Over the weekend, billions of people got new Macs (not a scientifically accurate number), and many of those users are new Lion. I’m betting aside from the squeals and screams of joy at getting one of the greatest computers currently in existence, the phrase, “Why isn’t this scrolling in the right direction?” was uttered.
When you first start up Lion on a laptop (or a desktop with a Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad paired with it), it will show you that scrolling doesn’t function in our commonly accepted method before it will let you into the system (i.e. when you move your scroll wheel up, the text doesn’t move down). Apple’s “natural scrolling” method now means that text moves in the direction of your finger—just like it does on an iOS device.
I’ve found this works fine on a touch device like the Magic Trackpad, but for those of us who still use mice with a physical scroll wheel, it’s not as good. The good news is that you can return your Mac to the old fashioned way by going into System Preferences (go to the Apple in the top left of your screen or go to Launchpad) and choose the Mouse preference pane. At the top of the window, you’ll see “Move content in the direction of finger movement when scrolling or navigating.” Uncheck the box next to that if you’d like to return to the tried-and-true method of scrolling that we’re all used to.
As Apple moves toward greater integration of Mac OS and iOS, as well as a shift toward touch screens on all their devices, this new way of scrolling is going to become standard.