Scroll Wheel Skips Queries in Find/Change Window on Mac

[Steve Straus]

During one of the upgrades over the past couple of years I have lost the ability to use my scroll wheel to move up and down the query list in the Find/Change window. I have read that there was a bug on the PC side but nothing on the Mac side. In the past I could scroll through each Find/Change query by simply rolling my scroll wheel one notch. I have changed from a Microsoft mouse to a new Logitech one to see if it was the mouse but nothing fixes it. I have tried the System settings for the mouse but nothing changes the scroll wheel increments. Now that it takes one or more notches to get to the next query, it often skips some in the list as it seems the notches no longer align with ID. Anyone else having this issue or is it just me? Any suggestions to fix it?

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[Abhishek Rao]

Hello @Steve Straus, 

Thank you for sharing this with us. We're sorry to hear that you are experiencing issue with InDesign Find/Change Scrolling. 

To help us better understand the issue, would you mind sharing a screen recording of the whole workflow you follow till the issue? 

Additionally, please test the issue in safe mode.

We will wait to hear back from you and are here to help. 

Thank you, 

Abhishek Rao

[Steve Straus]

As you can see from the attached video, I click on the first query and then use my scroll wheel to try to navigate to the next query. After 11 clicks of the scroll wheel, it finally goes to the next query in my list. As shown, the icon for the pointer changes to the stacked arrow icon while clicking but nothing happens until finally in moves to the next query.

In the past I was able to simply use the scroll wheel to move through each query with a single click.

[leo.r]

During one of the upgrades over the past couple of years I have lost the ability to use my scroll wheel to move up and down the query list in the Find/Change window. I have changed from a Microsoft mouse to a new Logitech one to see if it was the mouse but nothing fixes 

By @Steve Straus

Are you referring to the Query menu?

Unless I totally misunderstand you, it's not possible to move up and down the list of any menu using the scroll wheel on the Mac. Unless there's some kind of third-party software that enables this (of which I'm not aware).

Do you imply that you can use the scroll wheel in other menus? 

[Steve Straus]

Yes, I am referring to the Query menu in the Find/Change window. You most certainly can scroll between queries as I have done this for years without any special software. This is the only window that I use the scroll wheel for and it has mysteriously changed. 

[Barb Binder]

I just use the trackpad on my MacBook (and not a mouse) but the scroll wheel equivalent is dragging two fingers on the trackpad, and it still works on Sonoma 14.6 to move through the F/C Query List and I can move through the list one at a time. 

~Barb

[leo.r]

I just use the trackpad on my MacBook (and not a mouse) but the scroll wheel equivalent is dragging two fingers on the trackpad, and it still works on Sonoma 14.6 to move through the F/C Query List

By @Barb Binder

Interesting... On my MacBook Pro, I can't move through any menu using the two-finger drag either (just like I can't with the scroll wheel on my desktop). This applies to the Find/Change Query menu, too.

What am I missing?

I now do notice one strangeness about the F/C Query menu:

When I bring up this menu, just an attempt to use the scroll wheel or two-finger drag closes this menu immediately. While all other menus stay open in this case (it's just the scroll move doesn't do anything).

[Barb Binder]

Hi Leo:

I'd have to guess it's one of our settings. Any different here?

Sonoma 14.6.

~Barb

[leo.r]

I'd have to guess it's one of our settings. Any different here?

By @Barb Binder

Thanks Barb, I think I now know what's going on.

Our settings are the same (with one difference that doesn't affect what's discussed here: I have 'Use trackpad for dragging' enabled).

But when trying different settings, I finally discovered the case scenario discussed in this thread:

If I place the pointer over a pop-up menu AND make sure to NOT open the actual menu, then when I make a scrolling movement (whether using a trackpad or scroll wheel), the menu selection indeed changes in the pop-up menu.

In this case, I can actually confirm the behavior reported by @Steve Straus: the menu choice jumps several items when using a single scroll tick on the wheel. (With a trackpad, I couldn't even understand if it's possible to do that with any precision, frankly.)

This behavior is manifested in ALL InDesign popup menus, such as lists of PDF and Print presets etc., not just Find/Change query.

Since I was never aware of this behavior, I don't know if it was any different in earlier versions.

Plus, is it some kind of unique pop-up menu behavior in InDesign? I tried to do the same in other apps, and pop-up menus don't react to the scroll wheel anywhere else.

Or am I still missing the entire point of the original question?

[Steve Straus]

@leo.r Yes, you are on target with your assessment of how the scroll wheel does not work correctly in the Find/Change window as this is exactly what my original question is all about. I do not use a trackpad so I can't offer any information on this. 

[leo.r]

@leo.r Yes, you are on target with your assessment of how the scroll wheel does not work correctly in the Find/Change window as this is exactly what my original question is all about

By @Steve Straus

Ok at least I understand what we're talking about.

Now, can you please clarify: Are you able to use the scroll wheel in popup menus this way in any other app outside of InDesign?

[Steve Straus]

I don't usually use the scroll wheel in other Adobe apps like this, but I can confirm that in IL and PS that I can scroll through the font styles of a selected font via the scroll wheel. One click of the wheel moves me from one style to the next.  

[leo.r]

I don't usually use the scroll wheel in other Adobe apps like this, but I can confirm that in IL and PS that I can scroll through the font styles of a selected font via the scroll wheel. One click of the wheel moves me from one style to the next.  

By @Steve Straus

Ok, I can reproduce this... kind of. It looks like this functionality is implemented differently in Photoshop and Illustrator. In Photoshop, I can use the scroll wheel this way only if I bring up the fonts menu. And indeed, the scroll wheel jumps a single item.

In Illustrator, it's exactly the opposite: if I bring up the fonts menu, the scroll wheel doesn't work; it only works when the font list is closed, and even then it doesn't look like this behavior has any degree of consistency in Illustrator.

Regardless, when trying the scroll wheel in InDesign's fonts menu, I can confirm what you say: each scroll 'tick' jumps several menu entries instead of moving to the next one.

As far as I understand, this behavior of the scroll wheel is a custom implementation by Adobe, as I don't see this behavior in non-Adobe apps (or even some Adobe apps like Dreamweaver). If you can use the scroll wheel like this in other apps, please let me know. It's an unconventional implementation of the scroll wheel functionality, as far as I can tell.

If you believe it's a bug in InDesign, you can submit it here:

https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601180-adobe-indesign-bugs

I searched the bugs for "scroll wheel" briefly but couldn't find anything related to the issue you describe.