diff --git a/Controls/PreviewPane.xaml.cs b/Controls/PreviewPane.xaml.cs
index e2c58eb..015a920 100644
--- a/Controls/PreviewPane.xaml.cs
+++ b/Controls/PreviewPane.xaml.cs
@@ -479,7 +479,7 @@ public partial class PreviewPane : UserControl
         // the mode where nothing is editable. Dragging it afterwards is handled by MouseMove.
         if (!vm.IsEditMode)
         {
-            vm.ToggleZoom();
+            vm.ToggleZoom(p.X, p.Y);
             e.Handled = true;
             return;
         }
@@ -619,7 +619,10 @@ public partial class PreviewPane : UserControl
             return;
         }
 
-        vm.ToggleZoom();
+        var grid = (Grid)sender;
+        var toCanvas = CanvasGrid.TransformToVisual(grid).Inverse;
+        var p = toCanvas.Transform(e.GetPosition(grid));
+        vm.ToggleZoom(p.X, p.Y);
         e.Handled = true;
     }
 
diff --git a/ViewModels/MainViewModel.Zoom.cs b/ViewModels/MainViewModel.Zoom.cs
index 05eb706..c8c5310 100644
--- a/ViewModels/MainViewModel.Zoom.cs
+++ b/ViewModels/MainViewModel.Zoom.cs
@@ -21,7 +21,6 @@ public partial class MainViewModel
 {
     public void ActivateZoom(double clickX, double clickY)
     {
-        if (!(IsLive || IsRecording)) return;
         var maxW = MasterFrameWidth * 0.7;
         var maxH = MasterFrameHeight * 0.7;
         double w, h;
@@ -74,9 +73,16 @@ public partial class MainViewModel
         RefreshZoomUi();
     }
 
-    public void ToggleZoom()
+    /// <summary>
+    /// The gesture behind the zoom box: activate it centred on the click, or dismiss it if it is
+    /// already open. Both halves live here because the old split (activate while live, dismiss
+    /// only otherwise) made the gesture do nothing at all when idle — the box could be turned off
+    /// but never on (creator, 2026-11-01).
+    /// </summary>
+    public void ToggleZoom(double clickX, double clickY)
     {
         if (_zoomState.IsActive) DismissZoom();
+        else ActivateZoom(clickX, clickY);
     }
 
     public void DismissZoom()
diff --git a/docs/ai/ui-surface.md b/docs/ai/ui-surface.md
index c78b7e0..2bbb7f2 100644
--- a/docs/ai/ui-surface.md
+++ b/docs/ai/ui-surface.md
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ The app is a **director's control surface**, not an editor. This replaces the OB
 
 - **Left panel:** `EditingActive` is an explicit `EDIT` toggle, not a mode inferred from `StreamStatus`. On = scene layers + properties; off = YouTube chat. Go Live turns editing off and stopping restores it; recording does not automatically switch it off. The staged scene is the preview/edit target; `LiveScene` is the program output.
 - **Top bar:** the `EDIT` toggle sits beside the REC/ON-AIR session controls; the brand and account surfaces remain at the sides. Its **right edge aligns with the layers panel below** (`TopBar` column 0 is a fixed **352** = work-area margin 8 + 360px column − the bar's own 16px padding), so the button and the panel share an edge. The **settings gear moved to the preview rail** (2026-11-01): first tab, orange (`Brush.Attention`), gear icon only — left-click opens the app menu (Settings / Bug / Feature / About), right-click goes straight to App Settings.
-- **Preview gestures (2026-11-01):** *edit mode* — left selects/drags/resizes, right opens the context menu, **Ctrl+right toggles the zoom box**. *Preview mode* — **left toggles the zoom box**, right opens the context menu; **Ctrl+right does nothing at all** (no chord while live or recording — one hand, always). ⚠️ **Both the Down and the Up event must be handled for a Ctrl+right-click**: WPF's `PopupControlService` opens a context menu on right-button-**up**, so suppressing only the down event leaves the menu appearing under the gesture (found 2026-11-01 in edit mode). Menus exist on the webcam layer and the backdrop; every other layer right-clicks through to the backdrop menu. Left-dragging with the zoom box open moves it, in both modes. The social bar consumes its own click (toggle top ⇄ bottom), and the preview's tunnelling handler steps aside for it — otherwise the bar is unclickable in preview mode and drags the layer beneath it in edit mode.
+- **Preview gestures (2026-11-01):** *edit mode* — left selects/drags/resizes, right opens the context menu, **Ctrl+right toggles the zoom box**. *Preview mode* — **left toggles the zoom box**, right opens the context menu; **Ctrl+right does nothing at all** (no chord while live or recording — one hand, always). ⚠️ **Both the Down and the Up event must be handled for a Ctrl+right-click**: WPF's `PopupControlService` opens a context menu on right-button-**up**, so suppressing only the down event leaves the menu appearing under the gesture (found 2026-11-01 in edit mode). Menus exist on the webcam layer and the backdrop; every other layer right-clicks through to the backdrop menu. Left-dragging with the zoom box open moves it, in both modes. **The gesture activates the box at the cursor**, not merely dismisses it: `ActivateZoom` no longer refuses when idle (it used to return unless `IsLive || IsRecording`, and `ToggleZoom` only ever dismissed — so the gesture did nothing at all outside a session until 2026-11-01). The social bar consumes its own click (toggle top ⇄ bottom), and the preview's tunnelling handler steps aside for it — otherwise the bar is unclickable in preview mode and drags the layer beneath it in edit mode.
 - **Preview undo/redo (2026-11-01):** `Ctrl+Z` / `Ctrl+Shift+Z`, window-level bindings, live only while `EditingActive` — undo with the preview showing program output would rewrite a scene nobody is looking at. `Models/PreviewHistory` snapshots element **references** plus geometry, visibility, order and membership, so move / resize / reorder / add / remove / hide all undo in one step per gesture (`PushPreviewUndo` is called once at drag or resize start, never inside the move loop). Property edits (colour, opacity, border, font) are **not** captured yet — stated in the type's doc comment so nobody assumes otherwise. The stack clears on layout load. Guard: `ytLive.Tests/PreviewHistoryTests.cs`.
 - **Developer affordances are compiled out of release, not hidden.** Any control that must never ship (today: the all-resolutions override) lives in its own `UserControl` whose `Page` and `Compile` items are removed by `ytLive.csproj` when `$(Configuration) != 'Debug'`, and is added to its host at runtime inside `#if DEBUG` (`OverlayHost`). A collapsed row still exists in the visual tree of every shipped copy; "not compiled" is the only claim worth making. Label such rows with `Brush.Attention` (orange) while they are visible in Debug. Guard: `ytLive.Tests/OutputProfileTests.cs` asserts the build rule, and `Helpers/DevBuild.cs` is the single source for "is this a dev build".
 - **Scene strip:** five fixed-size cards above the preview show the scene name and hotkey; the staged scene carries a `PROGRAM` badge, and staged/live borders use orange. Click stages a scene while idle; while streaming or recording it changes program output and starts the selected transition.