit all SQL code. But that is very presumptive of them.

Thursday, August 31, 2017 - 12:05:36 PM - Aijaz

Back To Top (65666)

Thanks for this helpful article. Someone changed my font size for one demonstration and I was not finding a way to readjust to normal. Finally I changed back to default.

Tuesday, July 12, 2016 - 12:12:06 AM - D Goggans

Back To Top (41865)

Thank you! I was CTRL-Zing away some of the code I'd written, and for no apparent reason, the font went tiny. I could NOT figure out what happened or how to un-zoom in. So I Googled the question, and up popped your excellent, simple answer. I couldn't believe I missed the very obvious (now that I know) percent setting. I was hunting through the menus and couldn't come up with a thing to explain what happened, and there it was right in front of me.

Wednesday, September 30, 2015 - 12:20:27 PM - Eric

Back To Top (38796)

Yes, thanks to SQL team for improvements.

One more... if you want to enlarge the font for grid results, it's still the OLD way...

1. Change Font size in :

Tools->Options->Environment->Fonts and Colors->Grid Results

For a demo, 16 works good.

2. You must restart studio :(

In my case, I am not an educator, just a dev giving a basic sprint demo over a shared screen (via Skype). Pretty normal stuff.

Monday, September 28, 2015 - 1:50:51 AM - Cristian Croitoru

Back To Top (38763)

To change the size of the test displayed in query window you can use the same shortcut that works in most other progtrams, CTRL+ Mouse wheel.

I use this quite often

Keep up the good work

Thursday, August 7, 2014 - 5:29:30 PM - Doug

Back To Top (34047)

(special characters were lost in my previous comment, so...)

Note that you can also type in a percentage number: "123" will make the query window font size larger than 100, and smaller than 150.
And even EASIER: resize the font by holding down the "Ctrl" key, while rolling the scroll wheel on your mouse!
I use this all the time.

Miron's suggestion works as well.

(And though this does not change the font... here's a tip that I wish I'd known years ago:
after executing your query, use "Ctrl"-"R" to make the results pane hide...
and you're back to having a full pane for your query text!
"Ctrl"-"R" again UNhides the results.)

Thursday, August 7, 2014 - 4:56:35 PM - Doug

Back To Top (34045)

Note that you can also type in a percentage number: "123" will make the query window font size larger than 100, and smaller than 150.

And even EASIER: resize the font by holding down the key, and rolling the scroll wheel on your mouse!
I use this all the time.

(And though this does not change the font... here's a tip that I wish I'd known years ago:
after executing your query, use - to make the results pane hide...
and you're back to having a full pane for your query text!
- again will unhide it.)

Friday, June 13, 2014 - 2:08:33 PM - Miron

Back To Top (32234)

Ctrl+Shift+> to increase font size

Ctrl+Shift+< to decrease font size

Same as in Visual Studio. If doesn't work, go through reset as per Ashish Kumar here: http://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/2625/improvement-to-keyboard-shortcuts-in-sql-server-2012-management-studio/

*** all legal disclaimers apply, just my personal post.

Monday, November 25, 2013 - 2:49:18 PM - Kurt Survance	Back To Top (27597)
Unless I am missing something, the dropdown for results only exists on the Messages tab. Unfortuanaely, you cannot change font size in the results pane using this method.

Sunday, May 8, 2011 - 5:48:31 PM - Adam	Back To Top (13776)
Hmmm not sure that this is that useful of a new feature. Maybe for teachers or presenters but I dont think I'll be using it in my daily job.