I think its pretty stupid that autocad won't let you use transparent
>commands while in hatch mode.
>
> For example, if you have to hatch alot of small stuff over a large area
> and need to zoom in and then back out, but can't.
>
> Even stupider is when you try to hatch alot of stuff while zoomed out and
> it sends an error cause its not clearly defining what your hatching, even
> though its clear as a bell on the screen. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrr............ >
Do you not have a mouse with a scroll wheel Don? You can zoom pretty much anytime with the scroll wheel no matter what command you are in.
What I do when I need to hatch a lot of small stuff over a small area is to zoom out so you can see all the places you need to hatch, and then hatch at least one spot. Then you can zoom in with the mouse wheel and you can hatch anything zoomed in even though it is off-screen, because it took the hatch outline from the first zoomed out view.