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Left Sided Windows Scrollbars?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the hasn't-X11-done-this-already dept.

Skin and Blister asks: "Years ago mouse manufacturers realized that not everyone is right handed and (thankfully) created the option of reversing the mouse buttons to accommodate left handed users. Now that laptops (and obviously tablets) have integrated touch technology, the new challenge for south paws is to use a stylus in the left hand to manipulate a scroll bar on the right side of an open window. Does anyone know if there is a way to move scroll bars to the left side of a window in Microsoft Windows XP Pro?"

8 of 255 comments (clear)

  1. Turn the laptop upside down... by mi11house · · Score: 2, Informative

    then create and use a TTF font that is "upside-down", and set your text direction as right-to-left.

    !em rof skroW

  2. Or, for OS X... by jcr · · Score: 2, Informative

    @interface NostalgicScrollView : NSScrollView
      {
      }
    @end

    @implementation NostalgicScrollView

    - (void)tile
        {
        [super tile];
        id contentView = [self contentView];
        id scroller = [self verticalScroller];

        NSRect contentFrame = [contentView frame];
        NSRect scrollerFrame = [scroller frame];

        [scroller setFrameOrigin:NSMakePoint(0.0, NSMinY(scrollerFrame))];
        [contentView setFrameOrigin:NSMakePoint(NSWidth(scrollerFrame), NSMinY(contentFrame))];
        }

    @end

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  3. Re:That's EASY! by SQLGuru · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yeah, I tell people that I hate using right handed pencils.....Ned Flanders rules!

    per the Question:
    Use FireFox for your browser:
    http://geckotip.mozdev.org/index.html

    For your Palm (well, your computer kind):
    http://handheld.softpedia.com/get/System-Utilities /LeftScroll-7380.shtml

    Layne

  4. Re:Essentially useless information. by larry+bagina · · Score: 2, Informative

    actually, Objective C allows you to add new methods (or override existing ones) without access to the original source code. So you could compile the above code (well, override NSScrollView tile) into a .so and use the LD_PRELOAD variable to specify it be loaded. Thus,any Cocoa program would be modified. Carbon wouldn't be affected.

    --
    Do you even lift?

    These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

  5. Which planet are you from? (-: by leonbrooks · · Score: 2, Informative

    I read left-to-right, and my second finger sits on the mouse's middle scroll-wheel/button (so I can roll it up or down). It all just works.

    WRT handedness-sensitive PDAs, hain't knowingly seen one yet.

    Handing a mouse is easy, just ask for some weird combination (Ctrl-Alt-Button for example, and wait for the cursing from 'Doze users :-) for choosing sides. Alternatively, just watch to see which buttons get clicked when a user logs in.

    --
    Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
  6. Re:south paw? by phatcabbage · · Score: 4, Informative
    From the Wiktionary:
    southpaw
    1. (informal): One who is left-handed
  7. Spiral Notebooks? by Gr8Apes · · Score: 3, Informative

    What's the problem? Just write in them starting from the back. It'll be backwards for us righties, but then, so is your writing style ;)

    --
    The cesspool just got a check and balance.
  8. not in Vista by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    A quick google search finds:

    http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?Pos tID=98910&SiteID=1

    So, at least in Vista, the answer will be no.