Filed under: OS, Hacks, Terminal Tips
Terminal Tip: Add scroll arrows to both ends of scroll bar
defaults write "Apple Global Domain" AppleScrollBarVariant DoubleBoth
You will need to restart your Mac to see the changes. If you want to change the scroll bars back to the normal way, just open the Appearance System Preference pane and select "Together" from the "Place scroll arrows section."
For more tips and tricks like this, visit TUAW's Terminal Tips and Mac 101 sections.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Richard said 1:48PM on 8-20-2008
That option exists under the Appearance preference pane.
Place a dot in the radio button next to "Together" for "Place scroll arrows"
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Dustin said 1:51PM on 8-20-2008
The option is to have a pair of scroll arrows at each end of the bar, not one on either end or two together at one end. Not very useful for me but somebody might like it.
serenity said 1:51PM on 8-20-2008
Nope! I thought so too, but with that setting you only get them in ONE end; this hack gets them in both.
Ryan Trevisol said 2:17PM on 8-20-2008
Wow, that's a cool tip. This post > All Dear Auntie TUAW.
Cartman005 said 2:02PM on 8-20-2008
I prefer the windows scroll bar arrows with up at the top and down at the bottom.
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Caitlin said 1:57PM on 8-20-2008
I use TinkerTool.
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Rhett said 2:17PM on 8-20-2008
You can also easily do this with TinkerTool or OnyX.
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Paul said 2:22PM on 8-20-2008
I've used this for years and years, so long I'd forgotten about it (and assumed it was part of the standard OS. Then earlier this year, I looked at iPhoto '08, and saw that it didn't handle it properly.
For what it's worth, I don't know of any other app that has an issue with it, and I still use it on all my machines.
Visual bug in iPhoto: http://www.pbones.com/temp/iphoto08.png
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Frank Tinsley said 2:22PM on 8-20-2008
Can I make my scroll bars have no arrows? I never use them.
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Rolo said 3:30PM on 8-20-2008
This didn't work for me.
Does it work in 10.4?
Rhywun said 11:04AM on 8-21-2008
That's a good question! I never use them either.
SirPasta117 said 3:39PM on 8-20-2008
uhh you might wanna change the picture
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Craig said 4:51PM on 8-20-2008
You don't need to restart your Mac, you only need to restart the programs that you want affected. That is, unless you have a lot of open apps you want affected immediately. For the Finder, you can just Relaunch it from the Dock with a ctrl-rt click. If someone reading this only has Safari open - no need to restart the whole computer.
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yakov chodosh said 5:31PM on 8-20-2008
i want a pair of arrows in the middle, too.
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joão Coutinho said 7:54AM on 8-21-2008
Excelente tip.
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Maxintech said 11:43PM on 8-21-2008
Excelent tip.
BTW... use Secrets (http://code.google.com/p/blacktree-secrets/)
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Belcarram said 1:11AM on 8-22-2008
Has anyone ever hacked in the option to resize a Mac window from any side a la MS Windows?
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Joe Hall said 10:00AM on 8-27-2008
Does anyone know how to do the reverse? Does any one know how to change the windows options to have both arrows on the top of the scrollbar?
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Samuel said 2:32PM on 9-02-2008
This one is definitely for the windows migrators, I often moved my mouse automatically to do this but I think its wrongheaded, the mac way is better - although I can appreciate approaching either end of the task bar which is closes to still perform in the mac way, but I think people will use it as a one way system like on windows.
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