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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?"

5 of 255 comments (clear)

  1. Re:That's EASY! by bky1701 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Learn Ambidexterity. I am right handed but learned to do many things with ether hand. It's not that hard once you get used to it. If you really have a hard time, use both hands (ie, 2 hands on a mouse/pen) and change to just the other. You'll be using both soon. It can really impress people. :P

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  2. One southpaw's advice by svunt · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Scroll Lock, then use arrows. As a lefty, I tried seeking software solutions, but just like meatspace, learning to work around things is easier than stocking up on left-handed crap. I use my mousewheel, and I dare say I hit home, end, pageup, pagedown more often than most right-handers. As for the left-handed mouse having the buttons switched, WTF is that about? I haven't found a game where my middle finger can't cope with the clicks yet, is that the supposed benefit of the switch?

  3. Your question has nothing to do with lefties. by shoolz · · Score: 4, Interesting
    You are asking for an interface standard adjustment that will benifit ALL users, not just lefties.
    • The menus of all apps are on the top left, the furthest away from the scrollbar - just like righties have to use;
    • The start menu for Windows/Linux distros that I've used are on the bottom left, the furthest away from the scrollbar - just like righties have to use
    • The menus of most web sites are on the left, the furthest away from the scrollbar - just like righties have to use;
    • I could go on, but everybody gets my point...
    If you find compy interfaces tough to use, it's not because you're a leftie, it's because these interface wrinkles haven't been ironed out yet for righties OR lefties.
  4. Get over it already! by Butterspoon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I am strongly left-handed but when I was introduced to this new-fangled mouse thingy, I always moused with my right hand, probably because that was how my desk was laid out at first, and was not very comfortable mousing with the left. Unfortunately, after a few years of intensive Doom-playing (LH on keyboard, RH on mouse), I got a touch of RSI in my right writst which meant that mousing right-handed became painful and I now mouse exclusively with my left hand. (I only switch over when playing a FPS.)

    Anyway, to the point in hand: I'm well aware of and irritated by the "dextrism" that pervades manufacures goods (numeric keypad on the right is my pet peeve) but honestly I had never given the position of the scroll bar a second thought until I read this article. It's just a waste of effort to have to acquire a left-handed version of every common product, and if you've got to the point where you're complaining about where the scroll bar is then you're just overdoing it. I mean, mouse pointer too far from the scroll bar? Give it a nudge and - look! - it's over there, near the scroll bar! Problem solved! Or use the wheel and forget about it. It's not even clear that this is a case of dextrism - the scroll bar has to be somewhere; this is more likely to be influenced by text reading direction than the majority dominant hand.

    You have to be able to adapt to the environment you find yourself in. Putting up with default computing environments makes you more comfortable when using random machines and makes your machine a *lot* easier to use should anyone need to do something quickly on it over your shoulder. I've got a left-handed colleague who swaps his mouse buttons and I have to help him with stuff on his computer from time to time. Just can't adapt to it, no matter how many times I use it.

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    pi = 2*|arg(God)|
  5. It IS possible, but... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    When your Windows locale is for a right-to-left language, the scroll bars, menus and everything is reversed and on the opposite side too. This works in pretty much all applications.

    So, Windows does support it. The question is, how do you enable it in an English left-to-right OS?

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    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
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