Scroll Bars

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Level 1

12 points

Scroll Bars

2021-12-15 I just received a Mac Book Pro (M1) for my work. Best Monday Ever. I have not used a Mac in decades. Here is my issue: Right-side scroll bars behave inconsistently. What do I do when...

there is no scroll bar at all
hovering the mouse fails to produce a scroll bar, and
typing the "down-arrow key" does nothing?

I know that if I resize the window, a scroll bar appears, but it almost always disappears before I can get the mouse to it. OFTEN frustratingly exactly when I *do* get the mouse to it. Scrolling in this manner works about 2% of the time.

I searched the community database, and 9 years ago the solution was to change the window size and then click the (memory) resize-window button. Looked for that on Big Sur vanilla windows and did not find it. Perhaps the interface has changed since that solution was posted.

I can't believe this isn't a more-common question.

--

FTR, I don't own an iPhone or Apple Watch, but I'm typing this on a Mac Book Pro. Why is that not one of the three buttons I can click under "What Device is this About"? Is this the best time for Marketing? FWIW, I was seriously considering getting an Apple Watch for my new job responsibilities. But I have this sudden revulsion. Could that be good for your business?

MacBook Pro (2020 and later)

Posted on Dec 15, 2021 6:23 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

M68K Author

Level 1

12 points

Dec 15, 2021 7:45 PM in response to M68K

And there it is. "Brush with two fingers on the trackpad to scroll up, down, or sideways"

Bob Dylan, anyone?

"Well, the times, they are a changin' ..."

TS;DR. (right there in the tiny, tiny welcome pages)

Here all weekend, folks! Tip your waitress!

Thanks, (gracefully scrolls up, then back) ku4hx. You're good people.

"Brush with two fingers" Mmmm hmm. That was the last thing he said.

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Answer 2

ku4hx

Level 7

23,592 points

Dec 15, 2021 6:53 AM in response to M68K

We're users just like you and have no links to Apple corporation.

If you'd care to share your feeling with Apple: https://www.apple.com/feedback/

just a comment from a Windows financial power user of old. The two platforms are quite different. But how the Mac works is, for me, far superior to Windows. I go back to MSDOS, dBase III Plus, VisiCalc and other "old-timey" command driven Microsoft-ready products. Seems to me it's always best to use a product for a while and get accustomed to how it actually works before condemning it.

But I'm sure Microsoft will welcome you back into the house, maybe not so for your employer who "gave" you a quite expensive tool to use in your Job I'd guess.

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Answer 3

ku4hx

Level 7

23,592 points

Dec 15, 2021 10:43 AM in response to M68K

Ah hah ... you're old too. Gotcha! Getting old is a gift a lot of people never get.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6090286

https://iboysoft.com/howto/apple-mouse-not-scrolling.html

Maybe those will help.

Restarting in safe mode might too, as might a simple restart.

If you have any cleaners, fixers, optimizers or AV products they can interfere with Mac's operation. If not, and nothing else works, I'm a strong advocate to cutting to the chase and reinstalling the OS. Soooo much easier and more straight forward than even Windows 10. And of course, done from the Recovery Panel, it doesn't touch settings, apps or data.

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Answer 4

M68K Author

Level 1

12 points

Dec 15, 2021 9:37 AM in response to ku4hx

I guess I was too-easily offended by the advertising on this page. Sorry for being offensive, in turn. I know the community is just (how to phrase this) regular folks. I.e., not employees of Apple. And I have always loved Mac more than Windows. I just needed to use the tools for the jobs I had - so on the East Coast that ended up being Blue. I too recall VisiCalc and Lotus!

Now I'm at a cool company.

Any thoughts on (and I know this should be a kindergarten level question) how to get a window on the latest MacOS on the latest Mac hardware to scroll down when the scrollbar is being coy and the arrow keys are being recalcitrant?

More of my boring history, I used a skinny Mac 128K, and it blew my mind for, like 5 years. I remember round that time someone (Jobs? Sculley? Raskin?) made some kind of official statement about the "best thing about the Mac interface". He said it was that the interface was consistent. I remember going, "Boooo! It's because it's cool!!" in my head. But that statement gradually seeped its way into my consciousness. And yeah. Consistent is cool.

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Answer 5

M68K Author

Level 1

12 points

Dec 15, 2021 7:16 PM in response to ku4hx

Represent.

Meanwhile... I've neither a Magic Mouse nor a Mighty Mouse. It's a Mac Book Pro laptop w/a mousepad situation.

But we have some nice parting gifts.... :-)

Meanwhile, I'll keep looking, you know, online. Thank you for an enjoyable exchange. One tires of Siri and her ilk.

-Kirk out.

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