Laptop & Zooming Function

I just installed blender onto my laptop and everything for the most part is going fine, however for some reason I can not zoom in or out with the - or + symbols. I plugged in a normal keyboard and this worked the only problem is that it seems to change the view windows on its own and even when I switch back it just switches back again.

Any ideas on what the problem is? Also, how do you move the screen from side to side, it’s great to zoom in and out but what about moving the screen from left to right.

I really want to learn this program, but this is taking the fun out of it

I’m guessing you don’t have a full size keyboard on your laptop … Open up the User Preferences window, go to the System & OpenGL tab, and turn on the “Emulate Numpad” . This will make the number keys on top of your keyboard act like the number pad keys .

To pan use Shift + Alt + LMB (or the left button on your touch pad, if you do not use a mouse like me)
To rotate Alt + LMB .
To zoom in/out Ctrl + Alt + LMB .

Good Luck .