Three ways to scroll

Whenever I tutor people on their computer, I always tell them that there are five ways to do almost anything in Microsoft Windows, but there are no wrong ways.

When I pick a particular skill to teach, I choose the method that is 1. universal and 2. involves the least amount of steps.

There is one exception where I teach three methods. When I teach people how to use the scroll bar in a Window I think it is important to show the fast way, the slow way, and the way that moves up and down a list at "reading speed."

The slow way: Every scroll bar has a little triangle at the top and at the bottom. You can move one item at a time through the list by making quick mouse clicks on either on the top or bottom triangle. This method is great when you want to carefully browse through a list such as a list of "Smiths" in an online phone book.

The fast way: In between the top and bottom triangles you will see a square or rectangle. Place your mouse over that square or rectangle, hold down your left mouse button and move your mouse violently up and down. You will see the list scroll quickly from top to bottom. This method is best when you are in the alphas and you want to get to the zetas.

Reading speed method: Most every mouse on the shelf today has a wheel between the two buttons. place your mouse anywhere in the window that you want to scroll through and spin the wheel. This will take you through the list at a moderate speed. The best part about this method is that you don't have to place the mouse over the scroll bar at all. 

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