How to disable "rubber band" scrolling

[pjhayton]

"Rubber band" scrolling was recently instituted into the Mac OS in a recent upgrade, and comes by default on all Macs running the Lion OS. Apple has referred to it as "rubber band" scrolling, while others would describe it as "springy", "shaky", or just annoying. I personally found it annoying and so I decided to find a way to disable it, and I found quick fix.

Follow these steps to disable/enable "rubber band" scrolling:

1. Click on the Apple apple button on the top left corner of your screen and then click on "System Preferences".

2. Under the top row of icons titled "Personal", click "Universal Access" on the far right.

3. At the top of the newly opened screen you have four options to click ("Seeing", "Hearing", "Keyboard", and "Mouse and Trackpad"). Select "Mouse and Trackpad".

4. Select "Trackpad Options..." towards the bottom of the newly opened screen.

5. In this screen, "Scrolling" should be checked unless you have tampered with this option before. To the right of scrolling is a drop down arrow with two options: "with inertia" or "without inertia". Select "with inertia" if you would like the "rubber band" effect or select "without inertia" if you would like to remove the "rubber band effect".

6. Select "Done" and enjoy your new method of scrolling!


I hope this helped. I just figured this out today as the rubber band scrolling was getting annoying so I decided to make a small guide about it. Let me know if you need any additional help! Thanks.

 

[gr8tfly]

Just a comment:

The main feature of "inertial scrolling" is that it gives the document the illusion of mass, and therefore inertia. If you flick while scrolling, the document keeps moving. The faster and more rapidly you flick, the faster the document scrolls. There's no "rubber band" effect while scrolling, though. If Apple has referred to the term "rubber band", they are only talking about the effect that happens when you reach the end of a document.

They're the same scrolling effects used since IOS was release with the first iPhone. For some machines (before Lion), inertial scrolling was added to the internal trackpad when the Magic Trackpad driver was installed.

Thanks for the tip, though. I found the scrolling speed adjustment (posted that elsewhere) and noticed the "missing" option for inertial scrolling.

 

[Fofer]

Inertia scrolling is *NOT* the same as the elasticity effect when you reach the top or bottom of a page.

That being said, we have a built in way to turn off inertia scrolling. We do NOT have a way to turn off the elasticity effect, if we're using input devices that support gestures.

I have found this CSS snippet that apparently disables it:

http://www.smilingsouls.net/Blog/20110804114957.html

http://mir.aculo.us/2011/07/29/prevent-rubber-band-scrolling-for-single-page-apps-in-safari-5-1/

Now to figure out how to implement the CSS rule in every web page we visit... probably via a Safari extension, like QuickStyle or NinjaKit.

QuickStyle: http://canisbos.com/quickstyle

NinjaKit: http://goo.gl/7kVYM

 

[2499723]

Just a curiosity: What is the benefit of disabling the rubber-band effect when you reach the end of a document? I suppose I can see some reason for disabling inertial scrolling, because you only want to move a document as far as you move your fingers. However, I'm not sure what is to be gained by disabling the rubber band effect. It's one of the nice little touches Apple has implemented and I was very glad to see it appear in Lion.

 

[Steve's Barber]

Just a curiosity: What is the benefit of disabling the rubber-band effect when you reach the end of a document? I suppose I can see some reason for disabling inertial scrolling, because you only want to move a document as far as you move your fingers. However, I'm not sure what is to be gained by disabling the rubber band effect. It's one of the nice little touches Apple has implemented and I was very glad to see it appear in Lion.

The inertia thing is new to me and I agree. Nothing like scrolling through a list of 300 items with just a "flick" of the fingers to get to the top/bottom. The 'bouncy' effect when you reach the end of the list doesn't bother me like I thought it would.

 

[basher]

I like the inertia scrolling a log, but some lists still have be dragging the scrollbar.

Also, I'm not sold on the idea of hiding the scrollbar for non-iOS devices. I'm glad that Apple at least gives the user the choice of automatically hiding or showing scrollbars.

 

[lehestro]

Just a curiosity: What is the benefit of disabling the rubber-band effect when you reach the end of a document?

For me, I keep getting the illusion that I'm losing the last file in a list, especially when the finder window has a certain width and a horizontal scroll bar appears, covering up the last file for a second. It's a small thing, but because of my job I've had it so ingrained into me to be overly thorough when it comes to file mgmt that I keep wondering if I'm selecting the final file or not.

Also, that extra second of animation is quite annoying when you're in hardcore work mode, and moving files about. It's like, c'mon, get to the files already. It might sound picky, and it is, but as the spring serves no purpose, why make us deal with a workflow interruption no matter how small (also it starts to not feel so small when it happens over and over and over again whilst working).

The basic issue at hand, and this, I think, applies to most of the gripes about Lion (of which I've many), is forcing people to work a certain way. This, for the most part, was not an issue with OSX until now. Before, the changes always (for me at least) seemed to expand possibilities and enhance workflows rather than constrict or hinder then. It's a lateral move at best, imo.