Macos – One finger scrolling on a MacBook touchpad

accessibilitymacbookmacosscrollingtouchpad

After an accident that damaged my hands, I am no longer able to do the two finger scrolling gesture on a MacBook touchpad. On Windows I set up so called "scrollzone", it allows me to scroll smoothly by dragging one finger along the right edge of the touchpad.

I would like to have this feature on macOS as well.

I tried many apps, namely these and none of them could do this:

I even tried to contact the developers if they would be willing to work on this, but they either ignore me or say they cannot do it.

People advise me to buy a Magic Mouse, which supposedly can do it, or to scroll with arrow keys. No, thanks. I know there are workarounds available, but I know what works best for me (scrollzone) and I am unwilling to settle for less.

I would gladly sacrifice other trackpad gestures. I cannot use them anyway.

There was a program called SideTrack that could do this, but it does not work any more. I wrote to the author, but got little help.

Best Answer

I created a free app called Scroll that allows one finger scrolling on Mac trackpads that you can download here.

UPDATE: I've released Scroll 2 that is no longer free, but includes many improvements.

  • Scroll no longer needs to be the frontmost application to prevent the cursor from moving.
  • Inertia scroll has been added for the modifier key and edge scroll zone gestures.
  • Direction of scroll can now be configured for all gestures.
  • Modifier keys can be configured within the app for all trackpad gestures.
  • The modifier key scroll can now scroll horizontally as well.
  • The app can also limit scrolling on the Magic Mouse (not related to this question)

Version 1 is still available for free on the website.

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