One of the nice features on the Mac which Windows has always lacked is a decent zoom function. Mac OS X’s implementation is beautiful, allowing full control over zoom depth and function, and even smoothens pixels so the result doesn’t look too jagged. This ability is fantastic for giving presentations on the use of computer software, as such displays usually wind up being too small to see fine detail such as small text or the specific appearance of buttons.

Windows, on the other hand, does a horrific job of this. The native zoom feature in Windows cuts the screen in half, one half being zoomed and the other not; this appearance, and how the moving cursor is tracked, is very confusing to the viewer and is no help at all in the end.

A new adjunct at our school found a software solution, however: ZoomIt, by Mark Russinovich. This freeware app essentially mimicks the zoom feature in Mac OS X and then does one better: it provides a red pen which you can use to draw on the screen, circling buttons or drawing arrows, whatever you like. The drawn portions can then be erased with a keyboard shortcut.

If you ever give Windows presentations and need to zoom in to show detail, give this software a try.