[Update 2 September 2008: This software is no longer available. There is no equivalent software currently available to my knowledge. - Ricky]
MaxiMice takes the clicks out of scrolling views and dragging windows. Move the mouse pointer near the edge of a view and it scrolls. Move it closer to the edge and the scrolling speeds up. Or just hold down a modifier key to move or scroll the window under the cursor.
This software is not new, it was last updated in 2003, but it still works file on my computer at least. I doubt that it would work on an intel-based system.
Website: MaxiMice
- Ricky Buchanan
Unfortunately you’re right about it not working in Leopard. The auto-scroll would be very very useful for me too – we can keep hoping :/
Ricky
I’ve heard that it doesn’t work at all in Leapard now and the company that makes it appears to be gone too. This really, really sucks. There doesn’t appear to be an alternative anywhere that I can find. It’ll be the firest time in scores of years that this great, vital functionality is gone from the Mac experience. Well, not for me anyway… I’m not upgrading to Leapoard until something like this works again.
BTW, this is basically what we are talking about here:
http://www.edenware.com/scrollability/
This was for OS 9, but it shows a nice little animation that gives the gist of it. The main thing most people loved about it (and MaxiMice) wasn’t the ability to grab with a hand, but the auto scroll that would happen at varying speeds depending on how close you came to the edge of the window.
It’s PERFECT for reading stuff on your computer. Like movie credits rolling smoothly down the screen where you can control the pace to your exact whim. Actaully, this funtionality makes it better to read on my computer than with dead trees.
Someone, somewhere… grow a fricken’ brain and bring this back to OS X!!!! Dammit….
Just a head’s up that I heard through the grapevine that Smart Scroll may be adding this functionality soon for their product on Leopard! Maybe as soon as October. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. The only potential problem is that Smart Scroll relies on Unsanity’s APE and I’m not sure how much I trust APE with Leopard just yet. (but I’ll probably risk it anyway).
@Cowicide: That’s fantastic to hear. I’m a bit leery about APE as well (for those who aren’t aware, it modifies system files so it has a reputation for making machines crash and sometimes messing up disk drives) but I need this enough that I’ll definitely try it at least!
Thanks for the heads-up.
Ricky
@Ricky: Update, a pal of mine said the developer of Smart Scroll has a beta that works like MaxiMice in Leopard now. If you’re interested, I bet you could contact the Smart Scroll dev to get a copy of the beta! This is great news!
@Cowcide: Thank you! I’ll probably wait until something is released, but that sounds fantastic – great news