Q: I used to be able to use the zoom for zooming in and used alt zoom to zoom out. Now it has reversed it's self and I don't know why or how to get it back.
A: I hate when Elements doesn't do what I know it should do. The one that usually gets me is when I hide a selection, then I forget I have an active selection and I try to clone in another area and nothing happens.
I think your problem has an easy solution. To get the Zoom tool working the way your used to try this:
Select the Zoom tool from the Toolbox
Go up to the top-left of the Options bar and click on the zoom icon with the plus sign (see photo)
Now occasionally a tool will just start acting flaky for no good reason. So if you find that you have the right setting in the Options bar and it still is doing the reverse of what you want, try this:
Select the Zoom tool from the Toolbox
Go up to the top-left of the Options bar and click on the little arrow just to the left of the zoom icons
From the drop-down menu choose Reset Tool
Hopefully one of these actions will take care of your problem. Add a comment to this page and let us know how it turns out.