Two Fingered Scroll

One of the most used features on my Powerbook is the two fingered scroll. The two fingered scroll is where instead of placing one finger on the track pad and using the mouse, you place two fingers on the track pad simultaneously and drag them. This allows you to move through a horizontal or vertical scroll bar with ease.

You can see an animation of this below:

This is a simple tip, but it’s a huge time saver. After using this feature day in and day out, I wonder how I ever lived without it.

Note: I believe this functionality only exists in G4 Powerbooks

Update: White Roses points out in the comments that the G4 iBooks also have this functionality. He also points out that if you’re stuck with an older iBook or PowerBook, you can still emulate two finger scrolling by downloading iScroll2.

 
 

Submitted on August 11, 2005 at 6:22 pm - Two Fingered Scroll was written by Brad Jasper - There have been 13 comments - Categorized in Easy Tips, Hardware Tips, Laptops

13 Responses to “Two Fingered Scroll”

1. 
   White Roses
   The latest http://www.apple.com/ibook/" rel="nofollow">G4 iBooks also have this functionality. I have the one just prior to this (and an older 12" PB - sadly with a broken screen - long story), and it does not have two finger scroll though. August 11th, 2005 at 6:55 pm
   
   
2. 
   White Roses
   I should also mention that a http://www-users.kawo2.rwth-aachen.de/~razzfazz/iscroll2/" rel="nofollow">driver does exist that will provide this functionality on older PBs and iBs. I've used it, it works reasonably well, and uninstalls cleanly (I ended up getting an external BT mouse to play with - I'm not a track pad person by nature). August 11th, 2005 at 7:03 pm
   
   
3. 
   Brian Mathias
   From what I understand this has been available in PowerBooks for awhile and is now available on the new iBook G4s. If you've got an older iBook (or PowerBook) like me, you can download iScroll2, which gives us the same feature!
   
   http://www-users.kawo2.rwth-aachen.de/~razzfazz/iscroll2/ August 11th, 2005 at 7:03 pm
   
   
4. 
   jonathan
   feature only exists in brand new 1.55 ghz powerbooks, everyone else is left outta the party August 11th, 2005 at 7:07 pm
   
   
5. 
   jonathan
   that driver is awesome, thank you! i was very bummed by my 1.33's lack of that feature. August 11th, 2005 at 7:14 pm
   
   
6. 
   BoBB
   Thanks for the driver! The new update had me regretting my 2 month old iBook purchase and wishing I waited! Thanks! :-D August 11th, 2005 at 7:57 pm
   
   
7. 
   Bill
   Another interesting note...and something to be aware of: if you're a FireFox user, you can use the scrolling feature to go back and foward (place to fingers on the trackpad and move left for "Back" and right for "Forward")...I have a problem of accidentally backing up 8 pages when I didn't mean to. It's a neat feature though, saves me a lot of time when I do it correctly. Apple should add that feature to Safari...or have they? Does anyone know how to enable that, if you can? August 12th, 2005 at 9:36 am
   
   
8. 
   Brooke
   I'd like to disable it in firefox, actually. I haven't figured out how yet. I have a small screen and I often want to scroll from side to side with it.
   
   I too have the 1.33 model of powerbook that came out just before the scrolling trackpad feature was added. I use sidetrack instead of iscroll, but the principle is the same. You'd think Apple would just update the drivers of the older models to allow this. Obviously it's not limited by the hardware, because the third-party drivers make it work. August 12th, 2005 at 6:11 pm
   
   
9. 
   Mike C.
   Anyone know why that animated graphic of the trackpad has arrows going in a circle? Does a circular motion actually get used? August 13th, 2005 at 1:17 am
   
   
10. 
    Brad
    Mike,
    
    I believe that's if there's a vertical and horizontal scrollbar. It will move vertical and horizontal at the same time. August 13th, 2005 at 5:17 pm
    
    
11. 
    Mike C.
    Indeed, that's been my experience with my PowerBook. But I was really hoping that someone was using a circular motion for something. Seems like it would be fun! August 13th, 2005 at 11:49 pm
    
    
12. 
    Jeremy Kemp
    Mike C. (#9):
    
    You can enable a circular scroll option, so that the trackpad acts like the iPod's scrolling touch wheel. With this enabled, you scroll down by circling clockwise and up by going counter-clockwise. August 17th, 2005 at 6:05 pm
    
    
13. 
    Trackback
    “Right Click” With 2 Fingers - MacTips

    [...] this in the same folder as two fingered scrolling. To use this function, place 2 fingers on the track pad and click whatever you wish to right click. [...]

    February 10th, 2008 at 1:17 am
    
    

Post a comment to "Two Fingered Scroll"