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Scroll Bar
What is the Scroll Bar?
The scroll bar is (usually) the column on the left of your Typescript, EZ, Help and other windows. It represents the entire document that is in the window. When a document is too long to show its entire contents in a window, you can use the scroll bar to bring different parts of the document into view. The scroll bar consists of four parts:
1: The buttons at either end of the bar. These can be used to quickly move to the beginning or end of a document.
2: The bar itself, which should appear to be a depressed area. (It may actually look raised depending on your choice of foreground and background colors.)
3: The "dot": this is a black rectangle within the bar. It indicates what region of the document is currently selected.
4: The "elevator": this is an area within the bar which should look raised (but see #2). It indicates what portion of the entire document is currently displayed in the window.
Moving Around in a Window
To scroll up one line, place the mouse cursor in the top button and click the right mouse button.
To scroll down one line, place the mouse cursor in the bottom button and click the right mouse button.
Moving up. Move the mouse cursor into the scroll bar and align it with the heading "Moving Around in a Window", directly above. Click the left mouse button.
Notice that the line of text directly opposite the cursor ("Moving Around in a Window") moves up to become the top line in the window.
Moving down. Move the mouse cursor in the scroll bar so that it aligns with this subheading, "Moving down." Click the right mouse button.
Notice that the line of text that was at the top of the window ("Moving Around in a Window") moves down so that it is directly opposite the position of the cursor.
Moving More than a Screenful
If you can only move the line next to the cursor to the top of the window, and move the line at the top of the window to the cursor, it is impossible to move more than one screenful at a time using the single click mechanism described above. Fortunately, there is another way to move around in a document.
If you place the mouse cursor in the elevator (the raised area within the bar), and press and hold the left mouse button, the cursor becomes a ball when you move it. You can move the ball up and down, dragging the white box with it. When the white box is positioned in the portion of the document you want to see (relative to the whole length of the scroll bar), release the mouse button and the document "jumps" to the position. The piece of the document corresponding to the new position of the white bar appears in the window.
Moving to the Beginning or End of a Document
The buttons at either end of the scroll bar represent the beginning and end of the document in the window. You can use the buttons to go immediately to either end of the document, or to scroll forward or backward by one screen line.
To see the beginning of the document, place the mouse cursor in the top button and click the left mouse button.
To see the end of the document, place the mouse cursor in the bottom button and click the left mouse button.
The Scroll Bar and the Text Caret
Move the mouse cursor to the end of this sentence and click the left mouse button. This moves the text caret to the end of the sentence.
Look for the small black rectangle inside the scroll bar, somewhere in or near the elevator. This small black rectangle is the text caret marker which indicates the position of the text caret in the document. The text caret remains in one place in the document until you move it to another location (by putting the mouse cursor where you would like the text caret to be, and clicking the left mouse button). This means that the text caret is not always visible on the screen, but you can always see where it is by using the scroll bar.
The Scroll Bar and Selected Regions
Move the mouse cursor to the beginning of this paragraph and click the left mouse button. This moves the text caret to the beginning of the paragraph. Now move the mouse cursor to the end of this paragraph and click the right mouse button. This selects the paragraph. (If you want to learn more about selecting text, see the selecting help file.)
Look for the text caret marker in the scroll bar. It is no longer there! Instead, it has becomes a hollow rectangle. The hollow rectangle in the scroll bar represents a selected region within in the document. Like the text caret, a selected region may not be visible in the window, but you can always tell where it is in the document by looking at the scroll bar.
Horizontal Scroll Bars
Some programs, like raster and table have horizontal scroll bars along the top or bottom of the window. They work in the same way as the vertical scroll bars, except that they are horizontal:
Left click means move the point above the cursor to the left edge of the window.
Right click means move what is at the left edge of the window to above the cursor.
Preferences
MimicOldScrollbar: no (in color) yes (in monochrome)
This preference, when TRUE, alters the defaults of many other scroll bar preferences in order to emulate the older style ATK scroll bars.
ScrollDrawBorders: yes (no when mimicking the old scroll bar)
Specifies that a border is drawn around the interior of the frame.
ScrollStyle: 4 (3 when mimicking the old scroll bar)
This integer preference specifies which "look" should be used for all the components of the scroll bar. The default of 4 indicates "OSF/Motif" (TM) appearance.
The only supported style is the "OSF/Motif" (TM) appearance. The other styles may or may not work correctly and may effect the behavior of the scroll bar as well as it's appearance.
The possible values for this preference are:
- Double Boxed.
- Three Dimensional.
- Plain Box.
- OSF/Motif (TM).
Setting this will also have the effect of setting the ScrollMatteStyle, ScrollBarStyle, ScrollButtonStyle, and ScrollElevatorStyle preferences. Any of these preferences may be set individually or with any of the others including ScrollStyle.
ScrollForeground: <defaults to the foreground color for the application, as set by the foregroundcolor preference> (see the preferences help file for more information)
This color will be used to compute several other colors to provide a "3D" effect for the "Three Dimensional" and "OSF/Motif" (TM) style scroll bars. Setting this will also have the effect of setting the ScrollMatteForeground, ScrollBarForeground, ScrollButtonForeground, and ScrollElevatorForeground preferences. Any of these preferences may be set individually or with any of the others including ScrollForeground.
ScrollBackground: <defaults to thebackground color for the application, as set by the backgroundcolor preference> (see the preferences help file for more information)
This color will be used to compute several other colors to provide a "3D" effect for the "Three Dimensional" and "OSF/Motif" (TM) style scroll bars. Setting this will also have the effect of setting the ScrollMatteBackground, ScrollBarBackground, ScrollButtonBackground, and ScrollElevatorBackground preferences. Any of these preferences may be set individually or with any of the others including ScrollBackground.
ScrollTop: <by default this is computed from the foreground and background preferences>
This color will be used to draw the background (the raised or depressed area) of the matte (the area around the scroll bar(s) and the document), the bar or the buttons. Setting this will also have the effect of setting the ScrollMatteTop, ScrollBarTop, ScrollButtonTop, and ScrollElevatorTop preferences. Any of these preferences may be set individually or with any of the others including ScrollTop.
ScrollTopShadow: <by default this is computed from the foreground and background preferences>
The color which will be used to draw the upper shadow of the matte (the area around the view and scroll bar(s)) or the bottom shadow of the bar(s) (since they are supposed to look depressed). Setting this will also have the effect of setting the ScrollMatteTopShadow, ScrollBarTopShadow, ScrollButtonTopShadow, and ScrollElevatorTopShadow preferences. Any of these preferences may be set individually or with any of the others including ScrollTopShadow.
ScrollBottomShadow: <by default this is computed from the foreground and background preferences>
The color which will be used to draw the bottom shadow of the matte, or the upper shadow of the bar(s). Setting this will also have the effect of setting the ScrollMatteBottomShadow, ScrollBarBottomShadow, ScrollButtonBottomShadow, and ScrollElevatorBottomShadow preferences. Any of these preferences may be set individually or with any of the others including ScrollBottomShadow.
Note: All the preferences above (up to scrollforeground) can be applied to individual parts of the scroll bar or surrounding area (matte) by replacing the string "Scroll" at the beginning of each preference with one of the following (without the quotes):
"ScrollMatte" (for the area around the document and the scroll bar(s))
"ScrollBar" (to change the appearance of the bar itself)
"ScrollButton" (to change the appearance of the buttons)
"ScrollElevator" (to change the appearance of the elevator (visible region))
"ScrollDot" (to change the appearance of the dot (selected region))
ScrollbarWidth: 20 (18 when mimicking)
Determines the width of the scroll bar .
DotWidth: 6 (8 when mimicking)
The width (in pixels) of the rectangle which indicates where the cursor is or where the selection is.
ScrollWindowPadding: 1 (0 when mimicking)
The space in pixels between the border around the document and scroll bar(s) and the document and scroll bar(s) themselves.
ElevatorWidth: 16 (18 when mimicking)
The width of the elevator in pixels.
ScrollButtonSize: 16 (12 when mimicking)
The height (or width for horizontal scroll bars) of the buttons at either end of the scroll bar(s). Note: changing this may cause the reaction of the scroll bar on left and right clicks to be off by one or more lines.
ScrollButtonPadding: 4 (-1 when mimicking)
The space in pixels between the buttons and the bar.
ScrollbarPosition: (no default)
For text scroll bars this determines whether the scroll bar appears on the left or the right. If it is set to be "right" (capitalization matters here) the scroll bar will appear on the right of the text; if it is set to anything else the scroll bar will appear to the left.
StartScrollTime: 1000
This value is used to set the time interval before repeat scrolling kicks in. The value is in milliseconds. A value of 0 indicates that no repeat scrolling is to be used.
ContScrollTime: 150
This controls how fast repeat scrolling in small increments (line size) occurs. Again it is in milliseconds.
MaxContScrollTime: 650
MinContScrollTime: integer
This controls how fast repeat scrolling in large (page size) increments occurs. Again it is in milliseconds. Increments between these two amounts is done by interpolating between those two values.
ButtonRepeatTime: 100
Controls how quickly the buttons repeat when scrolling by a line at a time with the right mouse button.
AdjustScroll: no
If this is set to "yes," then the increment for repeat scrolling is constantly recalculated relative to the position of the mouse. With it on you can start scrolling by pages and then move the cursor up toward the top of the scroll bar to do more fine scrolling when they get close. If it is false then the repeat scrolling increment is determined by where you first press the mouse down in the scroll bar and can not be readjusted.
ThumbScroll: yes
If this is set to "yes," then the image being scrolled will be updated as the user thumbs in the scroll bar with the left mouse down. The right mouse down will always thumb without updating the image.
MotifScrollBars: no
Turns on "Motif" style behavior for the mouse in the bar, and moves the scroll bar on most text documents to the right hand side. If set to yes the mouse behaves as follows:
Clicking with the left mouse button will scroll one screen in the direction of the click relative to the elevator.
Clicking with the right mouse button will immediately move the elevator to the indicated position and then allow you to drag it, or simply release the mouse button to leave the elevator where you clicked.
All other operations are as described above.
ScrollClass: (none)
This preference can be used to specify an alternate "Class" to provide scrolling support. There are three alternatives currently available:
The scrolling package provided in previous releases of ATK.
The "panner", a small box with a rectangle inside it which represents the screen. By dragging the screen around in the box, you change what is visible. To use this alternative see the help file on panner.
The "scpanner" package. This gives you both a scroll bar and a panner. Again, see the help file on panner.
Notices
OSF and Motif are registered trademarks of the Open Software Foundation.
Recent Changes to the Scroll Bars
The default scroll bars have been replaced with new (and hopefully better looking) ones.
Related Topics
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