Scroll Reverser brings Lion, iOS reverse scrolling to Snow Leopard
One of the more surprising features of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion has been the change to reverse scrolling. With reverse scrolling, your hand actually moves up to scroll down a page. This is contrary to the common method of scrolling that is used in most major operating systems, where the hand moves down to scroll down. Reverse scrolling is used on iOS devices, where it feels very natural -- it's like you're moving a piece of paper up and down in a frame to reveal the content on it.
While reverse scrolling can be turned off in Lion through System Preferences, many developers who are beginning to work with the Lion developer preview find that they prefer this very iOS-like way of interfacing with their Macs. Those developers are at a disadvantage when they switch back to earlier versions of Mac OS X -- they basically have to remember what OS they're working with and make a mental switch to the proper scrolling direction. Now, developer Nick Moore has created a small utility to reverse the scrolling on Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6.
Scroll Reverser (free) adds a menu bar item allowing the direction of scrolling to be toggled. That's perfect for developers who want to keep their Macs as Lion-like as possible, but would like the ability to go back to the tried-and-true direct scroll when necessary.
If you aren't a developer and would like to get a taste of what reverse scrolling feels like, download the utility and give it a try.
[via Mac OS X Daily]
