Master, may I enter?

You may, my child. What troubles you?

It’s Mac OS X Lion, master. They’ve messed up the scrolling.



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Set yourself down, my child. In what fashion have they befouled the scrolling?

It used to be that you’d drag the scrollbar down to move the page up. Now they’ve swapped it. Now you drag down to move the page down. It’s totally messed up.

But is not Lion meant to capitalize on the popularity of the iPad and iPhone?

Bingo.

And on the iPad and iPhone, do you not slide your fingers up to move the page up, as though you’re physically manipulating a piece of paper?

Yes, master.

Then, little one, is not the new Lion Way simply more consistent with both the iPad and the real world?

But master, the computer is not the real world. For 25 years, we’ve been dragging DOWN to move the page UP.

The new way is what Apple calls “natural scrolling.” Is your objection, then, simply a matter of habit-breaking?

Yes, master. No, master. Well, yes. Well, no.

Indecisive much, my child?

The old system made sense, master.

The old system did not make sense. Why would you move DOWN the trackpad to move the document UP? That’s not how you would shift a piece of paper, is it?

But master — that’s not what the old system did. Under the old system, you would drag the scrollbar, or turn your mouse wheel, to move the viewer on that long virtual document. You’d scroll down to move down the page.

My child, I’m confused. Isn’t the new Lion way: scroll down to move the page down?

Yes, master. That’s the difference. Before, you’d scroll down to move down the page. Now, you scroll down to move the page down.

Your confusion hurts my brain.



You know what, master? In Lion, the factory setting for scrollbars is for them not to appear except when you’re actually scrolling. But you can change that setting, and have them appear all the time, as they used to. If you really want to make yourself nuts, try setting it so that they’re always on the screen — and then use the new scrolling. You’re pushing up the screen, the text is moving up, but the scrollbar handle is moving down!

So. Well, my child, it doesn’t seem to be confusing for people on an iPad.

That’s because it makes sense on a touch screen, master. Because there, the “I’m pushing the piece of paper directly” metaphor works. But on a trackpad or mouse, you don’t have that direct kind of manipulation, so it feels wrong.

Oh no? But is not the modern trackpad, or the multitouch surface of the Magic Mouse, simply a remote-control version of the touch screen?

I suppose, master. But you’re one layer removed. It’s not the same thing.

What does Lion do about horizontal scrolling, my child?



Same thing. It’s swapped now. You used to drag to the right to move the text to the left. Now you drag to the right to shift to the right. It’s crazymaking.

Perhaps, young disciple, it’s simply a matter of getting used to it.

Maybe, master. But then what happens when I try to use someone else’s computer? Like a Windows machine? Then I’m completely messed up all over again!

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change those things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Cute, master. Saw that on a bumper sticker, did you?

T-shirt, my child.

Ah.

But the advice is sound. If you don’t like the New Way of the Lion, you can change it back. Open System Preferences, click Trackpad or Mouse, and turn off the new “natural scrolling” option. (This preference panel looks different on different computers, for some reason, and has different wording. But if you change it in one place, like Trackpad, it’s automatically changed in the other place, too, like Mouse.)

What are you, some kind of tech guru, master?

I hang out online a lot.