How do I zoom in to view my home more closely, or zoom out to see more of the neighborhood ?
When this page first loads, you should see below and to the left a Virtual Earth birdseye view that includes the Gate House (near the upper left corner of the view window). We will see how to zoom in on the Gate House, and to zoom out, too, simply by employing your mouse and the map control at the upper left corner of the view window (and then you can try doing this with an image of your home). So, let's do some experimenting:
1. We are going to zoom in to see the Gate House more closely. However, before doing so, we should realize that we should first move the object that we want to enlarge close to the center of the window. (If we were to zoom in right now, the Gate House would end up outside of the view window.) So, try dragging the image around by using your left mouse button - you should find that you can move the Gate House around quite readily. For this experiment, you should try to drag the Gate House to the center of the view window.
2. You can also shift the position of the Gate House "left" and "right", and "up" and "down", by briefly clicking on the four compass pointers (the four arrow symbols) inside the compass circle near the upper left corner of the map control, so you can approximately center an object by this method, as well. (And don't worry about "losing" the Gate House here - you can click on the "Refresh / Restore" button provided below this Virtual Earth window to start over again.) [However, I personally find that dragging an object with the mouse is easier.]
3. OK, now that we have the Gate House centered, let's try zooming in on it. Click on the "plus" magnifying glass symbol along the left side of the map control (at the upper left of the view window). You should find that you are now looking at a somewhat larger view of the Gate House. And, you should try zooming out, too. Click on the "minus" magnifying glass symbol, and you should find that you are now looking at a smaller view of the Gate House once again.
4. If you have a middle mouse button, you may find that you are also able to zoom in and out quite readily by dragging on the image "forward" and "backward", or "upward" and "downward", while holding down the middle mouse button.
5. Actually, the easiest way to center an object in the view window is to double-click on it with your mouse - it will be moved to the center of the view window, but there will also be one side effect - unless you are already zoomed in to the maximum "magnification" or "zoom level", you will find that double-clicking will cause you to zoom in as well, and this may or may not be helpful for what you are trying to do at the time - but, if you simply want to zoom in, then double-clicking may actually be simplest method to use.
6. Note that there are only two "zoom levels" available for the "Birdseye" mode, so that you can zoom in up to one time and zoom out up to one time. However, there are 19 "zoom levels" for the "Street" mode and the "Space" (satellite) mode. If you want to test this for yourself, click on either the "Street" or the "Space" setting on the map control, and then try zooming out and back several levels.
7. So, now that you have learned how to zoom in and out on the Gate House, you are ready to try zooming in and out with the image of your own Cypress Lakes home (trying both the birdseye mode and the other modes, too) - Enjoy!
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