How do I turn off plot zooming when mouse is moved?

Sometimes when I'm manipulating a plot with a mouse (e.g. zoom in/out, pan, zoom again, etc.), the zoom function starts to operate just on my mouse movements rather than the scroll wheel. If I move the mouse right, the plot zooms in; if I move the mouse left, the plot zooms out. How do I turn that off and set the zoom to work off of the scroll wheel again? I'm using MATLAB R2024b.

Answer 1

[Mathieu NOE]

hello

funny, I don't have this effect on my R2025a . Is it a matlab issue or a problem with your mouse ?

either I use the already available zoom/pan functions of the figure, or you can try with the script below if that works better for you

FYI, this is also a very powerful plotting tool :

plt - File Exchange - MATLAB Central

pltSig - File Exchange - MATLAB Central

hope it helps

% here’s a self-contained MATLAB script that enables smooth mouse-wheel zoom and click-drag pan for any figure, just like modern image viewers.
% This works for plots and images without requiring extra toolboxes.
% 


% Example with a plot
x = 0:0.01:10;
plot(x, sin(x));

smoothZoomPan;


% Features
% 
% Mouse wheel zoom centered on cursor position.
% Click-drag pan in any direction.
% Works for images and plots.
% No toolboxes required.
% Can be reused in any figure.


% MATLAB Script: smoothZoomPan.
function smoothZoomPan()
% SMOOTHZOOMPAN - Enables mouse-wheel zoom and click-drag pan
% Works for any MATLAB figure with axes or images.
%
% Usage:
%   smoothZoomPan; % Run after creating your plot/image

    fig = gcf; % Current figure
    ax = gca;  % Current axes

    % Enable mouse wheel zoom
    fig.WindowScrollWheelFcn = @(src, event) scrollZoom(ax, event);

    % Enable click-drag pan
    fig.WindowButtonDownFcn = @(src, event) startPan(fig, ax);
    fig.WindowButtonUpFcn   = @(src, event) stopPan(fig);

    disp('Smooth zoom & pan enabled. Use mouse wheel to zoom, drag to pan.');

end

%% --- Helper Functions ---
function scrollZoom(ax, event)
    % Get current mouse point in axes coordinates
    cp = ax.CurrentPoint;
    xCenter = cp(1,1);
    yCenter = cp(1,2);

    % Zoom factor (scroll up = zoom in, scroll down = zoom out)
    zoomFactor = 1 - event.VerticalScrollCount * 0.1;

    % Get current limits
    xlimOld = xlim(ax);
    ylimOld = ylim(ax);

    % Calculate new limits centered on mouse position
    xlimNew = xCenter + (xlimOld - xCenter) * zoomFactor;
    ylimNew = yCenter + (ylimOld - yCenter) * zoomFactor;

    % Apply new limits
    xlim(ax, xlimNew);
    ylim(ax, ylimNew);
end

function startPan(fig, ax)
    % Store initial point and limits
    fig.UserData.PanStartPoint = get(fig, 'CurrentPoint');
    fig.UserData.OrigXLim = xlim(ax);
    fig.UserData.OrigYLim = ylim(ax);

    % Set motion callback
    fig.WindowButtonMotionFcn = @(src, event) doPan(fig, ax);
end

function doPan(fig, ax)
    % Get current mouse position
    cp = get(fig, 'CurrentPoint');
    startPt = fig.UserData.PanStartPoint;

    % Calculate movement in figure units
    dx = cp(1) - startPt(1);
    dy = cp(2) - startPt(2);

    % Convert movement to axis units
    xRange = diff(fig.UserData.OrigXLim);
    yRange = diff(fig.UserData.OrigYLim);

    % Adjust limits
    xlim(ax, fig.UserData.OrigXLim - dx * xRange / fig.Position(3));
    ylim(ax, fig.UserData.OrigYLim + dy * yRange / fig.Position(4));
end

function stopPan(fig)
    % Remove motion callback
    fig.WindowButtonMotionFcn = '';
end