HACKER Q&A
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What is your preferred way to scroll a website while reading?


When reading an article online how do you prefer to scroll the page?

This is a two part question:

How do you physically scroll the page?

- Track Pad?

- Scroll Wheel on a Mouse?

- Scroll Ring on a trackball?

- Arrow Keys?

- Page Up/Down Buttons?

- Dragging the Scroll Bar?

- An unusual device like a foot pedal?

- Some kind of auto scrolling program?

- Some other thing?

How often do you scroll while reading?

- Do you continuously scroll the page while you are reading it?

- Do you read the entire page before scrolling?

- Some other behavior?

I'm curious what most people do. I like to scroll at the same time as I am reading it and I think this kind of thing might lead to RSI. I am considering switching to reading the whole page and then using Page Down.

  👤 Leftium Accepted Answer ✓
I use PageDown/Space + a bookmarklet that marks where the bottom of the page was after scrolling: [Scroll Better with the Space-Bar]. (I modified mine to darken the entire old area instead of just a red line.)

[Scroll Better with the Space-Bar]: https://www.ph-uhl.com/0010-Bookmarklets/#:~:text=Scroll%20B...

👤 PopAlongKid
As a user of command line Unix, and desktop computers since before mice were common, I use arrow keys and page up/page down. When mice became common, I used scroll bar more often. For speed, keystrokes almost always beat mouse movements.

Surprisingly, only in the last few years did I really give the mouse wheel a try, due to a piece of software I was forced to use on a Chromebook. Now I use it frequently.

Track pad or the little "pencil eraser" control on some laptops (in the middle of the keyboard) are my least used methods.

👤 thisismatu
On a laptop, i usually scroll while reading and use either the trackpad or a mouse scroll wheel to scroll. On the phone i tend to read the page and scroll as needed.
👤 James_Henry
It depends on the content and the page. I do like using space bar rather than the page down key.
👤 davydm
when I have a maus - scrollwheel

when I'm dealing with loadshedding and have to use my laptop by itself, two fingers, trackpad, moving in the direction of scrolling, like a regular person, none of the upside-down "grabbing the paper" rubbish that iKids like

👤 pestatije
Index finger sweeping up the screen
👤 cheapliquor
Racing wheel/DDR pad