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WhiteKnight
Making moves
Status: New idea

This is my use case:

I’m regularly browsing lists of hyperlinks to follow list items’ content in new browser tabs.

So, what I’m often doing is to middle click a hyperlink and immediately push the mouse away so I can continue my work using the keyboard without the mouse pointer being permanently in the way.

I’m a quick worker, so this is what happens when I’m either missing to hit a hyperlink or when a web designer decided it would be cute to show a Hand pointer on an element that’s not being a hyperlink:

  1. I middle-click an element
  2. auto-scroll ist getting enabled
  3. I immediately release the middle mouse button
  4. this enables scroll-lock mode for auto-scroll
  5. I push the mouse away
  6. the list item disappears into oblivion

See this screencast:

Immediate scrolling.gif

 

Desired situation

I want to continue to use auto-scroll for intentionally scrolling through a web page.

But I do not want scroll-lock to happen in any way, no matter how short I’m pressing the middle mouse button on a non-hyperlink element.

Please, add an additional option for permanently disabling scroll-lock when auto-scroll jumps in, so when the middle mouse button is released, scrolling always stops immediately.

5 Comments
Status changed to: New idea
Jon
Community Manager
Community Manager

Thanks for submitting an idea to the Mozilla Connect community! Your idea is now open to votes (aka kudos) and comments.

Botond
Employee
Employee

Do you mean that, when you use auto-scroll to intentionally scroll through a web page, you keep the middle mouse button pressed for the duration of the gesture?

WhiteKnight
Making moves

Yes, exactly.

Botond
Employee
Employee

Thanks. I wonder how common this usage is; for me, it strains my finger quite a bit more to keep the button pressed while autoscrolling, so I like the ability to autoscroll without that.

That said, from a technical point of view, I don't see any obstacle to having an option that makes autoscroll behave in the described way.

WhiteKnight
Making moves

Absolutely. That's why I suggest to implement it as an option.

BTW: FF currently behaves like suggested if you keep the middle mouse button pressed for a longer period than double-click timespan (e.g. 500ms). If you do, auto-scroll will not be enabled and you need to keep the middle mouse button pressed for scrolling to occur. Yet, there's this time threshold to pass.