Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Making trackpad scrolling more intuitive?

sammich

sammich

macrumors 601
Original poster
Sep 26, 2006
4,306
268
Sarcasmville.
Okay, maybe it's just me, but wouldn't 'inverting' the trackpad scrolling (ie left is right, and up is down etc.) so that it makes more physical logical sense?

Let me explain myself before you blast me to bits...

Say you are looking at a full screen photo in say Aperture or iPhoto, you zoom in a lot, you can use the two-fingered scrolling to look around.
Now pretend you are looking at a large poster on a bench with a magnifying glass (or loupe), if you want to look at something to the right of what you are currently seeing, you move the poster left.

Fine, fine, you could say, you don't move the poster, you move the 'view'.

That said, is there any way to invert the direction of the trackpad scrolling, even just to how wrong I am?
 
Mmmm, does the iPhone work that way? It does make some sense. Grab tools work that way generally.

The OS X trackpad driver I use (Sidetrack) has the inversion capability. I have no idea if there's a way to do it with Apple's scrolling, however.
 
I think the iPhone does work that way from I can remember.

Most people would be used to the 'normal' way of scrolling, like scrolling down moves the 'page' down, which is intuitive in it's own right.

Thanks, I didn't think of using SideTrack, I did use it for powerbooks to try out two fingered scrolling (wasn't very effective, in fact totally, useless). The website does say it can be used with MB/P's so I'll give it a go. Thanks
 
There has been serious research on this topic in the academic field of human computer interaction.

if i recall correctly, people like to have same-direction controls (left is left, down is down). The problem is that something like 50% of people felt like they were pulling the viewscreen down, and the other 50% feel like they are pulling the page up.

On the web pulling the viewscreen down is the same as pushing the page up, and if you perceive the wrong one then it feels counterintuitive. It sounds like you perceive the page and the scrolling motion is therefore backwards to you.

On other media where the viewscreen and the page are seperable, this is resolvable, but for now you better hope there is a reversal option available :)
 
sbluetruck said:
it's just like gaming, inverted or not???

the default is not because it's your intuition that up is up and down is down.
Click to expand...

I already mentioned that, it's because you are moving the 'view' ie your head/eyes, up is up. Simple.

So, if in games it is so simple to invert the pitching motion, why can't we click a little checkbox in sys prefs to invert scrolling too?

Never mind, I just wanted to see if I could have inverted scrolling only in certain full screen apps, like Aperture and iPhoto. But consistency throughout the whole OS is better,
 
sammich said:
Okay, maybe it's just me, but wouldn't 'inverting' the trackpad scrolling (ie left is right, and up is down etc.) so that it makes more physical logical sense?

Let me explain myself before you blast me to bits...

Say you are looking at a full screen photo in say Aperture or iPhoto, you zoom in a lot, you can use the two-fingered scrolling to look around.
Now pretend you are looking at a large poster on a bench with a magnifying glass (or loupe), if you want to look at something to the right of what you are currently seeing, you move the poster left.

Fine, fine, you could say, you don't move the poster, you move the 'view'.

That said, is there any way to invert the direction of the trackpad scrolling, even just to how wrong I am?
Click to expand...

After owning the iPhone for a couple months now, I can say that I would like this to be an option that I could "tick" as well. I have caught myself instinctively trying to use my trackpad on my macbook to scroll through pages, the same way I would on my iPhone. I would even enjoy if it shared the visual weight and momentum/inertia of web pages as on the iPhone, so that you could scroll through and the page would slow to a stop.
 
The current MacBook/Pro trackpad is completely perfect, and I would be upset if it were changed. It basically enables me to use my MBP to the extent I do.
 
Inverting the scroll pad would be kinda weird... I think that it's easier to do it the way it is because of the way the mouse arrow moves. I donno... If you're not used to it yet... I'm sure you'll eventually get used to it
 
I'm just saying to at least have the option. I guess I could find some hack that would do this, but it's not that necessary. Really though, after you have used the lists and such on the iPhone, it would seem it may work.
 
Yeah, on the new MacBook pros (and Air) I'd like the swipe motion to be just like on the iphone; swipe left to move the picture to the left, and swipe right to slide in the previous image from the left.

Please, Apple, two checkboxes: Invert X, Invert Y
 
sammich said:
Just trudging through old threads of yours truly...

Did I call this or what? ;)
Click to expand...

I'll indulge you: Yes, yes you did.

By the way,

luminosity said:
The current MacBook/Pro trackpad is completely perfect, and I would be upset if it were changed. It basically enables me to use my MBP to the extent I do.
Click to expand...

That is hilarious (this is pre-unibody so the trackpad wasn't glass yet, too!) and a great example of why we shouldn't listen to the 'just keep it as it is' crowd :D.

I also don't use natural scrolling, though I would if the world would work like that. It's a bit inconvenient to let others use your stuff or to use others' stuff.

Anyway OP, you were right. Now settle down.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back