Sideways arrows near scrollbar

[P. Vamperio]

Hey, I'm looking for a remedy to what I would consider the single most annoying feature on Mac computers. What I am talking about is those annoying sideways arrows that are to the right of seemingly all scrollbars (internet browsers, iTunes, etc.). If you accidently misclick the horizontal arrows instead of hitting the scroll bar you can end up dragging the arrows to the left and shortening the size of the page.

I have searched through Google but wasn't able to find a solution to it yet, although I know for sure that it exists, because I was able to somehow deactivate the sideways arrows on my iMac a few years ago but never got around to doing it on my MBP.

Any help would be appreciated. I cannot fathom why Apple continue with this feature. It is just a constant nuisance and is always getting in the way when you try to scroll. They should leave the drag arrows down in the bottom right hand corner so that they are obscured and are only able to be activated if someone actually wants to use them.

Thanks.

 

[Tyler23]

Hey, I'm looking for a remedy to what I would consider the single most annoying feature on Mac computers. What I am talking about is those annoying sideways arrows that are to the right of seemingly all scrollbars (internet browsers, iTunes, etc.). If you accidently misclick the horizontal arrows instead of hitting the scroll bar you can end up dragging the arrows to the left and shortening the size of the page.

I have searched through Google but wasn't able to find a solution to it yet, although I know for sure that it exists, because I was able to somehow deactivate the sideways arrows on my iMac a few years ago but never got around to doing it on my MBP.

Any help would be appreciated. I cannot fathom my Apple continue with this feature. It is just a constant nuisance and is always getting in the way when you try to scroll. They should leave the drag arrows down in the bottom right hand corner so that they are obscured and are only able to be activated if someone actually wants to use them.

Thanks.

I'm not sure what you're talking about. Can you post a screenshot?

 

[P. Vamperio]

I'm not sure what you're talking about. Can you post a screenshot?

Even if you could just make the scrollbar consume the entirety of the track that it moves along then it would be able to eliminate the problem, although from what I have read that is impossible to achieve.

 

[DeltaMac]

Maybe you could use the scrollbar more reliably if you set them to stay turned on all the time. That's a setting in System Preferences/General, then Show Scroll Bars: Always.

I know some folks prefer the scroll bars, but I very seldom use the scroll bars, and almost always use other scrolling, either mouse scroll wheel, or scrolling direct from the trackpad. It's much more precise for me.
I leave those set so the scroll bars never show unless I want to use them (maybe once every week or two )

 

[ApfelKuchen]

All three screen shots show the same thing, as far as I can tell. Is there a point I'm missing?

Apple got rid of the lower right-hand corner drag handle in 2011, with the introduction of OS X 10.7 (Lion). For me, it was a welcome relief - I'd wanted to be able to resize from any point on any edge of the window for many years (one of the few things I preferred about Microsoft Windows). So, one person's annoyance is another's convenience. (I was also delighted when Apple's mice started to support right-click.)

There's no way to change this behavior in OS X Yosemite's System Preferences. If there was a way to do it in previous versions, I'm not sure when it went away. My guess is that, with Apple's desire to keep things (relatively) simple, they would have phased out the setting when they determined that few people used it, in order to make space for other settings.

Perhaps there's an app that will allow you to do what you wish.

One "solution" to the issue is to make the scroll bar wider, or leave more of a gap between it and the edge of the window. There would then be less likelihood that you'd overshoot the scroll bar and hit the edge instead. Although considering the width of the edge's hot zone (about four pixels), it seems to be much harder target to hit than the scroll bar, and one that's even easier to over-shoot. Why doesn't Apple leave a wider scroll bar or gap? Probably because it takes space away from the "contents" of the window, making scrolling more necessary.

For what it's worth, if you use a Magic Mouse, trackpad, an Apple Mouse with a (working) scroll ball, or a mouse with a scroll wheel, you don't have to reach for the scroll bars nearly as much, if at all.

 

[P. Vamperio]

All three screen shots show the same thing, as far as I can tell. Is there a point I'm missing?

Apple got rid of the lower right-hand corner drag handle in 2011, with the introduction of OS X 10.7 (Lion). For me, it was a welcome relief - I'd wanted to be able to resize from any point on any edge of the window for many years (one of the few things I preferred about Microsoft Windows). So, one person's annoyance is another's convenience. (I was also delighted when Apple's mice started to support right-click.)

There's no way to change this behavior in OS X Yosemite's System Preferences. If there was a way to do it in previous versions, I'm not sure when it went away. My guess is that, with Apple's desire to keep things (relatively) simple, they would have phased out the setting when they determined that few people used it, in order to make space for other settings.

Perhaps there's an app that will allow you to do what you wish.

One "solution" to the issue is to make the scroll bar wider, or leave more of a gap between it and the edge of the window. There would then be less likelihood that you'd overshoot the scroll bar and hit the edge instead. Although considering the width of the edge's hot zone (about four pixels), it seems to be much harder target to hit than the scroll bar, and one that's even easier to over-shoot. Why doesn't Apple leave a wider scroll bar or gap? Probably because it takes space away from the "contents" of the window, making scrolling more necessary.

For what it's worth, if you use a Magic Mouse, trackpad, an Apple Mouse with a (working) scroll ball, or a mouse with a scroll wheel, you don't have to reach for the scroll bars nearly as much, if at all.

Okay, thanks for your help. I guess I will have to resort to trying to make myself accustom to using the trackpad, although it certainly isn't ideal as I have always found using it a bit of a nuisance.

You see how the cursor looks here - I would have thought that this would have been sufficient for someone looking to constantly resize their pages. It enables you to shorten the height and width of the page and is in a place where it can only be accessed by someone who has those intentions in mind.

I'm running OSX 10.6.8 on my iMac and it does not have the annoying side arrows on iTunes or any web browsers and you can just ram the cursor into the right side without having to worry about activating the side arrows.

 

[satcomer]

Man you can't please everyone! What you are seeing us in your first picture is because you mouse is I. The position to resize the window. Mac switchers have been begging Apple's Finder to do this.

Your second screen shot your mouse us in the corner to expand the current window. Again this has been asked for by users for awhile now.

So nothing is wrong.