iPad interface quirk: scrolling frames lack scrollbars
The other day, my friend Geoff reported an iPad fail: an inability to scroll within a frame for a hotel login page, and similarly an inability to scroll in a Google Reader frame.
Geoff's as expert as they come, with computers in general and with Apple products too. He waited in line to get his iPad. But he couldn't figure out how to scroll these frames: scrolling by dragging a finger just scrolled the overall page, not the frame.
The solution is simple: scroll with two fingers in parallel, within the frame.
This is actually documented in the iPad user guide, which is bookmarked in Safari on iPad. One of the perils of a device this easy to use is that nobody reads the manual!
The interface is still quirky: no visible scroll bars even suggest that content overflows the frame. This does save screen real estate, precious on a 9.7" screen. But it can definitely lead to overlooking content, if you don't know that there even is anything to scroll.
May 20th, 2010 - 21:40
Have you tried two finger scrolling for a PDF file contained in a frame? It doesn’t seem to work. Any thoughts?
November 22nd, 2011 - 17:01
yes, you are right.. it does not work for me either. i m a student of Australian Catholic University and my lecture notes on my uni website are pretty similar to what you have explained, pdfs inside frames. and i can only read that section what appears on the screen. rest of the notes is scissor-cut. two finger scrolling doesnt help… but is there any other solution? i will not be able to read my lecture notes then…
June 14th, 2010 - 01:13
tried it to does NOT work.
June 26th, 2010 - 20:53
If anyone ever figures this out, I’ll buy an ipad. It’s a dealbreaker for me because I have a work related function that requires my constant use of .pdfs in a frame and it just doesn’t work!
July 30th, 2010 - 10:18
Does not work mate!
August 10th, 2010 - 06:56
I tried the parallel finger scrolling and it worked for horizontal scrolling in the application I am using, but what about vertical scrolling (within a frame)?
August 14th, 2010 - 14:10
Works
Thanks for the tip
September 2nd, 2010 - 05:44
It actually works, land two fingers in the frame hold for 2 sec, then start to scroll up or down with one finger. The other finger hold still. It is not easy to use, I tried for 5minute to get use to it. For very small frame you need to zoom in to do it.
September 10th, 2010 - 22:34
It does work with other sites, I don’t know about PDF, but for example, within Facebook frames the two-finger scroll works, one finger does not.
September 14th, 2010 - 05:50
Maybe you need to use your middle finger.
September 27th, 2010 - 15:58
worked for me!! awesome thanks
October 17th, 2010 - 18:23
Didn’t work for me. I will try the middle finger….at least I might feel better!
October 24th, 2010 - 16:22
I sure hope this works! If not, it’s going back to the store ARG…
November 10th, 2010 - 22:44
PS: I need to remember this thread; apparently I am working on the same thing.
I haven’t fully gotten the concept yet; but this thread explains it best.
Here’s a page that works (they seem to all do so): http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#samplecode/UICatalog/Introduction/Intro.html –> on the ipad, scrolling correctly. Correct me if I’m wrong? …. I am trying to mirror a local copy of the functionality now (and got it in Firefox, but turns out it actually *doesn’t* work yet on the iPad [of my personal local functionality mirroring attempt] [yet])
November 15th, 2010 - 08:01
Well I suppose reading the manual would have helped! Just tried it and it totally worked, couldn’t be simpler than using two finger to touch and scroll instead of one.
December 13th, 2010 - 18:41
It’s quite tricky, but it works!
December 18th, 2010 - 16:09
Doesn’t work here either
January 3rd, 2011 - 00:21
Doesn’t work for papers from onlinelibrary.wiley.com
January 3rd, 2011 - 12:32
The two finger scrolls works in some frames – other not so far. I know the action works but not in all places. I got this for my real estate to show properties on the go. It works for lists but not detail pages. There is another way to view the detail in the program so I’m using that as a work around for now. Testing other functions to be sure I can use it for work or it’s going back.
March 16th, 2011 - 14:33
Two finger scrolling works for me!
March 30th, 2011 - 12:07
Thank you! This has been driving me crazy. Works fabulously.
April 3rd, 2011 - 20:25
Omg, Finally! I’ve been avoiding so many sites because of this until now… ThankYou. It feels amazing
May 11th, 2011 - 06:09
Thank you! Dont know why i didnt google this months ago
May 15th, 2011 - 14:02
Hi,
I can scroll with 2 fingers within an EXTJS panel but I don’t think that the users will know that scolling is possible i.e. that there is more content to see.
Does anyone know how to get the scrollbars to appear as a visual key.
If it is not possible I am thinking maybe to display some semi transparent arrows at the bottom of the scoll area to make it apparent that there is more to see.. any thoughts on this approach?
Jonathan Carter
June 10th, 2011 - 03:25
Well, it doesn’t work for me. The most annoying thing is EMAILS!!!! there seems NO way to scroll up and check your text at all. The ipad is quite invaluable to me to keep in touch on the move, but emailing is ghastly because of this and I always compose on the notepad first and copy and paste. Very annoying. A big shortcoming on an otherwise BRILLIANT device!
July 1st, 2011 - 16:35
Thank you!!!!!!!! I can scroll!!!!!!
July 30th, 2011 - 23:10
Yesssssss I can scroll! Thanks so much, I was getting so frustrated and had to read a pane that was crucial. Thanks for taking them time to write this post
August 15th, 2011 - 04:53
Thank you! I knew someone out there had to know.
August 19th, 2011 - 09:42
Thank you so much for that! Was very helpful.
November 16th, 2011 - 03:36
Hi guys, Can you tell me if it works in the fancybox of my website, is the next. If you press in some project it should work
http://www.josecunyat.com
Thanks
November 22nd, 2011 - 16:48
hi, i tried and tried and m still trying but cannot do it. I have heaps of lecture notes to read and i cannot do it. could u please tell me which section of the manual describes it? or is there any video link on youtube or anywhere on the internet? i really need this… any help will be much appreciated… thanx a lot
December 23rd, 2011 - 06:53
Works beautifully… This is a great tip! Now I can do almost anything on my iPad… Thanks for the post!
January 5th, 2012 - 08:14
Your solution doesn’t actually work for me. The problem is that it will begin to scroll and it moves about a quarter of an inch and stops, at which point I can no longer scroll back to the original pane.