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September 21, 2006

Mac OS X Horizontal Scroll Trick

Just stumbled across a cool little Mac OS X trick today:

1. Open an application where you must scroll horizontally to see information — like an image file in Fireworks, Photoshop or Illustrator that's been zoomed large.

2. Hold the shift key and use your mouse scroll wheel — the screen will now scroll horizontally!

This appears to be an OS X system level feature, so it should work in any app where you can scroll horizontally, though I have not tested it deeply just yet.

I don't know how well known this trick is among Mac users (it was certainly a surprise to me), but I'm already finding it indispensable in detailed graphics work.

Enjoy! :-)

September 21, 2006 4:03 PM | Macintosh | add to del.icio.us

Comments

This is very cool and interesting thanks.

Posted by: CrackedButter at September 21, 2006 11:23 PM

Very interesting, and what puzzles me the most is, that I found out, by coincidence yesterday, while browsing in Safari, so this is not new to me ;-)

Posted by: Michel Christensen at September 22, 2006 1:07 AM

I've been using this trick for so long now that when I use a Might Mouse I mistakenly try it. I still try to use the shift key to scroll horizontally, even though the scroll ball can scroll horizontally without the shift key.

Posted by: Andrew Escobar at September 22, 2006 9:19 AM

Windows has the same feature, if you hold the control key.

Posted by: Eric at September 22, 2006 12:00 PM

If you hold the control key on the mac it zoom...

Posted by: at September 22, 2006 12:31 PM

doesn't appear to work with the mighty mouse. :(

Posted by: josh at September 22, 2006 7:49 PM

the mighty mouse has the horizontal scroll built in...

Posted by: michael at September 22, 2006 11:41 PM

Shift doesn't work for me, but Command does. So far, I've tested this trick in Cubase and Photoshop. Thanks!

[My keys aren't remapped, but I do have drivers installed for a Logitech mouse and a Matias keyboard, so who knows.]

Posted by: C at September 23, 2006 2:39 AM

Windows has the same feature, if you hold the control key.

Not system-wide. Windows has the idiotic feature of scrolling sideways if the window isn't big enough to need to scroll top to bottom. Handy! :-|

Posted by: colin at September 23, 2006 5:52 AM

I've been affected by this for at least a year or more. I say 'affected' because it's not so much a feature as it is a bug.

SHIFT is used to extend a selection, so when using it and wanting to scroll the view vertically (to get a longer selection), instead you get treated to a horizontal scroll. Wow, nice and obtuse.

Perhaps this will eventually get mapped to CTRL scroll or something else less offensive than SHIFT.

Posted by: Bruno at September 23, 2006 12:33 PM

I can't be the only one who figured this out two years ago!

For Bruno, and anyone else:
To extend a text selection by a single character, use Shift + Left/Right Arrow keys.
To extend a text selection by a line, use Shift + Up/Down Arrow keys.

Yes, perhaps it should be the Option or Control key when you want to scroll horizontally with the wheel, but so what? Why should it matter what other key is held down to adjust the axis of the scroll wheel? It has little berring as an editing tool -- it's meant primarily for navigation.

Posted by: Down10 at September 23, 2006 11:58 PM

Nice trick!

I find the two finger scroll option with trackpads even more handy, since you can scroll in any arbitrary direction.

Posted by: Pygy at September 24, 2006 2:38 AM

Awesome tip Mike! Works in Firefox as well, I just tested it in this page, I assume it's system-wide.

I already knew about using the command key and scroll wheel to increase/decrease font sizes in Firefox. Also, you can do zooming with Google Maps without a modifier key.

(And I use a cheapy Logitech mouse...)

Posted by: Pete Prodoehl at September 27, 2006 12:27 PM

Thanks for the notes everyone -- seems this was popular with Jon Gruber and several other Mac blogs too. Great!

Posted by: Mike Rohde at September 28, 2006 10:53 PM