Mac Tips: Smarter Scrolling (OS 9 only)
These tips are courtesy of Silent Way Media Asset Management in San Francisco. NOTE: These tips are valid but old. Check out the more recent Mac OS Tips in the Silent Way Forum...
The scrollbar, arrows and scrollbox are on almost every Mac window. "Smart Scrolling" is an option in the Appearance control panel which changes the way the scrollbar works. This is turned on by default, in Control Panels-->Appearance-->Options (OS 8.5 thru 9.2). But this option is a mixed blessing that is easily improved by running these two applescripts to make your scrollbar even smarter.
The Smarter Arrows App is based on a script by John Gunnison. The Smarter ScrollBox App is based on a script by Colin A. Foster. Tony Brooke modified each to make them easier to use.
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Here's how to do it:
- Download this super-tiny application (4k, stuffed): Smarter Arrows App. (Decompress with the free Stuffit Expander.)
- Make sure Smart Scrolling is on in the Appearance Control Panel (Control Panels-->Appearance-->Options, see above).
(While you're there, turn on the other option too. This additional "windowshade" method is easier than the tiny "collapse box" in the upper right corner of every window.)
- Run the Smarter Arrows App. You will see this dialog box:
- Click "Double."
- Wait as it makes the change and then closes the control panel. The check box next to the "Smart Scrolling" option becomes a minus sign. That's it! (If it doesn't work, see below.)
A few notes:
- If you change the Smart Scrolling setting in the Control Panel you will have to run the application again.
- A few older applications might not show the proportional scrollbox, but almost all apps and the Finder will.
- If you want similar independent control of the proportional scrollbox too, download this Smarter ScrollBox App, and follow the same procedure (Decompress with the free Stuffit Expander.).
It looks like this:
- These apps won't work if for some reason you have disabled AppleScript. "AppleScript" and "AppleScriptLib" should be in the extensions folder.
- If it doesn't work, try mucking with the applescript code. There are a number of reasons why you might get an error when you launch one of these. Here's the uncompiled AppleScript for Smarter Arrows and for Smarter Scrollbox. You'll have as much luck tinkering with it yourself as I would trying to diagnose your system remotely. Good Luck!