How do I disable horizontal scrolling?

FWIW, I did mention in a previous post here the third-party app, along with posting the link for Scroll 2. It will disable horizontal scrolling for Apple's Magic Mouse. I don't know about other mice with trackballs.

Matt Schultz wrote:

I don't understand why Apple would care one way or the other if we wanted this or if we did not, so why jam it down our throats? A thousand selectable things can be turned on or turned off but not this. It makes no sense.

No one here in this user-to-user forum would know why Apple does or does not do something. What I can tell you is that, historically, Apple has leaned toward fewer selectable options.

You can let them know what you'd like to see here:

Product Feedback - Apple

FWIW, you don't mention what version of macOS you are running but this third-party app should work. Free for 20 days. Scroll 2.

Widen page display

Matt Schultz wrote:

I have a mouse with a scroll wheel & that's no help.

I don't know which mouse you have but I have two with a scroll wheel, from Logitech and Belkin. Both under $10 and neither will horizontal scroll without holding the shift key.

13July23 UPDATE:

Multitouch disables horizontal scrolling in Excel on macOS 13.4.1. So does Windows 11. Those are the only 2 solutions I know of. I could not get Scroll 2 to work for me, probably because I don't own a specific type of mouse it supports. Multitouch supports the MacBook Pro's trackpad as well as most USB mice.

Ryan Hanson, creator of Multitouch, is highly responsive.

https://multitouch.app/

There are third-party solutions. I mentioned one. There is also the option of purchasing any mouse with a scroll wheel. They can be found for under $10.

Do you have Zoom enabled?

Try Option+CMD+8 keys

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Same here, 13.2.1. It's making some very key for our business Excel spreadsheets almost unusable. Added hours to our work.

I tried Scroll, could not get it to work. I have a mouse with a scroll wheel & that's no help.

I don't understand why Apple would care one way or the other if we wanted this or if we did not, so why jam it down our throats? A thousand selectable things can be turned on or turned off but not this. It makes no sense.

Mine is a Logitech, obviously a different model than yours. I also tried a Microsoft mouse & an old Apple mouse with a scroll wheel. No dice. Comforting knowing Apple OS functionality is based on mouse model. Oh well. Will need to move our financial models built in Excel to a Windows unit until Apple fixes this. Thank you anyways ;-)

First, the old Apple Mouse did not have a scroll wheel, it has a scroll button which was basically a small trackball. Mice with trackballs are omnidirectional and are not scroll wheels. Scroll wheels can only scroll in one direction at a time.

Tried it, doesn't work, thanks tho. It would've only worked with that mouse & I don't travel with a mouse, so it's not much of a workaround for me. I put all our tracking spreadsheets on a Lenovo ThinkBook running Windows 11 Pro & it's working perfectly. Horizontal scrolling is disabled, no more flying from Column B to Column EL instantly. No more unintentionally entering data in the wrong cell or deleting data in error. It was a really difficult & frustrating problem for us. This is our workaround until Apple gets its stuff together. Thanks & Happy Father's Day!

disable horizontal scrolling - Apple Community