This thread for figuring out whats going on with scrollbars and if there is any way to improve the experience.
Overview
There are two types of scrollbars: fixed and overlay. Fixed scrollbars are always visible. Overlay scrollbars only appear when the pointer hits the edge of the container to be scrolled. Most modern platforms (OS + Browser) support overlay scrollbars. Older platforms may not.
Scrollbar functionality is provided by a combination of the windowing system in the OS plus the Browser. This makes scrollbar behavior platform dependent.
Issues
So far there are reports of scrollbars that are:
- Too thin to be usable
- Ok size but the thumb can't be grabbed
- Ok size and function correctly but are an ugly white or gray color
(03-10-2023, 10:32 PM)philrandal Wrote: The sooner they uninvent overlay scrollbars the better. They are a total pain in the neck even on large displays on PCs, let alone handheld devices.
I doubt they are going away anytime soon but I am interested in knowing what you mean by "total pain in the neck".
I tend to use my mobile or a laptop (Linux Mint with Firefox) to control moOde and on neither is scrolling an issue, but also does not involve the scrollbars directly since there's touchpad scrolling and so on. The scroll bars do turn a nasty white colour when I on occasion do actually drag them with the mouse pointer.
I am thinking about building an enclosure for one of my players with a touch screen display however, and my experiments with using the laptop touchscreen to scroll have been a bit fiddly. The scroll to the right of the play queue for example is very narrow, and with no indication of where it is until it is activated it is often easy to miss it entirely. Having them always show even when not "active" like @DRONE7 does would be a good thing in my opinion.
1. Signalling that there is something to scroll
2. Interface to scroll by dragging the scrolbar thumb/
3. Position information during scrolling
Those are typical the traditional functions when using a scrollbar with a classical desktop use.
Which also would make use of a pointing device like a mouse. (Which also allow hover over widgets).
Scroll wheels, touchpas with scroll area changed the role of use of the scrollbar thumb.
With the rise of mobile devices to role of the scrollbar changed over time.
The first victim with touch device would the the scrollbar thumb, no need to use it anymore.
You just slide over the content. As result the width of the track did become less important because it wouldn't need to be dragged anymore.
With current style of minimalistic ux, on mobile devices it had even gone further; those interfaces don't use a scrollbar anymore. ( = no position information shown, so why use the scollbar at all)
To name a few examples take a look at the Spotify and Youtube Music interface on a mobile phone.
In practice when you have a scrollbar in the user interface the appearance depends very on the used platform and browser. When we have a discussion about the scrollbars it is important to mention what your platform (os + browser) is.
On my desktop (Windows 10 with Chrome):
I prefer an overlay which is activated when I hove over it (minimal distraction if I'm not using the scrollbar at the time). But width enough to easily grab the thumb. I like it to be styled in the the moOde theme.
In the views that provide an index (A,B,C,..) next to scrollbar I use the index to get close to wherer I want to go. And use the scollbare for the last step.
moode 8.2.5: Expect for a little more width to be able to grab the thumb, this exact what moode on my platform is already doing :-)
On my mobile device (no Apple; android phone, tablet and chromebook):
On my mobile device screen estate is everything. When not interacting with it I don't want to be disturbed by the visual presence of scrollbars,
Here the scrollbar don't have to be width (just a position indication is enough); just using the content to scroll. But I like to have feedback about my current position while I'm scrolling (and may disappear again when stopped with scrolling. Also here I would like to use the index when available.
moode 8.2.5: perfect for me. It is thin, isn't present when not scrolling and hides after scrolling. Only the index is to thin and or to close to the edge of the screen to be usable.
I use Windows 11 + Firefox 120 and Moode 8.3.7
On the Library screen I can see tiny scrollbars on the righthand sides of the Artists and the Albums by Artist views, which move when I scroll using the mouse wheel, but I cannot latch onto these with the mouse pointer to drag up/down (preferred), nor when using the pointer pad on the laptop, nor with the Arrow keys. The little scrollbars do not change at all when the mouse cursor hovers over or near them.
I have made an attempt to follow the suggestion above about modifying Firefox's behaviour, but so far without success/improvement. Any guidance with this would be appreciated, if the matter can be improved via browser settings alone.
Other than a minor issue with Camilla and audio settings (which I will report elsewhere) thank you for Moode, which is an excellent product.
Scrollbar issue in Windows 11 with Firefox browser - possibly solved.
I don't know if inserting links to other websites is acceptable, but I did some searching and found a link to this website:
I followed the suggestions and they did the trick for me regarding the issues I had in Moode. I can now see, grab and move the scrollbars in the upper library view windows.
Other issues may arise with these changes of course .....
I hope this may help others looking for this or a similar problem.
