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User profile for user: DoraWest
DoraWest Author
User level: Level 1
7 points

Can I disable horizontal scrolling?

Can I disable horizontal scrolling? Most of my computer use is with Word for Mac 2004, MacBook Pro, glass trackpad. I use two-finger scrolling all the time, but I'm troubled by accidental horizontal scrolling when I mean to scroll vertically.

I've tried to disable horizontal scrolling in Terminal with the command

defaults write -g com.apple.trackpad.scrollBehavior 1

After restart, the relevant value is set to 1, but the behavior of the trackpad is unchanged. Any other ideas?

MacBookPro, Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Posted on Jun 3, 2009 4:03 PM

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User profile for user: Joey_F
Joey_F
User level: Level 1
13 points

Posted on Aug 23, 2009 9:36 PM

This is a major problem that Apple needs to fix. Previous MacBook Pro hardware had the ability to disable horizontal scrolling in the Trackpad control panel, but the new, fully multi-touch trackpads make it impossible to disable.

This is not just a feature request. This is a serious accessibility issue. For anyone who zooms to larger text sizes, there are going to be horizontal scroll bars around, and the inability to disable horizontal scrolling makes vertical scrolling into a topsy-turvy roller coaster ride. It makes the trackpad completely unusable as a vertical scrolling device.

What I would like, ideally, would be two different settings: one to disable all horizontal scrolling (as Apple used to offer), and another to disable diagonal scrolling only. I think it might be helpful for a lot of people to be able to scroll either vertically or horizontally, but not both at the same time. That way one can navigate around a big document or highly zoomed web page without getting vertigo.

Any interest, Apple? (Or does anyone have any ideas for a software workaround?)
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User profile for user: Joey_F
Joey_F
User level: Level 1
13 points

Aug 23, 2009 9:36 PM in response to JR_021

This is a major problem that Apple needs to fix. Previous MacBook Pro hardware had the ability to disable horizontal scrolling in the Trackpad control panel, but the new, fully multi-touch trackpads make it impossible to disable.

This is not just a feature request. This is a serious accessibility issue. For anyone who zooms to larger text sizes, there are going to be horizontal scroll bars around, and the inability to disable horizontal scrolling makes vertical scrolling into a topsy-turvy roller coaster ride. It makes the trackpad completely unusable as a vertical scrolling device.

What I would like, ideally, would be two different settings: one to disable all horizontal scrolling (as Apple used to offer), and another to disable diagonal scrolling only. I think it might be helpful for a lot of people to be able to scroll either vertically or horizontally, but not both at the same time. That way one can navigate around a big document or highly zoomed web page without getting vertigo.

Any interest, Apple? (Or does anyone have any ideas for a software workaround?)
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Can I disable horizontal scrolling?

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