OSX Lion: Scrolling

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I figure I’ll start blogging more since I’m off Twitter, for the most part, and what better way to kick off blocking again than to talk about my latest “toy”: OSX Lion.

Scrolling is weird on Lion but I truly think with time it will be natural. I get the change though. Everything about Lion is iOS’esque. Look at the animations, Mission Control sliding [aka Spaces 2.0], Launchpad, and scrolling.

In Lion when you slide your finger down on your trackpad or Magic Mouse it pulls the page [or app screen] down. When you slide your finger up it pushes the page up.

It isn’t scrolling, per se. It is more like you’re grabbing the page and moving it in a natural way. If this was a physical page I was writing on write now and wanted to see the bottom, perhaps covered by a book, I would take my finger(s) and push the page up.

That’s how scrolling in Lion works. Apple was bold with the change [I'm sure some folks, including myself initially] ranted about it but I truly think it will become my preference within the next week.

How do you like the scrolling?

  • http://www.bit-101.com Keith Peters

    I can see how it could kind of make sense for a track pad. It totally feels wrong for a mouse with a scroll wheel. But maybe that’s just because I’m used to it being the other way. The fact that every other computer does it the opposite way… I don’t know. From what I can see, despite what Apple said about touch screen laptops, they are moving towards direct touch in OS X.

    • http://www.johncblandii.com johncblandii

      Ah, direct touch makes this all make more sense. They are prepping us for such a thing, it seems.

  • Pedro

    I don’t like it, in the options menu you can change to the old style of scrolling.

    • http://www.johncblandii.com johncblandii

      I saw that and almost did it but I\’m too competitive to let scrolling beat me. :-D

  • http://www.metzener.com/ Dave M.

    I have to say that I am still not quite used to the new “Lion” way of scrolling. As you said, I understand the reasoning behind the change, but they really needed to make a preference in System Preferences to allow a user to set the “Lion” way or the “Snow Leopard” way.

    I could see my parents “never” getting used to the “Lion” way and really getting angry with me for updating their computer to Lion. It won’t be happening since they have an ’06 Mac Mini that doesn’t support Leopard.

    Still, I don’t understand Apple’s thinking here by not having a preference that can be set one way or the other.

    • http://www.johncblandii.com johncblandii

      There is a preference.

      • http://www.metzener.com/ Dave M.

        Yep, I found that preference just minutes after I wrote the comment. I still don’t see what Apple was thinking when they made “Natural” the default way to scroll a screen. It’s not natural unless you are touching the computer monitor like you do an iPad.

        I currently have the setting set to off since my brain has been wired, as many of us have, to scroll the “unnatural” way.

        • http://www.johncblandii.com johncblandii

          \”Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts.\”
          Proverbs 21:2

          Apple lives and dies by this. :) Seeing as they\’ve gotten some things right, people seriously believe their every decision is a right one.

          This one does seem good though.

  • Oowf

    Don’t like it at all.  If this were the only OS and Computer I used I might consider sticking with it… but that’s not the case so I reversed my scroll to “NORMAL”.  Besides, I don’t like Apple trying to think for me or change me!

    • http://www.johncblandii.com John C. Bland II

      Oowf, you have just stated why I left iOS. At least on OSX I get to decide. :)