Editing Scroll wheel (section)

==Alternatives==
===Scroll ball===
[[File:AppleNotSoMightyMouse.jpg|250px|thumb|right|[[Apple A1152]] mouse (2005) with a miniature scrolling ball. It was the first Apple mouse that supported scrolling]]
Omega's ''3D Magic Optical Scrolling Mouse''<ref>Microsoft Research, Buxton Collection—[https://www.microsoft.com/buxtoncollection/detail.aspx?id=144 4D Magic Optical Scrolling Mouse]. Retrieved 2019-02-09</ref> and [[Apple A1152]] have each instead of a wheel, a small [[trackball]] that allows two-dimensional scrolling.

===Scroll toggle===
Some pointing devices have a special button that while held turns the device into a scrolling device.

In xorg, an implementation of the [[X Window System]] (the de-factor standard under Linux and most Unix systems), any button can be turned into such a toggle.
Open (or create) the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-evdev.conf and add the following section:

<pre>
Section "InputClass"
   Identifier  "Mouse0"
   Driver "evdev"
   MatchIsPointer "on"
   MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"

   Option "EmulateWheel" "true"
   Option "EmulateWheelButton" "9"

   Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
   Option "XAxisMapping" "6 7"
EndSection
</pre>

The example above makes the button #9 (usually the forward button) into a scrolling-toggle button.

===Scrolling stick===
[[File:IBM MO098O.jpg|250px|thumb|right|IBM MO098O ScrollPoint mouse]]
[[IBM]]'s ''TrackPoint Mouse'' series had an analogue [[TrackPoint]] for scrolling in two dimensions.
Later ''Scrollpoint'' models (also [[Lenovo]]) had a larger analogue [[joystick]] more shaped like a mouse button.

Researchers at IBM have done user testing that showed the scrolling stick to be both faster and more preferred by their test users over the scroll wheel<ref name="zhai97">Shumin Zhai, Barton A. Smith, Ted Selker ''Dual Stream Input for Pointing and Scrolling''. Proceedings of the ACM CHI 97 Human Factors in Computing Systems Conference</ref>.
It does however require a driver or tweaked settings to reduce sensitivity, or the stick will scroll too fast for normal use.

===Rocker switch===
''Genius NetMouse'' series have a flat rocker-button in-between left and right mouse buttons that can be pressed forward or back.<ref name="tcodnetmouse">The Collection of Calculating Devices—[http://www.tcocd.de/Pictures/Peripheral/Genius/netmouse.shtml Genius NetMouse]. Retrieved 2021-03-14</ref>.

''Genius NewScroll'' and ''Mitsumi Scroll Mouse'' have a smaller knob that can be rocked forwards and backwards instead of a flat button, but work the same way.<ref name="ixbdnewcroll">iXBT Labs—[http://ixbtlabs.com/articles/mousestesting13models/index.html Mouses: testing 13 models]. Retrieved 2021-03-15</ref>
Unlike a TrackPoint/ScrollPoint these are digital and scroll only vertically.

===Scroll ring===
Some of the [[:Category:Kensington trackballs|trackballs from Kensington]] have a rotating ring around the [[trackball]] for scrolling. It was introduced with the [[Kensington TurboRing]] (2000) and then later in the [[Kensington Expert Mouse]] in 2003.<ref name="KisselEvolutionOfScrolling">Interesting Thing of the Day—[https://itotd.com/articles/330/the-evolution-of-scrolling-classic/ The Evolution of Scrolling]] by Joe Kissel. Dated 2004-10-07. Retrieved 2018-12-04</ref>

===Touch surface===
There are now many mice that use a touch-sensitive surface instead of scrollwheel.

Some use a wide touch surface for horizontal swipes and even taps for such actions as "Back" and "Forward".
In such designs the touch-surface could interfere with the action of the [[mouse button]]s.
On [[Apple]]'s ''Magic Mouse'' the whole touch surface is titled to click, with left and right [[mouse button]]s distinguished only by which area of the surface that has a finger. This does not allow a finger to be resting on the left button while the right button is clicked.