Mission Control: change swipe direction?

[brijazz]

Like most sane people, I've disabled "natural" scrolling. However, swiping between desktops in Mission Control is still backwards. If I want to go to Desktop #2, I should swipe to the right... right? But it's backwards. Does anyone know of any way to reverse this behaviour?

I'm open to Terminal hacks, BetterTouchTool tips and sorcery.

 

[gentlefury]

Like most sane people, I've disabled "natural" scrolling. However, swiping between desktops in Mission Control is still backwards. If I want to go to Desktop #2, I should swipe to the right... right? But it's backwards. Does anyone know of any way to reverse this behaviour?

I'm open to Terminal hacks, BetterTouchTool tips and sorcery.

Any "sane" person would completely disagree....how is it backwords? The screen moves in the direction you are swiping...why would you swipe right to move the screen left? Just like why would you swipe up to move the page down?

 

[brijazz]

When I'm in Mission Control, my eyes are on the line of desktops at the top of the screen; if the one on the left side is outlined, and I want to move to the desktop to its right, why would I scroll left?

That being said, I can certainly see how scrolling using the current configuration makes sense if you're looking at the large representation of the current desktop. It would just be nice to have a user-configurable option... Apple gave us one for up/down scrolling... but not side-to-side.

 

[3460169]

I like to think of it as when you change desktops by swiping, you're virtually grabbing hold of the desktop surface with the mouse and flinging it to the side. Likewise for "natural" scrolling -- we're basically grabbing hold of the window content and flinging it (a la iOS). I still can't get used to "natural" scrolling after having done it the "unnatural" way for so many years -- my brain is trained to move the scrollbar up or down, not the content.

The Kinect Hub on Xbox 360 works the same way, though that thing shows a little hand cursor that "grabs" the screen allowing you to fling it like a page in a book or something. The visual cue helps there and makes it feel natural.

All that said I agree there should be (more) options to modify the swiping behavior. Perhaps in a later update there will be. I also agree with you to an extent on the Mission Control perspective: if you're looking at the line of desktops at the top it makes sense to swipe right to move the focus to the right, rather than the desktop itself. It's the GUI object our brains think we're actually moving when we swipe that causes this confusions. If we all agree that we're basically grabbing the desktop w/ the mouse and shoving it to the side (left) then all is good but clearly we don't all agree and need more options!

 

[brijazz]

I like to think of it as when you change desktops by swiping, you're virtually grabbing hold of the desktop surface with the mouse and flinging it to the side

That's why this method of scrolling works so well on an iPhone/iPad... you're actually touching the element that you're moving. Doesn't translate too well to the trackpad/mouse, I'm afraid.

 

[3460169]

BTW, I'm running the 10.7.2 seed at the moment. Unchecking "natural" scrolling enables "sane" scrolling up and down (swipe down to scroll down) as well as "sane" swiping left/right in MC. Swiping right from Desktop 1 goes to Desktop 2.

 

[brijazz]

BTW, I'm running the 10.7.2 seed at the moment. Unchecking "natural" scrolling enables "sane" scrolling up and down (swipe down to scroll down) as well as "sane" swiping left/right in MC. Swiping right from Desktop 1 goes to Desktop 2.

Woo-hoo

 

[nephewtom]

I do not see "natural" scrolling on the trackpad. Only on the Mouse.
And unchecking it does not change the trackpad swipe left/right direction.
Other alternatives?