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Scroll Reverser1.7.6

Name: Scroll Reverser
Rating: 4.6111 (16 reviews)

11 May 2017

Reverse the direction of scrolling on your Mac.

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Overview

Scroll Reverser is a free app for OS X that reverses the direction of scrolling. You can use it with OS X 10.5 and OS X 10.6 (see Related Links for older version) to make your scrolling match the 'natural scrolling' in OS X 10.7.

You can also use it with OS X 10.7 to customise scrolling behaviour beyond what is possible in system preferences, for example to reverse the trackpad but not the mouse.

Scroll Reverser is small, simple and efficient and works with all mice and trackpads with a scroll wheel or scroll gesture support, including MacBook trackpads, Magic Trackpad, Magic Mouse, and Mighty Mouse.

Note: While the software is classified as free, it is actually donationware. Please consider making a donation to help support development.

What's new in Scroll Reverser

Version 1.7.6:

Some internal changes to the way preferences are loaded. (As part of investigating Issue #38: Scroll reverser preferences randomly change)
Translation updates, including a new Norwegian translation

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53 Reviews of Scroll Reverser

This is an awesome tool! I've been using it for years ever since I got a normal mouse for my Mac. Sometimes Apple's logic is simply flawed. Why can't we have the natural direction on trackpad and classic direction on a mouse with turning wheel. Thanks for the author.

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Smayer97

20 May 2016

Version: 1.7.2

What does NOT make sense is the description says you can use it with OS X 10.5 & 10.6 but the System Requirements says minimum is 10.7. Huh???

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Excellent utility. If you have systems that can't be upgraded beyond Snow Leopard and have newer systems you can have all of them set to natural action of the mouse and easily switch from one to the other.

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Kenm22

27 September 2014

Version: 1.6.1

Not needed. Go to System Preferences/Mouse and uncheck Scroll direction: natural.

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Simple and does what it says. I have to wonder about this "it is the natural direction to scroll a page". What? 51% of people surveyed preferred the direction Apple hard-wired it to now? In my mind I am pulling the scroll-bar down, and that is natural to me. Also my PC's scroll is the same direction - and in gaming scrolling back is to pull back/going lower. There's nothing like forced "naturality" to get on one's nerves. Thanks heaps for this useful little app.

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Brilliant! I am running Leopard on an old PPC G5 tower next to my Mavericks system and wanted to have the scrolling the same as in the newer OS. I did have to go to the developer's website to download the older version (1.5.1) in order to run on my system. Seems to work flawlessly so far. Thanks!

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So the latest version doesn't work on 10.5 and 10.6. WTF is the point of a 'Scroll Reverser' then?

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I intentionally subscribed just to give this comment. Scroll reverser is absolutely stunning. Simple yet very efficient. I just got my new imac with OS 10.8.4 with the magic trackpad. Imagine my dismay that the movement/scrolling of the trackpad is opposite to what I'm used to from my macbook pro. I can understand if this is an iphone or tablet wherein you can touch the actual screen and the swiping movement is in its natural direction but not the trackpad, this should be exactly like the one we are used to in a laptop. I'm dissapointed why apple overlooked such a simple flaw in design + function. Anyway, this saved me a lot of time in "getting used" to with the new movement, and just get down immediately to work.

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this is what I was looking for (since I don't like SL scrolling system and I prefer the new one but I don't want to upgrade my OS to Lion)

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Fantastic stuff. Thanks very much. Didn't know natural scrolling could have so many options (individual settings of on/off for mouse/trackpad/tablet, etc).

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Aargl

31 July 2012

Version: 1.5.1

In Safari and Firefox, it works better than SmartScroll! It would be very nice if both could run together chosing in the prefs in what app to enable Scroll Reverser... ;-) Unfortunately I miss some useful feature of SmartScroll if I totally disable it in favor of Scroll Reverser... :-(

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Oh finally i was searching an utility like this one! i love Lion scrolling and i'm used to it now, so i want my old G5 to match this :-) Thanks so much

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PERFECT! Thank you! I find it natural to swipe fingers on the trackpad in the same direction that I want my screen to move (like iPad/iPhone). When I attached a mouse I didn't expect the mouse wheel to have the same behaviour. To me, it was backwards! After mucking around with the mouse/trackpad settings, I could get scroll wheel OR the trackpad to scroll the way I wanted, but not both! This app allows one to configure the trackpad scroll direction and the mouse wheel scroll direction independently. Good Job!

(2)

Ironman

23 February 2012

Version: 1.5

I find interesting the idea of having different configurations, like keeping the normal scrolling for the mouse, but not for the trackpad for example and it's free like air. cool.

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Brilliant. I couldn't use my iMac without this software. By the way, to those who tell us to go to System Prefs/Trackpad/Scroll & zoom, I will tell you that this is not an option on my iMac running 10.7.3. I,like many,do not use a Trackpad, so the options to change scrolling are not available. So there!

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Works great on Lion. I downloaded it and clicked install. There were no other prompts as to if it was installed or not but when I checked my scrolling...it was back to normal. Why does Lion reverse the scrolling in the first place?

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I installed it (on Lion 10.7.2) but no configuration of checkboxes managed to get my mouse scrollwheel back to its old ways while allowing the new "natural" method on the trackpad. I am using a USB mouse.

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Thanks for this little utility! For some reason I prefer horizontal natural scrolling but vertical reverse scrolling, which is actually more 'natural' when scrolling down. This app allows me to do this. Gesturing 'upwards' to scroll down is anatomically awkward, especially if reading a long article!

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I'm running version 1.4.4 (61) and the memory keeps going up and up (almost 400 MB last time I checked). Other than that great app!

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NotUsed

06 October 2011

Version: 1.4.4

System Preferences > Trackpad and uncheck "When using gestures to scroll or navigate...." I really don't see why a separate application is needed at all. It's already there in the prefs.

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I like everything about scroll reverser except its memory consumption. It is constantly at nearly 400mb real memory usage. I have also found that the reverser sometimes doesn't reverse my mouse wheel and I have to quit and relaunch it.

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Brilliant, thank you! Just like Apple forgot people using multiple monitors in lion, they also sadly forgot people using external mice and their scroll wheels. The new natural settings makes sense for a track pad but are plain stupid for a mouse wheel. This lets me use the trackpad with my left hand for swiping between spaces etc in the natural way, but use my mouse as it should be. Thanks!!!

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Thanks for providing a scroll reverser for us OS 10.7, third party mouse users. I'm using the Microsoft Optical Wireless Mouse 2.0 with Lion compatible drivers, but still no scroll reversing function. One issue: how do I put the Scroll Reverser app in the Utility folder, or someplace less conspicuous? Moving it from the desktop brings up this alert: "The item “Scroll Reverser” can’t be moved because “Utilities” can’t be modified."

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I(pod)mac

18 August 2011

Version: 1.4.2

simply a must for Lion users.

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Y'know, it seemed weird to me from the first, that to bring a page of text down the screen I had to push the scroll wheel up, away from me. Like, if you put the mouse on the monitor, you need to make the wheel go in the opposite direction you want your page to go. Huh? Finally I found Scroll Reverser and it's like, "Of course! THIS is the way it should'a been all along—what were they thinking, to make it backwards, anyway?" Great little app. You'll love it once you get used to it, 'cause it just makes total sense.

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WordWeaver

12 August 2011

Version: 1.4

Scrolling in Lion was driving me absolutely nuts! My brain just couldn't accept the change, and I kept getting confused when I reached the bottom of a page. Thank-you so much for this! What was Apple thinking? Think different? Yes, but not THAT different, please! Sometimes I wonder if Apple'd decision to reverse scrolling was all a big joke, and a way to mess with their users' minds. Maybe Steve Jobs has been at the job too long! :)

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Without this brilliant application, Lion would be awful to use when scrolling. Thank you,developer.

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Broadbean

07 August 2011

Version: 1.3

Only problem I had was when I had this activated, the text in Mail would not move whole words to the next line. It would just wrap. Tried Scrollvetica which seemed to work.

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Using iPad and iPhone finally I find a natural way to scroll. I would be very important ti advice that this application is a must have with trackpad.

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I really like this app! The only problem I've found is related to the "start at login" feature: it's simply not working! Am I the only one with this issue?

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Frabjusday

11 April 2011

Version: 1.2

Just a comment, since I've only been using Scroll Reverser for about ten minutes: YAY!—finally, scrolling makes sense! Want the page or pic to go up?—scroll up. I know it's going to take a little while to de-habituate myself from doing it backwards (pushing up to make the scroll BUTTON go up and the page down), but I can see that it won't be too long, as it SO makes sense.

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Bravo! A free, elegant app that does what it says and does it well. FWIW: Those (of us) that have Smart Scroll already have this capability for both (or either) X and Y axis. Though why one would use two different scrolling techniques eludes me.

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G-I-

30 March 2011

Version: 1.0

Works as advertised. However without touching directly the screen this scrolling doesn't make too much sense.

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well , i dont like the way they decided to scroll with ios .... i like the good old fashion scroll : when i want to go DOWN, i scroll DOWN , when i want to go UP , i scroll UP ..... logical ?? :P

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Rjmorita

29 March 2011

Version: 1.0

Interesting. I'm trying to get used to it.

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Thanks for making this available for free. I'm always getting confused between iOS and Mac scrolling. Luckily, that's fixed in Lion. Until then, this little program will help out. It would be great if it was possible to hide the menu bar icon, but hey - it's free.

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Does what it says. Gotta get used to the upcoming change at some point in time & there is no time like the present...

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MichaelHaeusler

28 March 2011

Version: 1.0

Great idea until Lion comes out. Sadly I can't use it. It messes up SmartScroll.

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truthhurts

28 March 2011