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SideTrack

A (Little) Sidetrack Question

Sorry guys, I’m out of the loop here … are you saying that Sidetrack allows you to scroll through documents by just sliding your finger down the right edge of your trackpad (in the style of many PC laptops)? I’ve tried Sidetrack twice (including yesterday, with the new 15-day trial), and running my finger down the trackpad’s right edge just moves the cursor straight down the screen. It’s supposed to actually scroll, right? Or do you just get scroll functionality when you register and pay?
 
[Update]
My beta version of trackpad still works. I think its because the program can't close until restart or shut down. I had to restart and then Sidetrack stopped working. I set the clock back a few months and restarted again and it worked now.
 
Yes it scrolls

dotnina said:
Sorry guys, I’m out of the loop here … are you saying that Sidetrack allows you to scroll through documents by just sliding your finger down the right edge of your trackpad (in the style of many PC laptops)? I’ve tried Sidetrack twice (including yesterday, with the new 15-day trial), and running my finger down the trackpad’s right edge just moves the cursor straight down the screen. It’s supposed to actually scroll, right? Or do you just get scroll functionality when you register and pay?
Click to expand...

you have to set the right side to scroll using the preference pane. You can do it using the trial, i tried it before buying. Enjoy! ;)
 
I guess when a bunch of people complain about being charged $15 for some software, the price is actually close to its value- otherwise people would just dump it and not give it a second thought! ;-)

Although I agree, you wish stuff like this cost $10 or so. Not because it isn't useful, but because it fixes a problem that you wish never existed. Well, I guess it's actually in between fixing a problem (trackpad navigation) and adding features...
 
jsw said:
I must be missing something here, but why are so many people complaining about a $15 purchase for what is universally regarded as excellent software they use every day? It seems that, because some excellent software is free, people expect that it all should be free. I'd think it'd be good to support a small developer of high-quality Mac software, hoping that the support would help that developer create more cool stuff.

I'd expect this from PC users, but I thought members of the Mac community could cough up $15. I mean, to own a Mac is somewhat akin to taking a vow of povery anyway. ;)
Click to expand...

We're complaining not because it's not free anymore (well, there's a little bit of that), but rather because it's not really worth $15 dollars for a lot of people. I'd pay 5, probably even 10 dollars, but 15 is quite a bit for something that I a) can live without and b) don't use about 75% of the time I use my computer.

That's not to say that I won't miss it, but $15 is a lot for a college kid.
 
jtgotsjets said:
That's not to say that I won't miss it, but $15 is a lot for a college kid.
Click to expand...

You can still use it and all of its features, you'll just have to endure a little nagware payment reminder dialog box from time to time.
 
dotnina said:
Sorry guys, I’m out of the loop here … are you saying that Sidetrack allows you to scroll through documents by just sliding your finger down the right edge of your trackpad (in the style of many PC laptops)? I’ve tried Sidetrack twice (including yesterday, with the new 15-day trial), and running my finger down the trackpad’s right edge just moves the cursor straight down the screen. It’s supposed to actually scroll, right? Or do you just get scroll functionality when you register and pay?
Click to expand...

Hi,

You have to enable scrolling in the settings, as it's not turned on by default. Open the settings for it, then click on the scrolling tab. I bought it, and it's been working really well. Good luck.

Regards,
Marc
 
My dad uses SideTrack, and frankly I find it quite annoying. I did, however, download and install MaxiMice (I think that's an Unsanity product) and try it out. I like the features, although it does still use modifier keys for most function, but merely moving the mouse to the bottom of the window, or within a certain distance, will scroll down, and you can drag windows without clicking on them using modifier keys. The best part? I installed it, got tired of the nag screens, and trashed the System Preference Pane. It does not operate solely as a Preference Pane, apparently, though, because the features are still there, but the Preference Pane the nagware are gone. It's like registering without paying. Of course, I lost the ability to control it, at least until I put the Preference Pane back, but I had it all set up the way I like it anyways.

jW
 
I just stumbled on SideTrack today for the first time, and it's really great. I'm having some trouble getting used to its drag + lock, as it doesn't seem quite as responsive as the native drivers, but that's my only quibble. One question: someone upthread mentioned mapping the corners to Expose -- how do you do that?
 
cleo said:
I just stumbled on SideTrack today for the first time, and it's really great. I'm having some trouble getting used to its drag + lock, as it doesn't seem quite as responsive as the native drivers, but that's my only quibble. One question: someone upthread mentioned mapping the corners to Expose -- how do you do that?
Click to expand...

There should be a tab in the preference pane that says corners, just select a corner command there.

I love sidetrack. I downloaded it about a week ago. I didn't pay. It's just that at every start up, it nags me to register. It hasn't stopped working for me, if ever. I hope not hehe. I probably will end up paying it. It does seem a little steep though. Look at Synergy, an equally great app and it only costs $5 to register.

Plus, my one beef with sidetrack, I don't know if this is just me. If you leave your finger on the scrolling area of your track pad, the cursor tends to veer off in that direction (ie. putting my finger on the right border makes the cursor slowly veer off to the bottom-right corner of the screen). It gets kinda annoying sometimes.
 
urban1985_, there's a tickbox in the scroling preference pane that says "Continue scrolling when finger reaches end of scroll area", and if that is ticked that could be causing it. There's a similar box on the other preference pages for pointer etc. Hope that helps!
 
Lau said:
urban1985_, there's a tickbox in the scroling preference pane that says "Continue scrolling when finger reaches end of scroll area", and if that is ticked that could be causing it. There's a similar box on the other preference pages for pointer etc. Hope that helps!
Click to expand...

Thanks! That solved that problem!
 
I used Sidetrack on my PowerBook until it stopped working, and I can't deal with the nags that the new version has. $15 is way too much to ask for this program, when the only thing I found useful was the vertical scrolling. $5, maybe - but $15 is 3x too much. I bet the guy would sell a LOT more if he lowered the price.

On top of that, I think Sidetrack destroyed my computer. My computer ran fine before I installed Sidetrack. After I installed Sidetrack my computer started running slower and slower to the point where after clicking on things there was a 5 second delay before it happened. Also, the left front corner where the hard drive is got hot to the touch. It wouldn't sleep, wouldn't shut down - the only way to turn it off was to hold down the power key. My powerbook is an 867 with 640 of ram, so it's quick enough to handle most things. I backed up all my data, formatted my HD with zeros, and reinstalled Panther - and it runs snappier than it ever did.

Don't use Sidetrack!!! It WILL mess up your computer and make it useless without a complete reformat and reinstall of Panther! It's useful, but it's buggy. That's probably why Apple doesn't purchase the code for this, because it causes problems.

I'm back to using the page up & page down keys and i've gotten used to it again. I wish page up & page down were as smooth as sidetrack, but it's ok. The keys are in a nice spot and it works.

The convienince of Sidetrack just isn't worth screwing my computer up.
 
crackrock said:
On top of that, I think Sidetrack destroyed my computer. My computer ran fine before I installed Sidetrack. After I installed Sidetrack my computer started running slower and slower to the point where after clicking on things there was a 5 second delay before it happened. Also, the left front corner where the hard drive is got hot to the touch. It wouldn't sleep, wouldn't shut down - the only way to turn it off was to hold down the power key. My powerbook is an 867 with 640 of ram, so it's quick enough to handle most things. I backed up all my data, formatted my HD with zeros, and reinstalled Panther - and it runs snappier than it ever did.

Don't use Sidetrack!!! It WILL mess up your computer and make it useless without a complete reformat and reinstall of Panther! It's useful, but it's buggy. That's probably why Apple doesn't purchase the code for this, because it causes problems.

I'm back to using the page up & page down keys and i've gotten used to it again. I wish page up & page down were as smooth as sidetrack, but it's ok. The keys are in a nice spot and it works.

The convienince of Sidetrack just isn't worth screwing my computer up.
Click to expand...

I hate it when people say things like this. Just because you blame it for what it might have done to your computer does not give you the right to tell people not to buy it becasue it is bad code. I installed in on my Powerbook, ran through my usual maintainance routine; permissions, sudo periodics and fsck and have had not one problem. The code is fine as I bet most others on this site will agree. For all we know it is something else you have installed or done. At the end of the day all this program does is put a visual front end on the drivers suppled by the track pad maker, if there is a driver issue then it is the hardware maker not the software producer at fault.
You don't like the price that is fine don't pay it. One reason your mac may have been operating slower, at least at startup is (ironically) because you didn't buy it as it keeps having to check and issue that reminder dialogue box. This annoyed me to, but I took the plunge (I bet I was probably one of the first) got the serial by email and all was back to normal. I can honestly say that because of this app my productivity has increased and I've noticed no slow down. For everyone's information I'm using a Rev A 17inch with 1Gb of RAM and is fully up to date software wise.
 
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