Why is the zoom feature in Microsoft Word and Excel dependent upon the Mac hardware?

Question

Good evening,

In macOS Tahoe, I noticed that the standard control-scroll command to zoom the Mac screen was also used to zoom in Microsoft 365 Enterprise apps, such as Word. Therefore, if I zoomed in on the entire screen when using a Word document, it would not be legible when I zoomed out because it also zoomed out the Word document itself. This behavior did not occur until updating to Tahoe. According to Google Gemini, the behavior is a function of Microsoft 365, and there is no setting a user can change. Therefore, the fix would be to disable zooming at the operating system level, which would disable all zooming.

However, it is not so simple. This behavior occurs on MacBook Air computers that I own with the M4 chip. Computers I own with the M1 chip, with the same software and operating system, do not show this behavior. Is there any simple explanation as to why the functionality of Microsoft Word depends on the type of Apple processor in the computer? Because I use a 32-inch 4K display, I occasionally need to zoom in on the entire screen. I did think of reverting to the original operating system on the M4 MacBook Air, but because everything points to an unchangeable feature in Microsoft 365, and the problem does not occur on an M1, I am reluctant. I also thought about getting a MacBook Air with an M3 chip to see how it behaves. Thank you.

Answer 1

Dora, thank you for your response. I was not trying to be cynical. I noticed the problem occurred only after updating to Mac OS Tahoe. I went to show someone a demonstration of the problem using my MacBook Air M1, which was most convenient at the time. The strange behavior did not exist. I went back to one of my M4 MacBook Air computers and verified it still had the strange behavior.

Although I keep the operating system on the M1 computer up to date, I may need to check whether it has the latest version of Microsoft 365 Enterprise. Because Microsoft updates 365 automatically, it may be that, due to minimal computer use, the versions of the 365 apps are not up to date. What I did find in the documentation is that in Microsoft Word and other 365 apps, the shortcut for changing zoom is Control + scroll, which is the same as the default zooming shortcut on macOS, and it is not a setting that a user may change. I am not sure whether this shortcut for zooming has always been available in Microsoft 365 Enterprise for Mac or is a relatively new update.

Fortunately, after investigating the accessibility settings in OS Tahoe again, I now realize I can set the operating system zoom to use Option + scroll rather than Control + scroll, which is used by Word. Changing this setting in the operating system has fixed the problem. Because I still have AppleCare on one of my newer computers, I may consider contacting Apple to see if anybody has reported similar behavior. However, this fix should be effective until there is another major update to either Microsoft 365 or macOS.

Thank you for your help!

Answer 2

Hi Lue, Christopher

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Q&A Forum. 

I tested using Control + Scroll screen zoom on a Mac with an M1 chip running macOS Tahoe. In my testing, I observed the same behavior you described, where Word zooms together with the macOS screen zoom. I was also unable to find any setting that would prevent this behavior. 

Additionally, I did some research but was unable to find any documentation indicating that Word or Excel zoom functionality behaves differently between Macs with M1 and M4 processors. 

Please note that this is a user-to-user support forum. While moderators and community members can share guidance, we do not have access to Microsoft's internal product teams or engineering resources to further investigate this behavior. 

Given this, I would recommend opening a support ticket with Microsoft Support. For instructions on how to contact Microsoft Support, you can follow this guide: Get support - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn.  

Since the behavior involves both Microsoft 365 applications and macOS screen zoom functionality, you may also want to contact Apple Support for additional assistance. 

Thank you for your understanding. 

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Answer 3

The behavior difference is not documented as being caused by the Apple processor type (M1 vs M4), and the available information does not describe any Word/Excel setting that controls this new interaction with macOS zoom.

From the provided information:

• Office for Mac (including Word and Excel in Microsoft 365) runs natively on Apple Silicon and no longer requires Rosetta emulation for supported versions. This applies broadly to Apple Silicon devices, not to a specific chip generation.
• There is no documented per‑app setting in Word/Excel that changes how they respond to macOS system‑level zoom shortcuts.
• The context does not describe any difference in Office behavior between different Apple Silicon generations (M1 vs M3 vs M4), only that Apple Silicon is supported natively from specific Office versions onward.

Given the context, the key supported points are:

1. Office for Mac is Apple Silicon–native from Excel/Word version 16.55.1107.0 and later, and Rosetta should be disabled for full feature support.
2. There is no documented Office setting to decouple Word/Excel zoom from macOS system zoom shortcuts.
3. No official explanation is provided that ties zoom behavior specifically to the M1 vs M4 hardware; the documentation only distinguishes between Intel vs Apple Silicon and Rosetta vs native execution.

Because of that, the context does not support a detailed technical explanation for why the zoom behavior differs between M1 and M4 machines, nor any Office‑side configuration to change it.

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References:

• Use Office for Mac powered by Apple silicon