I hate PDF scrolling. Nothing pisses me off more than trying to highlight text in a PDF, only to find out that I'm scrolling instead.

rabiddachshund

This actually works a little different than the usual scroll wheels in that you can scroll sideways too. Also works great with tablet PCs. I used it on onenote with my wacom so that I can quickly scroll notes and highlight/jot notes while listening to a lecture.

Wassupdoc

I wish they had something for touch pads on laptops.

SnickerHaHa

I love my mouse, it's scroll wheel is extremely smooth, and doesn't click in intervals like most do. Makes it kindof hard for gaming though, the whole scroll-wheel-switches-weapons thing, I move the scroll wheel to equip the 2nd weapon and end up at like the 7th.

PC+Mac Coexist

I think the Logitech MouseWare does this sort of thing too.

pschroeter

@Mersine: The Firefox extension All-in-One Gestures includes this scroll anywhere function. It may not be a fix for what you want, but it's a start.

taybay

mmm so, why not use something created specifically to scroll ?

photoboot

Can't use mouse gestures with this :( And I second the scroll wheel or touchpad scroll

Mersine

second for katmouse.

It is one of the only free pieces of software I have donated to.

tastyfoot

I used this application for years before laptops started including scrolling features.

The How-To Geek

KatMouse!

ep

What's wrong with the mouse's scroll wheel? It seems it is even easier than right-click dragging.

SpriteMV

After getting used to the "ScrollbarAnywhere" extension for FF, (same functionality as this), I find myself trying to rightclick/drag all the time in explorer. It'll be nice to have it actually work now.

junkmail

seconded rabiddachshund

iOsiris

Installed, tried and uninstalled. You have to activate/deactivate it everytime you want to use it. This, in principle, is ok, but it has limited options to how to activate/deactivate it (only left, middle, and right mouse button). Since most of these buttons already have a function (such as selecting, as pointed out by a number of other commenters), it is just not intuitive to use.

I could imagine that something like pressing the `alt' key for activation/deactivation would be better. In analogy to pressing `ctrl' and then scroll the wheel for zooming in some applications.

Arutha

Yeah, I agree. Use Mousescroll wheel! One application less + one click away!

mskadu

@rabiddachshund, couldn't agree more. It pisses me off no end when i try to use autoscroll in pdf documents and it doesn't work.

CGA

Third second rabiddachshund. When i open a pdf-document i always try to use autoscroll and it pisses me off no end when it doesn't work.

CGA

my mouse does this anyway, in any app. Click the scroll-wheel and move up or down.

Al Iguana

funny but I used my mouse scroll wheel to scroll to the bottom of this page to write this comment, no software needed.

Ken

@ep: exactly.

caedus

@Ken:
Me too.... I thought everyone did

TheFionut

Wow, I was looking for exactly this just the other day, and ended up trying to use Autohotkey to limited success. Believe it or not, not all applications have an autoscroll or grab functionality, especially so in the horizontal direction (darn you Smartdraw!). As such navigation in those programs can get rather annoying. This hacks it in quite nicely. Thanks lifehacker!

Nakamura2828

@SpriteMV: What's wrong with the mouse's scroll wheel? It seems it is even easier than right-click dragging.

The problem with wheel scrolling is it's an all-or-nothing proposition.

If you have to scroll a long way vertically, you have to set a long scroll which means short scrolls are jumpy at best or impossible at worst (half a screen or more on one quick roll). If you want a short scroll, the reverse happens - it takes forever to scroll up or down, so the scrollbars end up being more efficient. You lose either way.

This tool, if it works (I haven't tried it yet) would allow a quick click-n-drag for short vertical distances while allowing the wheel to do long scrolls. It may be the only way to have both features at the same time.

It might also allow users to get rid of or shrink the size of scrollbars (thus increasing available screen real estate) without having to get rid of the scrollbars to do it.

KJones

I've been using MouseImp for years and just love it. It's near the top of my "must install" list.

irkregent

@SpriteMV: You get finer control over the scroll speed with MouseImp than with the scroll wheel.

irkregent

Well, shoot. This is great! I love that I can easily scroll with my laptop mouse now, and to disable it is simple as just a hotkey (ctrl) while clicking with the right mouse button. Next best thing to having my touchpad's scroll buttons working (disabled when the software isn't running). Might even be better haha.

Only beef with it is that it's not working in Explorer at all. It seems like something I could script myself with Autohotkey and maybe improve it to work with any scroll bar.

umpitygrumpity

How does this product interact with Stroke-It? Stroke-It is activated by right-clicks and drags, which is exactly what this is. So I wonder if there would be any conflict. I can't live w/o Stroke-It! (also showcased on here awhile back).

mrthermister

@SnickerHaHa: There is scrolling for laptops. My Toshiba Tecra has a trackpad and "joystick button"(a la IBM pre-trackpad laptops) setting that allows portions of the trackpad to be used just for scrolling. Also, the little button in the middle of the keyboard (on mine at least, and on lots of others) can be set to used just for scrolling, not for mousing. They both work great for me.

However, I've found that when I do RDC (Remote desktop connections) on M$ products (namely Access code pages), that the middle mouse button scrolling doesn't work. I wonder if any software would work thru the RDC connection.

mrthermister

I used scrollanywhere, too. It's so much more efficient than the silly wheel. Try scrolling through this thread with the wheel, vs dragging a virtual scrollbar.

James

I've been using a TrackMan Marble from Logitech, and desperately missed the scroll wheel (should've bought the version with it, but hey, hindsight is 20/20). While looking at Mouseimp-pro, I didn't like the scroll setup... it didn't seem like it was going to do what I wanted. On an impulse, I searched for "trackball scolling utility" and ended up at [simans.net] and downloaded the free utility there. It quickly made my life a LOT easier. I can now click and hold my 'back' button and drag the marble wheel and scroll precisely where I want. It doesn't just start a mindless scroll that has no feel to it like the logitech utility or the one that comes with most non-scroll wheel mice, you actually have precise control of the scrolling. The utility also features:
* Add a scroll wheel to any mouse with more than two buttons
* Compatiblity with most applications that support a scroll wheel (for any type of input)
* Adjustable acceleration
* Adjustable scrolling distance (per "step" - see below)
* Stepped scrolling to simulate a real mouse wheel
* Quick left/right handed mode switcher
* Quick enable/disable by clicking on the tray icon
* Small and light on system resources
I LIKE it!

JPS99

@Mersine:
@mrthermister:

If right-click drag doesn't work for you, you can re-configure it for middle-click drag, which I only ever use for scrolling of some sort anyway.

I too use mouse gestures which makes right-click drag a no-no for me. Middle-click drag works perfectly, it doesn't interfere with the normal middle-click functionality, and aside from inverting some program's default scrolling behavior (which takes some getting used to), you hardly even notice it.

Nakamura2828

I'd disagree on being more efficient when it borks mouse gestures.

Not to mention you get the same effect by left clicking on the scrollbar and holding the left button down.

SirSmiley

I don't understand though. With my mouse, I click the mousewheel. Then take my finger off the mousewheel and move the mouse up and down to scroll up and down. Click the wheel again to go back to normal. Easier than rolling the clickwheel or pulling the side-bar. And that just happened when I installed Vista, I didn't install any special drivers for it or anything.

Al Iguana

Doesn't work on Vista x64.

AndrewVos

I've tried this thing twice. It causes issues with my computer. Some of my programs just quit working. I'm on Vista, is there an issue?

fallingup79

And i use Gestures in Opera.

Gestures and MouseImp Pro can't use together :(

tireless

But I use StrokeIt

tireless