Here is another tip for PowerPC Mac notebook users who own pre 2005 PowerPC based Mac notebooks. As you may know (or not know for the matter,) our pre 2005 PowerPC based Mac notebooks' trackpad has very limited functionality. All we could do on the trackpad is move the cursor around or similar a left click on the trackpad by double tapping it. We could could do a right click by pressing the ctrl key simultaneously with pressing the trackpad button. However, in terms of the trackpad by itself- there isn't much we could do with it, aside from navigating the cursor around the screen or simulating a left click. . . and that is it. We can't do anything else. Mac notebooks from 2005 and up can do two finger vertical scrolling (.i.e. such as swiping two fingers on the trackpad to move up and down a webpage) and some could also do two finger horizontal scrolling (.i.e. such as moving a wide webpage left and right.) So what are we pre 2005 Mac notebooks owners to do about this and what options can we do to get the benefits of modern day functionality of a modern notebook trackpad? Or are we left out of such basic notebook necessities? Fret not my friends! Our answer lies in a freeware driver for PowerPC based Mac notebooks-- iScroll 2.
iScroll2 version 0.3.2 is the latest and last version released. iScroll2 requires Mac OSX 10.4 Tiger or Mac OSX 10.5 Leopard and a PowerPC based Mac notebooke. This trackpad driver includes a system prefs pane in the installation. Just download it and run the installer and restart and you are set. After installation, you will notice under in the Trackpad system prefs pane, the options for trackpad gestures such as use 2 fingers to scroll and horizontal scrolling. In the system preferences, iScroll2 system prefs pane is under other. Inside the iScroll2 system prefs pane is 2 sections-- settings for scrolling and settings for clicking.
iScroll2 system pref pane--> Scrolling
Here you will find the controls to set and enable vertical scrolling, horizontal scrolling and circular scrolling (like the mighty mouse trackball!) You also get the option to invert direction of the scrolling and you get to set the sensitivity, the speed of the scrolling, the option to ignore the weaker axis(-- and scroll along the axis of the finger with more motion and ignore that the axis of the finger with less motion when scrolling,) and you get the set the scroll resolution and maximum event rate (which specifies the maximum rate at which the scrolling events processes are sent to the system to be processed.)
iScroll system pref pane-->Clicking
Here you will find the controls to set what kind of action you want to designate to a click (while pressing on the physical trackpad button,) a two finger click (with two fingers on the trackpad and a finger on the physical trackpad button,) and a tap (by tapping the trackpad with a finger.) You also get to set the down time (the time it takes to register a finger contact on the trackpad as a tap gesture) and sticky drag time (the minimum time it takes for dragging gesture to end when your release your finger from the trackpad after dragging something via trackpad on screen.)
iScroll2 version 0.3.2 is freeware and is a discontinued product.
it can be downloaded it here: http://www.macupdate.com/download/17240/iScroll2-0.32.pkg.zip
I recommend enabling only vertical scrolling because enabling horizontal scrolling and circular scrolling along side vertical scrolling is glitchy and buggy and interferes with scrolling on the trackpad in general. However, if i only enable vertical scrolling, it works pretty well! Try for yourself and see what works for you and what you like. It is a matter of personal preference.
If you are a owner of a pre 2005 PowerPC Mac notebook-- do yourself a favor and download iScroll2! You won't regret it and it will add extra functionality to your iBook or Powerbook!
