How much further? The thumb knows

29 February 2008 · 0 comments

Ever wondered just how much longer a web page or email will go on before you get to the end? The ‘thumb’ in the scrollbar provides a hint.

 

First published June 2003.

As you scroll around a web page keep an eye on the scrollbar. In many modern computers the “thumb” is proportional. That means that the amount of scrollbar which is “filled in” changes according to how much of the document is visible.

If you can see only a small portion of a long document the “thumb” will be very small. If you can see most of a document the “thumb” will fill most of the scrollbar.

The scroll thumb

The scroll thumb

The screenshot shows two documents. The top one has only one line of text (and a few Returns), while the lower document has many lines of text. The blue ‘thumb’ is much larger n the top documents because the text fills proportionately more of the window,

Try it out now: change the size of your window and watch the “thumb” change size.

Written for and reproduced fromCommunityNet Aotearoa Panui, June 2003. This post has been modified for use here.

Clip to Evernote

Tagged as: scrollbar, thumb

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