Video Review: Smoother Scrolling with Smart Scroll
Sometimes you don’t know what you’ve been missing until you try something new. My first experience at Chick-Fil-A was like that. I ordered the char-grilled chicken club combo with sweet tea and polynesian sauce, and suddenly I don’t want to order another chicken sandwich from anyone else. Smart Scroll is just like the sandwich, but with scrolling.
Smart Scroll deserves praise not only for the space in the app name, but also for vastly improving the user experience in OS 10.3.9 and up. Every scroll with Smart Scroll becomes a smooth pass from page to page.
By installing Smart Scoll, users can control coasting, designate a key for 4x faster scrolling, grab and scroll, and scroll using their keyboards with this pref pane. Check out Smart Scroll in action:
Now that I’ve experienced a smoother scroll, I don’t know how I could go back to the click click click of yesterweek. That would be like restricting the scroll wheel to up and down motion or plugging a cord into my Mighty Mouse.
I do have to admit that Smart Scroll isn’t as shiny as I would like it to be. Like I said in the video, it doesn’t work in Flock, which used to be my favorite browser (I’m over it now). This makes me think that Smart Scroll may also not work in other important and necessary apps. Good news is that the developer is on top of things and has recently released a version that supports Firefox 3 (though still not Flock), and boasts enhancements for FileMaker Pro and Apple Works. Smart Scroll has some hiccups now and again when I’m running heavy on the processes, so if you’re looking for perfection, you may have to wait for the next release.
Be warned! If you download the trial, you’ll end up buying the thing because you’ll miss it that much when the trial runs out. Smart Scroll is $19 and available from Marc Moini.
doesn’t firefox 3 already have smooth scrolling? it’s one of the things that sold me as my new default browser.
but you’re right about not knowing what you’re missing. smooth scrolling in all apps is something that should be basic in 2008.
does this affect all apps?
Smart Scroll works like the iphone. You can throw a window and it will scroll quickly then slow down. Much better experience than with Firefox alone.
@tobor
Funny, I had smart scroll installed before I upgraded to Firefox 3.0 so I thought it was just SS. I did see something on the SS site that said it is now Firefox 3 compatible so I think it may have something to do with grab scroll.
SS affects all apps, though I think that there may be a few apps out there that aren’t compatible. I say this only because Flock browser doesn’t work with SS.
cool, i really want to try this out. thanks.
@tobor68
Safari has smooth scrolling too, in fact all OS X applications do so long as you enable it. Check the Appearance preference pane.
First in reference to just running the built in “smooth scrolling”; I had that running already – but it doesn’t even touch this app. You can tweak how much and how fast the scrolling responds, which is a breath of fresh air, since not everyone is the same. Tim Cox, you were “SO” right. I got “hooked” immediately, bought a family license and, and now happily run it on our machines. Two thumbs up on this one.
i like the app also .. i used it as a demo .. and i have found out that with it on i try to read moving text while scrolling .. that makes me dizzy a lot .. i turned it off .. it is great app but i get “sea sick” while using it .. can’t stop reading while scroling .. (normal scroll jumps few lines at a time so u cannot read it while moving)
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