Apple Magic Trackpad 2: Not seeing how to reduce horizontal scroll speed

[mafocari]

With mouse, I scroll horizontally by holding Shift and pulling the wheel down.

On trackpad, holding Shift and pulling down with two fingers doesn't scroll horizontally, it ignores the Shift press and just scrolls vertically.

When I'm scrolling vertically in spreadsheets (like in Excel or LibreOffice or Google Sheets or a database app's query results), it often accidentally scrolls horizontally... driving me crazy. I have to be very careful in spreadsheets, which is very annoying. There's no Apple device experience that should require a user being very careful to get work done.

I see nothing in settings to say "slow down horizontal scroll", or "disable two-finger horizontal scroll" so that it just defaults to Shift+vertical scroll to do horizontal scroll. I'm kind of flabbergasted that Apple hasn't thought of this already, especially with a $129 product.

Even just an option to "lock to horizontal scroll when Shift is held" would be great to prevent accidental vertical scrolling.

 

[ferrarr]

On the trackpad, swipe left to right (right to left) to scroll.

 

[pigoo3]

Wasn't 100% sure if you were looking to disable horizontal scrolling entirely. If so...there seems to be a way to disable horizontal scrolling by entering some code into Terminal (which most folks would rather not do).

And when you want to reenable horizontal scrolling...you'd probably need to remove this code (kind of a hassle).

There's an app called "Scroll" that's supposed to be able to disable horizontal scrolling with the Magic Mouse (may work for trackpad too). Free 7-day trial if you wanted to check it out:

Disable horizontal scroll on the Magic Mouse

A simple app for a common problem

medium.com

Link to Scroll app download:

Scroll

HTH,

Nick

 

[pigoo3]

Thread moved to better area (Other Hardware).

Nick

 

[mafocari]

On the trackpad, swipe left to right (right to left) to scroll.

You missed what I said. I wasn't asking how to scroll horizontally with the trackpad. I was asking how to disable it so that it would only scroll horizontally when holding down the Shift key, like horizontal scrolling works with a mouse scroll wheel.

Please read my original post more carefully then try to address what I'm asking for if possible. Otherwise if you know that this isn't possible, please state that.

 

[mafocari]

Wasn't 100% sure if you were looking to disable horizontal scrolling entirely.

That was simply one idea I had as a workaround (though not entirely, just unless Shift is held), but I couldn't figure out how to do that.

there seems to be a way to disable horizontal scrolling by entering some code into Terminal

Which code (command?) do you mean?

There's an app called "Scroll"

I'm wary of installing apps (for security and stability reasons), but I can try that as a last resort.

 

[MacInWin]

With mouse, I scroll horizontally by holding Shift and pulling the wheel down.

What mouse? And before we go any further, what Mac, what version of macOS?

When I'm scrolling vertically in spreadsheets (like in Excel or LibreOffice or Google Sheets or a database app's query results), it often accidentally scrolls horizontally... driving me crazy. I have to be very careful in spreadsheets, which is very annoying. There's no Apple device experience that should require a user being very careful to get work done.

Is this only in those applications, or does the horizontal scroll happen in other apps, say Safari, for example? In just moving the mouse pointer, does it move consistently or does it move vertically when you want horizontal, or vice versa? In other words, is the problem there ONLY in those applications or is it system-wide?

I see nothing in settings to say "slow down horizontal scroll", or "disable two-finger horizontal scroll" so that it just defaults to Shift+vertical scroll to do horizontal scroll. I'm kind of flabbergasted that Apple hasn't thought of this already, especially with a $129 product.

There are settings in System Preferences/Accessibility for setting scrolling speeds for both Trackpad and Mouse, but you didn't say which you wanted to control. Your title line says trackpad, but you discussed mouse.

It does help to be clear in what you say.

 

[mafocari]

What mouse?

Any mouse I've ever used...

does the horizontal scroll happen in other apps

Horizontal scroll happens in any app where something extends horizontally beyond the edge of the screen... typically you get a horizontal scroll bar, at which point you can horizontally scroll.

In just moving the mouse pointer, does it move consistently or does it move vertically when you want horizontal, or vice versa?

Nothing scrolls by moving the mouse pointer unless I click on a scroll bar... but that's not what I'm talking about anyway.

it seems like you're not following what I'm saying or are not familiar with mouse scrolling (of which there are several ways it works). This is going off into paths that I shouldn't have to sidetrack to, I'm not gonna explain the various ways mouse scrolling works, this is something you can look up if you're not familiar with it, and I'm not asking about mouse scrolling anyway, I'm just trying to see if I can get the trackpad to work a certain way (Shift+two-finger pull-down to get horizontal scroll).

There are settings in System Preferences/Accessibility for setting scrolling speeds for both Trackpad and Mouse, but you didn't say which you wanted to control. Your title line says trackpad, but you discussed mouse.

I think you're still not getting what I'm saying.

This is my Trackpad settings:



You tell me what to select to get "Hold Shift while two-finger vertical scrolling to get only horizontal scroll".

That's what I'm asking for.

I only mentioned mouse because it's possible on mouse (to isolate horizontal scrolling) using Shift+scrollwheel (which without Shift just does vertical scroll).

I'm guessing what I'm asking for isn't possible on Mac, and maybe Mac user's unfamiliarity here with mice or mouse scrolling or horizontal scroll isolation is causing some weird responses.