Invisible but Functional Scrollbars

Snetty · 05-29-2005, 11:52 PM

I've got a "News" section on a site that i'm working on, which takes it's input from a database.

As a general rule, it'll need a scrollbar, but that'll mess up the design of my site. Is it possible to remove the scrollbar, but retain the functionality, so that you can scroll down with the mousewheel still?

JamieR · 05-29-2005, 11:56 PM

Can we have a url please?

Well you have to think of the users - not everyone on their mouse has a scroll wheel. If you try and remove the scroll bars then how are they going to know how that they have to scroll down to see the rest of the content? The news frame would appear with "cut off" content to a user who doesn't know that they have to scroll down

Just a thought..

Jamie.

ArcticFox · 05-30-2005, 02:44 AM

I agree with weazel on this one. Right from the start, it doesn't sound like a good thing to do.

Why not have coloured scrollbars, or a mouseOver scroller. Removing them when you know there's more information "below the horizon" won't be very productive, IMO.

mrruben5 · 05-30-2005, 11:17 AM

What Articfox says is probably the best. There's a site with these scripts but I forgot the url...

JamieR · 05-30-2005, 11:22 AM

a coloured scroller seems a good idea, but totally removing the scroll bar would affect the users of the website altogether.

Snetty · 05-30-2005, 01:50 PM

I like the idea of the mouseover scrollbars.. anyone got any code/links to help me out with that?

Thanks for all the replies guys.

syrupcore · 05-31-2005, 02:06 AM

be careful of scripts that only work in IE.

also be careful of using negative margins to deal with scroll bar offset as some browsers (opera) play different. some shift the content over and some just drop the bar on top.

Either way, I'd design as if the scroll bars will be there.

Will

ArcticFox · 05-31-2005, 03:19 AM

I've onMouseOver links for two of my menu iFrame windows, but keep in mind what syrupcore said.

view-source: http://arctic.ithium.net/

Coloured scrollbars appear in the main section in IE with onMouseOvers on the menu windows.

Firefox (I think) gets coloured scrollbars on the main and menu windows.

All other browsers get the standars scrollbars (boring) on all sections.

And there are a few other ways to scroll things. Personally I like the way this page has you onMouseDown on a little hand then drag it, moving the page with it:
http://htmlguru.com/content/webpages/guru/index.html

Again, keep in mind it's probably IE only...