I had the sneaky suspicion that there would be a way to click on the vertical scroll bar and get Page Up/Down, like in Windows, in addition to the very useful Linux way. I found that in Firefox, Thunderbird and other applications right-clicking achieves that. But in KDE Plasma applications I get a menu with more options, which is powerful but less efficient when you only want to move up/down. In fact, the menu doesn’t add much because you can easily jump to the top/bottom or scroll up/down easily anyway.
For consistency, is there a way to make all applications work like Firefox? That menu could be shown with middle-click (but I wouldn’t mind losing it). Failing that, middle-click on the scroll bar of KDE Plasma applications could do a Page up/down.
I see in settings I can make KDE Plasma applications do Page Up/Down with left-click and jump to location with middle-click, but then that’s different from Firefox etc and muscle memory gets messed up.
not sure what this means as it’s been a while since i’ve had to use that, but since switching to linux i’ve not noticed any issues with scrollbar behavior being something i had to adjust to (other than it hiding automatically, which i was not used to).
if i click on the empty space below the highlighted scroll handle, the window will jump to that next “page” of whatever i’m scrolling thru.
there are no “arrows” at the top and bottom like in the old days, if that’s what you mean… that would be redundant to the function i described above.
if i click on the empty space below the highlighted scroll handle, the window will jump to that next “page” of whatever i’m scrolling thru.
Not what I see here. When I click immediately below the scroll handle, the window will jump further down the document but not to where it would jump if I pressed Page Down. Also, what I am suggesting (and what Windows does) is that I can place the pointer anywhere on the scroll bar and click to get Page Up/Down. I can do that repeatedly without having to reposition the pointer. This means I don’t have to take my eyes off the content of the window.
Go to system settings->general behaviour->Clicking in scrollbar track->Scrolls one page up or down
This default was annoyingly changed to “scrolls to the clicked location” in Plasma 6. This makes absolutely no sense as a default because you can’t guess an exact location on a scrollbar anyway. “Scrolls one page up or down” would be a superior default as with it you can also jump to a location with a middle click as well.
“Scrolls one page up or down” would be a superior default as with it you can also jump to a location with a middle click as well.
It would be a superior default but then applications like Firefox, Thunderbird and more will again do it differently (left-click to jump, right-click for page up/down).
With what I suggested (adding an optional right-click to replace the context menu in the current KDE Plasma approach), you get an experience that is consistent. At the same time, it won’t alienate users like @skyfishgoo who prefer the good old setting (which would be optional anyway).
The point remains that currently there is no way to do a reliable and repetitive Page Up/Down without using the keyboard.
I am not sure where that leaves us. Personally, I think jump/page/menu would cover everything without alienating users who are used to left-click for jump. But I don’t see any common ground here. It seems Windows does and will continue to do scroll bar consistency better.
I think I will stick with the Plasma defaults and use the keyboard for Page Up/Down. Otherwise, I will have to think every time depending on the application.