There are a number of ways to scroll on a Mac, iPhone, or iPad. Left with only a mobile device touchscreen, options are more limited, while adding a keyboard provides a number of keys and shortcuts that mirror the Mac’s capabilities.
Tap the Status Bar
On an iPhone or iPad, there’s an easy way to jump to the top of almost any page or list: Just tap the Status Bar. What’s the Status Bar, you ask? It’s the area at the top of the screen where the clock, battery, and other status icons live.
But you don’t have to tap on any of those icons per se. Anywhere on that strip of screen will do. Unfortunately, there isn’t a consistent way to get to the bottom, such as in a messaging app where the most recent item is down below.
Bonus: Ever wonder why iPhone screenshots often show 9:41 am? It’s because that was the time on January 9, 2007, when Steve Jobs first announced the iPhone.
[Update: At the end of 2023, I learned that in Photos, you can tap Library to jump to the most recent photo (at the bottom). Exploring further, I found that to jump to the bottom of a conversation in Messages, tap in the text entry field.]
Grab the Scroll Bar
Scroll bars show the current position on a page relative to its entire height and are sized proportionally down to a certain minimum. By default, the Mac only shows scroll bars while scrolling and for about a second after.
If you grab the scroll bar by clicking and holding it, it will grow in size and you can drag it to scroll faster and more precisely.
iPhone and iPad scroll bars operate the same way. If you start scrolling by swiping on the screen, the scroll bar will appear and remain on the screen for a little more than a second. If you’re quick, you can grab it with your finger and scroll faster and somewhat precisely in either direction.
In the above animation, I start scrolling, grab the bar to scroll down to three lower positions, and then release and tap the status bar to return to the top.
Jump to the Top/Bottom or Just a Page
With a keyboard, scrolling options open up significantly. An extended keyboard usually includes dedicated Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys. Usually, these are located above the Inverted-T arrow keys and to the right of the Delete/Backspace key.
To scroll to the top, press Home; to the bottom, press End. To scroll up the height of the screen, press Page Up; down the same distance, press Page Down.
If you don’t have these keys on your keyboard, perhaps you at least have an fn (function) key. The four aforementioned keys are mapped to these shortcuts using the arrow keys:
- Home — fn+Left
- End — fn+Right
- Page Up — fn+Up
- Page Down — fn+Down
If you want to move the cursor (and select text) at the same time, check out Natural Selection.
Apple lists the above shortcuts and many more in this support article. If you’re looking for more shortcuts to consider learning, check out this recent video from 9to5Mac.
Plus, as I described in Command Day, a good way to learn available shortcuts is to browse the menus in each application you use.
What new shortcuts have you discovered?
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