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I googled, and I can't find any solutions, but i have certainly see implementation of something like this somewhere before.

So basically I have a large spread sheet - like table, generated by the user. It will be very likely that the content will extent past the viewport both horizontally and vertically, so scrolling is needed.

However, I'm trying to find a "prettier" way for the user to scroll (horizontal and vertical scrollbars just don't look nice). So I was thinking of some arrows like the following (see attached). However, I looked around and can't see any example of anyone doing something like this.

So here are my questions:

  1. Can someone tell me if there's any technical reasons I shouldn't replace the browser scrollbar with "scroll buttons"?

  2. Can it be done easily with javascript or are there any (preferably angularjs) plugins that can imitate this behaviour?

Scroll button example

CleverNode
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  • It has nothing to do with Stackoverflow. Try UX part of stack: http://ux.stackexchange.com – Ivan Aug 19 '15 at 13:27
  • This is a UX question, and opinion based. – Nick R Aug 19 '15 at 13:28
  • It's not a UX question -- I frequent the UX side, they will tell me they don't deal with anything related to javascript, and they have no expertise to do so. – CleverNode Aug 19 '15 at 13:29
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    I'm not asking if it's a good idea or bad idea from a UX standpoint to replace browser scrollbars, I want to know if there are any technical reasons I shouldn't, because googling "replacing browser scroolbar with _____ " <- i tried different terms, gave me very limited answers. – CleverNode Aug 19 '15 at 13:32
  • Scrollbars have "scroll buttons" built in. As for Q1, that's not something for SO. Regarding Q2...of course you probably *could*...but then that question is too broad. – Paulie_D Aug 19 '15 at 13:33
  • Question one's answer is UX based tbh. Because the reasons would be: it could be viewed as user unfriendly. Question 2 isn't UX, but since it's mostly a yes/no answer maybe stackoverflow isn't the place to ask this. – Guinn Aug 19 '15 at 13:35
  • Edited question 1: I don't want a UX response. I want a technical response -- maybe things like "probably not, because scroll control on javascript is unreliable because....." – CleverNode Aug 19 '15 at 13:48
  • I'm asking for this to be reopen. I already edit the question PREVIOUSLY PRIOR it was closed so it was no longer a UX question. The reason I want it reopen is, while there is an answer that I accepted, the answer is proven to be outdated (even the answer linked to it), and in the popular linked question, there have been a lot of people calling for a 2014 (2015 by now) version of the answer. I have the answer and would love to provide it. It'll be beneficial, especially since when I google search this topic, my own question on stackover flow that's been closed is the ONLY answer. – CleverNode Sep 08 '15 at 16:39

1 Answers1

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I have no idea why you are being downvoted. Also, this is not a UX question.

I think what you are looking for is "scrolling without scrollbar". You can Google this. You will get many results that answer this.

One of the closest answers (and popular ones) I came across is this one right here on stackoverflow.

In this case, it involves scrolling using the keyboard keys or the mouse wheel.

In your case, you will have to carry out something similar. Just that instead of binding to the keyboard keys or the mouse wheel up / down event, you need to create your buttons at the left / right side of the screen and up / down part of the screen. Bind the click event to this button and proceed as shown in the answer linked above.

But note that since you are displaying tables, it will get complicated. You will have to move each row / column of the table depending on where the user clicks. Should be achievable using jQuery or similar javascript library though.

Community
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callmekatootie
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  • Thank you. :) The mouse event answer is a good reference, which brings up a good point that if I implement this, I need to also add in mouse control for accessibility compliance. – CleverNode Aug 19 '15 at 14:13