Imagine you are working on a presentation with lots of information on a single slide. You're trying to precisely align several items, but find it difficult because the items are small on the design page. Or, imagine that you are getting old, and finally admit (to yourself, of course) that your eyes are starting to go. It starts to become difficult to read the small text on a web page. Help is here!

Mac OS X has a built-in zooming feature. It's part of the Universal Access. By default, zooming is turned off. To turn it on, Press Command+Option+8 (you will repeat this command to turn it off again). Now, you are set to zoom! Below are the key combinations you will need to know to navigate the zoom:

Command+Option+8: Toggle Zoom ON and OFF
Command+Option+"+": Zoom IN
Command+Option+"-": Zoom OUT

Below is a sample of me zooming in on a web page:

If you want to customize your zoom settings, open your System Preferences, then click on Universal Access. The resulting window will look like the following:

Simply click on the Options... button for all available options.