We recently bought an ergonomic mouse - a fairly cheap Anker model. It solves some of the problems which happen with the Apple Magic Mouse - but there are times when switching back to the Apple mouse is easier.
One feature it has is a scroll wheel, and I have also been looking at pen tablets as a way of improving interaction with the computer. Some pen tablets also include a scroll wheel. Before investing in a new pen tablet with a scroll wheel, such as some of the models by Huion or XP Pen, I thought I'd examine more closely what exactly a mouse scroll wheel can do in MacOS.
It turns out that it very much depends ......
It depends whether the scroll wheel is (apparently) interacting with MacOS or whether it is interacting with an application program. Some programs - typically drawing an painting programs - have special configurations for pointing devices - including pen tablets and wheels. Others may - or may not - and they may - or may not - be configurable.
So far I have found the following:
0. Without holding down any additional keys it may scroll text up or down, possibly depending on settings. In Blender it does a zoom in and out. This doesn't seem to be affected much by other key presses - it may work - it may not.
1. Hold down Control and use the scroll wheel. This seems to be a MacOS interaction and zooms in on the screen. It doesn't reposition the screen, but if the mouse is used first to point at an area of the screen, then the scroll wheel is used, this magnifies the area around the last pointed area.
2. Hold down Command and use the scroll wheel. This appears to be an application interaction, which both zooms in and out of the screen. However it is application specific, and may not be configurable. It works with Firefox, but does not seem to work with Chrome or Safari. Actually it does not always zoom in/out. In Affinity Photo it will rotate the current panel by small amounts.
3. Hold down Shift and use the scroll wheel. This also appears to be an application interaction. In Affinity Photo it moves objects sideways - to left or right. In Musescore in some modes it will move through the score from left to right. This is one command which does seem to affect the sideways positioning of objects in Keynote - which otherwise seems to ignore all scroll operations.
4. Hold down Option and use the scroll wheel. Generally this appears also to be an application interaction, which will either do nothing or will scroll up and down the screen. However in Affinity Photo it expands or shrinks the objects being worked on.
Preview seems oblivious to any action by the scroll wheel - with or without an additional key. However the OS level zoom with the Control key does apply. Pages seems also oblivious to such interactions.
There doesn't appear to be a lot of consistency between different applications, though it is clear that people who use some applications a lot - often - but not exclusively so - may find that using the scroll wheels helps a lot. Some applications do have more settings for how buttons and scroll wheels are used, but again this does not seem to be consistent. Each application may have its own features and methods - which might also explain why for many pen tablets there is a recommendation to uninstall any other drivers - either for devices by the same manufacturer, or for similar devices by other manufacturers (usually Wacom).
Clearly with such a wide variation of different actions which are both device dependent and also application dependent I am not able to give anything like a definitive view of how these tools would work in a Windows environment, though it would be interesting to know.
The use of devices like this seems to be a relatively unexplored area - except for some professionals who are using specific devices and well configured software on a regular basis. Such users do seem to get a lot of benefit from having more than the bare minimum generic pointing device.
Comments from others who may have looked into these issues would be welcomed.
One feature it has is a scroll wheel, and I have also been looking at pen tablets as a way of improving interaction with the computer. Some pen tablets also include a scroll wheel. Before investing in a new pen tablet with a scroll wheel, such as some of the models by Huion or XP Pen, I thought I'd examine more closely what exactly a mouse scroll wheel can do in MacOS.
It turns out that it very much depends ......
It depends whether the scroll wheel is (apparently) interacting with MacOS or whether it is interacting with an application program. Some programs - typically drawing an painting programs - have special configurations for pointing devices - including pen tablets and wheels. Others may - or may not - and they may - or may not - be configurable.
So far I have found the following:
0. Without holding down any additional keys it may scroll text up or down, possibly depending on settings. In Blender it does a zoom in and out. This doesn't seem to be affected much by other key presses - it may work - it may not.
1. Hold down Control and use the scroll wheel. This seems to be a MacOS interaction and zooms in on the screen. It doesn't reposition the screen, but if the mouse is used first to point at an area of the screen, then the scroll wheel is used, this magnifies the area around the last pointed area.
2. Hold down Command and use the scroll wheel. This appears to be an application interaction, which both zooms in and out of the screen. However it is application specific, and may not be configurable. It works with Firefox, but does not seem to work with Chrome or Safari. Actually it does not always zoom in/out. In Affinity Photo it will rotate the current panel by small amounts.
3. Hold down Shift and use the scroll wheel. This also appears to be an application interaction. In Affinity Photo it moves objects sideways - to left or right. In Musescore in some modes it will move through the score from left to right. This is one command which does seem to affect the sideways positioning of objects in Keynote - which otherwise seems to ignore all scroll operations.
4. Hold down Option and use the scroll wheel. Generally this appears also to be an application interaction, which will either do nothing or will scroll up and down the screen. However in Affinity Photo it expands or shrinks the objects being worked on.
Preview seems oblivious to any action by the scroll wheel - with or without an additional key. However the OS level zoom with the Control key does apply. Pages seems also oblivious to such interactions.
There doesn't appear to be a lot of consistency between different applications, though it is clear that people who use some applications a lot - often - but not exclusively so - may find that using the scroll wheels helps a lot. Some applications do have more settings for how buttons and scroll wheels are used, but again this does not seem to be consistent. Each application may have its own features and methods - which might also explain why for many pen tablets there is a recommendation to uninstall any other drivers - either for devices by the same manufacturer, or for similar devices by other manufacturers (usually Wacom).
Clearly with such a wide variation of different actions which are both device dependent and also application dependent I am not able to give anything like a definitive view of how these tools would work in a Windows environment, though it would be interesting to know.
The use of devices like this seems to be a relatively unexplored area - except for some professionals who are using specific devices and well configured software on a regular basis. Such users do seem to get a lot of benefit from having more than the bare minimum generic pointing device.
Comments from others who may have looked into these issues would be welcomed.