thanks darkrunner... looks like we both found it. yup, i was pushing every available button and discovered under tools that when the status bar is checked the zoom options appears on the right hand of the web brower.... not sure how it got "unchecked" in the first place.

Must have been the old roaming mouse with a mind of its own...mouse was doing all kinds of weird stuff.. this new mouse is driving me nuts ... is a USB mouse, whatever that means, if anything...is not at all like the old mouse with the red ball.....in fact i seem to be deleting my responses because this the the third time i tried to write this..scrolling is a new world, lol, with the new one.....never a dull moment around here.......