moving the scrollbar to the left side
 

:) hhi, as you ave guessed from the title i'm lefty and was wondering if there is a way to
move scollbar to the left of the screen. everytime try to scroll my hand would be over the screen and it gets kind of anyoing. also if there are any other lefties in the forum i would really love to hear any other tips or tweaks that wuld make our lifes on the 770 any easier.


thanks on advance

Re: moving the scrollbar to the left side
 

I second that but would like the same for the N800!

Re: moving the scrollbar to the left side
 

try scrolling by dragging the page then.

Re: moving the scrollbar to the left side
 

I got sick of reaching over the page too and did the opera hack to make the D-pad only scroll, it has made my web experience much easier, i would love to move the scroll bar too, it would be a great option to have

Re: moving the scrollbar to the left side
 

well, some applications don't allow scrolling by page, such as control panel. also worst ones are scrolling the drop down list boxes, those are just impossible to do with left hand.

Re: moving the scrollbar to the left side
 

Actually, as mentioned previously the D-pad works wonderfully for scrolling, including drop down lists. Punch the center button once you've found the drop down item you wish to select and it's as good as a stylus select.

R.
==

Re: moving the scrollbar to the left side
 

They say... if the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body...

Then left-handers must be in their "right mind"!

Regards...
Omega

Re: moving the scrollbar to the left side
 

So i finally got my N800.. And since I am lefty this scrollbar thingy was shitty for m also.. So do anyone found a solution to transfer the scrollbar to the left side of the screen? The d-bar solution is ok, but not perfect.

Re: moving the scrollbar to the left side
 

I had thought about making a lefty post. I'm kind of "tainted" because I am a half-and-half. I use a right handed mouse... but left handed stylus on the tablet. (I haven't tried a right handed stylus.)

My original thought: "Gee it would be good if they made a lefty version of the N800." Then I realized that the buttons are on the "correct" side for a lefty as it is... and holding it with your right hand for long periods is MUCH easier without buttons on that side.

BUT for the scroll: I agree optionally move the scrollbar to the left or right or hidden. (Some people never use the scroll bar. Why waste the screen for them?)

OTHER THOUGHTS (Not just for lefties.)

Allow for a larger "finger" scrollbar. Have it dynamically get big for fingers. Just like the on screen keyboard gets big if it "sees" a finger.

The URL/status bar on the browser when in full screen mode should have an "auto-hide" mode. If i'm reading a page... and scrolling up and down... I generally don't need to see the status/URL bar.

Re: moving the scrollbar to the left side
 

I get the impression from posts in Bugzilla and elsewhere that in future scrollbars will disappear or at least appear less often that at present - in future, you'll drag the screen to scroll in most if not all apps. Scrollbars are inherently finger-unfriendly and Nokia's goal is to make the NITs very finger friendly, so say goodbye to scrollbars (not sure if this will happen in OS 2008 - doubt it somehow, maybe OS 2009...)

Re: moving the scrollbar to the left side
 

Move microb scrollbar to the left side... instructions here:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Layout.scrollbar.side

Re: moving the scrollbar to the left side
 

You mean like in the screenshot I have attached here?

Pretty easy, actually. Just took some searching and the realization that a local .gtkrc-2.0 file is not looked at in Maemo.

Pick your favourite theme to edit and go to the appropriate directory in xterm (ex. "/usr/share/themes/glasser/gtk-2.0/")

As super-user ("sudo gainroot" after installing "becomeroot" package) edit the "gtkrc" file in that directory.

Add the line:

somewhere in there (I did it after the short HID section near the top). Restart your tablet (may be unnecessary, but I was having some stability issues that may have been caused by this change or by another application I was using). Make sure you have the theme you modified selected, and most applications will now be left-handed! To get the web browser left handed, follow the link earlier in this thread. xterm is the only application I have come across that ignores this change.

I regret there is no easier way to do this. Having to make this change for every theme sucks. The problem seems to stem from the fact that hildon looks at the file "~/.osso/current-gtk-theme" to get the theme information. There is only one line in this file (pointing to the current theme location) so you can not include a second line without having it overwritten each time you change themes.

If this process is too difficult for a lot of people I could package up the default themes as left-handed themes. Let me know if there is interest.

Re: moving the scrollbar to the left side
 

sorry for the n00b query, but how do you edit the gtkrc file? I got as far as getting into the directory...i think. not much knowledgeable with xterm commands, not at all actually :S a step by step guide (with images if possible) would be very much appreciated...as a lefty I'm sick of changing hands using the stylus or using my right thumb to scroll (which doesn't work very well unless I grew my nail)

thanks in advance

Re: moving the scrollbar to the left side
 

just a follow up, I'm using becomeroot. But i used to have easyroot... does that make a difference at all? I read somewhere that easyroot's "easier" to use or is it basically the same thing, as easyroot's being described as an alternative to becomeroot. What about rootsh?

Re: moving the scrollbar to the left side
 

They're all quite similar, but Rootsh is now the preferred method, because you get to do things like:
and it'll update without leaving you inside the root shell.

Re: moving the scrollbar to the left side
 

Will this work on a 770? I have added this line to four different themes now and it appears to have done nothing. I have even made exited and then gone back in to make sure it took. Is there a better place to add it? I have tried several places but I notice that gtkrc appears to have blocks of info delineated by {}'s. Can you show us a bit more of where you placed in in your gtkrc? If this is not for the 770 has someone come up with a method for the 770? A search reveals this is pretty much the only thread about left handed scroll bars and the only one containing a "How to".

santa_matt

Re: moving the scrollbar to the left side
 

Bit more info for the browser's scrollbar:

- enter about:config in the address field
- in 'Name', type layout.scrollbar.side
- in 'Value', type 3
- hit the enter button of your nokia
- click on the 'Set preferences' button on the browser page

voila

(thank you fiferboy at the #maemo channel & HowieG at this thread:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=21905 )