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Creating a new method of scrolling Apps
I just tried putting together two great shortcut-type applications and got what I thought was a great combo so I thought I'd share. The combo is for people with more than two button mice (e.g. scroll mice), but both apps involved are really cool for any OS X Mac user.

Basically the combo lets you use the motion of your mouse to simulate a scroll wheel (but NOT like "auto-scroll", which I don't like, personally). It's not better than a scroll wheel, it's different - it's a great compliment to scroll wheels. If you have a laptop you need this, because it lets you use the trackpad for scrolling (uControl), and lets your external mouse do the same so you don't lose the functionality when you plug one in.

It's pretty cool for a lot of scrolling needs, I think, and works better than a scroll wheel or "auto-scroll" often. Let me know what y'all think!

--HOW TO DO IT--

Cool Not-Autoscroll, Not-Scroll-Wheel, Scrolling Mouse
(Serve in groups of laptop users and people with more than two-button mice (e.g. scroll mice)

Ingredients:
1 cup of uControl
5 ounces of USB Overdrive
1 Apple Mac with OS X.2 wrapper

Directions:
  1. Install uControl
  2. Install USB Overdrive. Warning: If you are using other third party mouse software it will probably override that software. If you can figure out how to use your own third party mouse software then more power to you!
  3. Restart.
  4. Play around with both apps to get familiar with them.
  5. Open to uControl's prefs via System Prefs.
  6. Under the "Scrolling" Tab check "Scroll Wheel Emulation" and choose "command", "control", and "option/alt" as the three modifier keys.
  7. Hold down cmd+opt+ctrl and move your mouse/trackpad around on a page that scrolls. You should be able to scroll this way.
  8. Plug in an external mouse.
  9. Open USB Overdrive.
  10. In the left column, make sure "Global Settings" is highlighted. In the middle column click "Middle Button" (or whatever button you'd like that you aren't using for something else). In the right column choose "Do Nothing" from the drop-down menu and then check the "Control", "Command", and "Option" checkboxes.
  11. Go to a page that scrolls, hold down the middle scroll button (or whatever button you chose) and move the mouse around.
Cool, huh? Well, I think so at least! :p It won't replace a scroll wheel, but I think you will find it useful for many different scrolling needs. Just as a side note, you can also use uControl to make the enter key on your laptop function as "control" -- to make right-handed, one-handed right-clicks possible. Enjoy!

[Editor's note: I have not tested this hint myself...]
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Creating a new method of scrolling | 8 comments | Create New Account
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Poor man's version
Authored by: Jay on Nov 14, '02 11:36:44AM

If you hold down CMD key and drag in Explorer, it will do this without any of the extra steps, or just remap your middle button to CMD for that app.



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Poor man's version
Authored by: osxpounder on Nov 14, '02 12:50:03PM

Thanks for mentioning that IE tip--now THAT was a cool hint!



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Poor man's version
Authored by: jeb1138 on Nov 14, '02 03:32:34PM

Yep that is cool! It's not really the equivalent of what uControl+USBOverdrive does though, because the mouse pointer moves when you scroll & so you run out of scrolling space after just a short distance, like in Acrobat. I've known about & tried the Explorer trick for a while, but trust me uControl is a lot more useful!

And, of course, cmd+click only works in Explorer (the tip I posted is really cool for navigating the Finder -- especially column view -- and save/open dialog boxes, and in any document where easy horizontal scrolling would be nice, like coding) and cmd+click+scroll+move-the mouse-when-you-run-out-of-space gets a little "fingery" on laptops (with uControl you can set it so you just hold down one key, like "fn", for instance).

Not to be rude or anything -- that's another really cool tip, but I think if you try my suggestion you'll find it's a totally different experience. And considering that both apps I used in my tip are free (well, USBOverdrive has a pop-up when you change settings, but it's no big hassle) I'd call mine a Poor man's version too! ;) Well, that's what I think anyway!



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finally! one handed browsing.
Authored by: deleted_user16 on Nov 14, '02 11:25:05PM

i've been using cocoa gestures with chimera for a while now, on my ibook, with the fn key mapped to the gestures. unfortunately, this requires two hands (one hand on fn key, other on trackpad).

i had never tried uControl before.. but installed it after reading this hint. now i've remapped the enter key to fn and i can now do my gestures one handed! (as well as scrolling one handed, with the command key).

this is awesome, thanks :)



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Click and Hold Mouse Button for Context Menu?
Authored by: syrreg on Nov 15, '02 12:38:54PM

To complete the one-handed browsing experience, Chimera still needs to have "click and hold for context menu" functionality. In IE, OmniWeb, Mozilla, Opera, and just about every other Mac OS X browser, if you point to a link and hold the mouse button down, the context menu pops up after a short delay without having to hold down the CTRL key simultaneously.

There is a bug filed for it:
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=159224

Perhaps it will be implemented if enough people vote for it.



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Click and Hold Mouse Button for Context Menu?
Authored by: Moofisto on Nov 18, '02 01:45:06PM

Yes, I voted for this one. Chimera's contextual menus are weak in other ways, but it's a pain in the ass to not be able to access them without a two-handed action on a stock or portable Mac. It's a holy war over at bugzilla, b/c some key people don't want click-and-hold --despite the fact that all other mac browsers do it, it's useful, and it's what users expect.



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USB Overdrive is shareware!
Authored by: jiclark on Nov 14, '02 11:59:27PM
...considering that both apps I used in my tip are free (well, USBOverdrive has a pop-up when you change settings, but it's no big hassle)...


I'm sorry, but shareware is not free! "...no big hassle" indeed! I think you need to be honest with yourself (and others). You need to pay the author $20 if you're going to use the software other than to just try out.

Otherwise, it's a great hint.

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USB Overdrive is shareware!
Authored by: jeb1138 on Nov 15, '02 02:04:50AM

I think we're actually more in agreement than it appears. I hope I didn't make it sound like I was encouraging people to avoid registration requirements -- actually, I fully support shareware and am a registered user of USB Overdrive. But remember, every shareware product has a different license scheme and different usage restrictions. Shareware is a balance of going after "market share" by getting people to try your programs and actually getting some of those people to pay. In this case the author has taken a pretty liberal stance. I deleted my license file and restarted USB Overdrive to remember exactly what he said. This is it:

"This program is shareware... This annoying request will no longer appear after you register by entering the code below. <b>There is no limitation in this unregistered version of the driver except a shareware reminder that appears at every startup until you register</b>." (sidenote: "startup" refers to starting up the change-your-settings part of the program, if you need to do so.)

So, Alessandro (the author) imposes absolutely no restrictions, neither "on paper" nor through any other means, on using his program unregistered (except the "annoying request", of course). It is 100% legal to do so.

Because Alessandro has taken this open stance I can promote his awesome program in forums like this one and more people will try it out because they know they can legally use it for free for as long as they wish. Out of those people a good number (he hopes) will register when they find out how cool it is (with a little help from the occasional reminder) like me. But for the poor man an pop-up request still equals free, so I say it still qualifies as a 100% free poor-man's solution! :)

I hope that clarifies things a little! And thanks for the complement on the tip.

Shameless plug for Alessandro: his program works wonderfully, he was by far the first to put out an OS X multi-button mouse driver, he's very responsive to e-mails and update-frequency has been very reasonable. Try it out! :)



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