Nearly three years ago , I reviewed an early version ( 1.1b1 ) of Marc Moini ’s Smart Scroll , a utility program that let you scroll documents — ancestry - by - bloodline , as opposed to paging up and down — using the keyboard . Since then , Smart Scroll has see over a dozen updates , and today ’s version , Smart Scroll X 2.0 (; $ 19 ) is a very dissimilar — and good — beast .
The current version of Smart Scroll X of course includes the feature I liked so much back in 2004 : keyboard scrolling . Especially convenient for laptop computer user , this feature of speech efficaciously adds “ ringlet - up ” and “ scroll - down ” keys to your keyboard . You prefer your preferred crosscut — combinations of the Shift , Control , Option , and Command key — to scroll up , down , left , and right without make to dispatch your hands from the keyboard . you’re able to even change keyboard - scrolling speed and speedup . And if you have a tendency to blank out your unnumbered keyboard shortcuts , Smart Scroll X let you come in a translucent legend somewhere on your screen .
( If you ’re also using the splendid MondoMouse , make indisputable you set up up different key combinations for MondoMouse and Smart Scroll X. If you do n’t , the answer are actually jolly amusing : Your window will appear to resize on their own . )
But Smart Scroll X now includes two other great features . The first , Super Wheel , is my favourite . Back in August of this year , I wrote about Logitech ’s Revolution mice . What makes theRevolutionname so appropriate is Logitech ’s newfangled roll wheel : instead of scrolling one increase with each ratchet - click of the wheel , these mouse give you “ freewheel ” scrolling — with one quick moving picture the scroll wheel , the Sir Frederick Handley Page scrolls until the free - spinning rack comes to a halt ( or until you cease it manually ) . Read the original clause for more on why this is so slap-up ; what ’s important here is that Smart Scroll X judge this behaviour in package , so that it forge with any mouse — it even enhance trackpad scroll on newer laptops .
With this feature enabled , giving your mouse ’s curlicue wheel a spry spin , or quick sliding your fingers across your trackpad , will ensue in a “ coasting ” coil ; it will take off out as fast as you would expect , but rather of stop when you stop ( in other words , when you blockade spinning the scroll steering wheel or dragging your digit across the trackpad ) , scroll will continue , gradually slowing down until it “ feed out of momentum . ” It ’s not quite the same as Logitech ’s ironware feature , but it ’s very similar and work surprisingly well . A handy come to feature is the ability to temporarily increase scrolling f number by holding how the modifier key of your pick . ( you’re able to also temporarily deactivate the Super Wheel feature by fight the Caps Lock key . ) One bug I discovered is that the Super Wheel feature does n’t seem to ferment in compounding with Kensington ’s MouseWorks software program .
The other novel Smart Scroll X feature is called Grab Scroll and lets you “ take hold of ” the content of any windowpane — text , images , a Web page — and scroll by merely travel the mouse pointer around . If you ’ve grow a computer mouse with multiple clit , you may choose one of those buttons to be your “ snap scroll ” button ; just get across that clit and then sweep up the contents of the window around . If you do n’t have a multi - button computer mouse — or if you ’ve already used up all of your mouse ’s push — you could assign this lineament to any button with the addition of a keyboard command . For example , on my shiner , I tap Option+Command and then click - retarding force with the primary computer mouse button . you could line up the scrolling focal ratio , and can even choose for a faster scrolling hurrying when using a changer key or when “ grabbing ” near the windowpane ’s border .
Smart Scroll X also declare oneself a few scrolling - related extra . The most unequaled one is the ability to add scroll - wheel support and live scrolling to FileMaker Pro 6 and 7 , and to impart live scrolling and proportional scroll - bar thumbs to AppleWorks 5 . A small-scale one that ’s also available in a number of Mac OS hug drug tweak utility is the ability to choose where window scroll arrow appear : both at the top - left , both at the bottom - rightfulness , one at each end of each roll bar , or — my favorite — both arrows at both ends of each scroll cake .
Unfortunately , Smart Scroll X does n’t work in all applications programme ; for example , I could n’t get it to run at all in Camino , and the Super Wheel feature of speech did n’t do work in the Finder for me . And you have to be careful with your alternative of keyboard shortcuts ; for example , Microsoft Word and Excel 2004 enjoyment Control+scroll as a shortcut for document zooming , so if you habituate the Control winder as a scrolling crosscut in Smart Scroll X , that crosscut will end up whizz your Office documents . in the end , take down that Smart Scroll X uses Unsanity’sApplication Enhancersystem . Some people refuse to habituate “ haxies ” on their system and thus wo n’t use app - foil - based products . I in person use several such add - ons with no ominous essence , but I include this selective information for those who care . ( On a tie in note , if you find that Smart Scroll X conflicts with a particular applications programme , you may add that app to the Exclusion List in the app Enhancer window glass of System Preferences . )
Smart Scroll X wo n’t be for everyone , especially if you ’re already using certain third - company mouse driver or scrolling software . But I find its Super Wheel feature alone to be deserving the price of admission .
Smart Scroll X requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or by and by and is a Universal Binary . A utility , Rosetta TuneUp.app , is included to prevent collapse with non - Universal applications on Intel Macs ; however , I did n’t experience any Rosetta - related problems in my testing , so I did n’t need to use this utility .
