One finger scrolling on a MacBook touchpad

Question

After an accident that damaged my hands, I am no longer able to do the two finger scrolling gesture on a MacBook touchpad. On Windows I set up so called "scrollzone", it allows me to scroll smoothly by dragging one finger along the right edge of the touchpad.

I would like to have this feature on macOS as well.

I tried many apps, namely these and none of them could do this:

I even tried to contact the developers if they would be willing to work on this, but they either ignore me or say they cannot do it.

People advise me to buy a Magic Mouse, which supposedly can do it, or to scroll with arrow keys. No, thanks. I know there are workarounds available, but I know what works best for me (scrollzone) and I am unwilling to settle for less.

I would gladly sacrifice other trackpad gestures. I cannot use them anyway.

There was a program called SideTrack that could do this, but it does not work any more. I wrote to the author, but got little help.

Ryan H · Accepted Answer · 2021-06-15T00:38:37.583

5

I created a paid app called Scroll that allows one finger scrolling on Apple trackpads. You can download it at https://ryanhanson.dev/scroll.

As you can see from the following screenshot, it has scroll zones, scroll areas, and the ability to hold a modifier key and scroll with one trackpad touch.

edited Jun 15 '21 at 00:38

answered May 05 '19 at 22:52

Ryan H

252

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 28 '13 at 10:39

5

I would recommend using BetterTouch Tool with configs as shown in the img: enter image description here

This will scroll the page up with single finger tap on top right corner and scroll down with single finger tap on bottom right corner

answered Oct 28 '13 at 10:39

VDR

1,081

Ari Fiorino · Answer 3 · 2024-06-14T21:37:51.527

4

I created a free and open source app called Scroller which does this.

It allows you to hold down the option key and move the trackpad to scroll. The steps to get it working are on Github. The code is simple and contributions are welcome.

edited Jun 14 '24 at 21:37

answered Jun 13 '24 at 21:24

Ari Fiorino

141

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 30 '20 at 12:16

1

Works with "SmartScroll", called "Grab Scroll" with "scroll without moving cursor" option. Karabiner-Elements also has this option, but it does not work with built-in trackpad yet.

answered Mar 30 '20 at 12:16

grigoryvp

1,057

score 1 · Answer 5 · edited Aug 22 '24 at 19:32

1

I created a free and open source app that does that. Meet Tabula.

You can press a modifier and then just move your mouse to scroll.

It actually expands the code of @Ari Fiorino and makes everything configurable.

edited Aug 22 '24 at 19:32

ChanganAuto

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4
18
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answered Aug 22 '24 at 15:12

Keyruu

11

score 0 · Answer 6 · edited May 05 '19 at 23:02

This is just an idea that came up reading this question. It's not a software solution, but hardware, well... I can't tell if it works or not. You know that smart phones have touchscreens, and there are pens that you can use for these touchscreens. I believe the Samsung Note has a pen like that.

Would such a pen work with a MacBook trackpad? I don't know. If it does, will two pens work similar to two finger scrolling? If so, read on...

You can make a double tip pen that can be attached to your finger. By changing the angle you can use one or two tips. Maybe even one tip is enough, by tilting your finger so that the pen and finger touch the trackpad at the same time. My guess is that won't work well, but maybe I'm wrong. That's for you to find out.

Maybe the touchscreen pens don't work, but something else will?

Just an idea this answer, thinking outside the box as they say nowadays, and maybe it inspires you or other people to come up with a better solution.

One finger scrolling on a MacBook touchpad

6 Answers6