On the fly "Drag to scroll" in Kestrel

January 4, 2008 · by Haavard

By enabling the opera:config setting "ScrollIsPan" in Kestrel (this does not work in versions prior to 9.5), you will be able to drag the page around to scroll.

But did you know that it is also possible to do drag-scrolling "on the fly"? On Windows, at least, you simply hold down Ctrl+Alt, and then click and drag the page to scroll.

Readers' comments 23

Left under the original article, as archived.

Hein ToreFriday, January 4, 2008 9:02:36 AM
Great tip, Haavard - thanks!

This also seems to work on OS X, by holding down Option+Cmd whilst dragging.
CharlieFriday, January 4, 2008 5:00:32 PM
Wow, sweet.
Steve DarkenFriday, January 4, 2008 9:58:49 PM
you simply hold down Ctrl+Alt, and then click and drag the page to scroll.
Nice tip, thanks!
_Grey_Friday, January 4, 2008 11:52:55 PM
Nice one
Pallab DeSaturday, January 5, 2008 2:31:54 PM
By enabling the opera:config setting "ScrollIsPan" in Kestrel (this does not work in versions prior to 9.5), you will be able to drag the page around to scroll.

Nice
Better than the userjs implementation.
EricJHSaturday, January 5, 2008 5:57:09 PM
Very nice indeed..
HaavardSunday, January 6, 2008 1:32:54 PM
You do it when you don't hold down the modifier keys. Ctrl+Alt+drag is for when "ScrollIsPan" is disabled.
DiegoFriday, February 15, 2008 11:38:57 PM
And how do we select with the "Scroll is pan" option enabled?
HaavardSaturday, February 16, 2008 9:54:45 AM
I guess you don't?
malerba117Sunday, February 17, 2008 7:50:47 PM
I can't pan in opera but i did find one site (part of this site) where i can:

http://my.opera.com/Tamil/blog/open-in-firefox-internet-explorer

any explanations or reasons why? can i change settings so i can do it on all sites?
malerba117Sunday, February 17, 2008 8:56:40 PM
oo to turn on "scroll is pan" go to opera:config#UserPrefs and search "scroll is pan" then check the box to turn it on
HaavardMonday, February 18, 2008 1:54:57 PM
malerba117, please do not post these off-topic comments all over the place. Once is enough, and you should also make sure that you post in the right place. The forum is probably the best location for that.
malerba117Monday, February 18, 2008 2:09:43 PM
sorry i just could find anywhere to put them, ill delete them
Unregistered userSaturday, April 12, 2008 7:55:08 PM
Me writes: Cool, but is there a way to change this shortcut ? I's like to use Alt, or Spacebar instead of Ctrl+alt...
illiadThursday, April 24, 2008 2:12:53 PM
Nice! BUT... a 'modifier' would be neede for windows, where mouse commands are very thin...
HaavardFriday, April 25, 2008 7:47:41 AM
Ctrl+Alt?
illiadFriday, April 25, 2008 9:39:35 AM
wel, I was hoping to use only two fingers, not three!! I guess I'll have to 'unlock' some keys.... ('cos I keep hitting 'ctrl' instead of 'shift', whith bad effects.... )
my keyboard has 'alt' on the left, and 'alt Gr' on the right...
and its a good strong one, unlike most modern ones!!

any idea how to make win2000 turn 'altGr' into just 'alt' ??
Unregistered userThursday, September 18, 2008 9:12:22 AM
Anonymous writes: Please allo text selection together with "Scroll is Pan" enabled! Maybe temporarily disable panning with Ctrl-T? Maybe do as in firefox, when scroll/pan is enabled only if you click not in text. Or enable text selection with doubel click? Thank you.
HaavardThursday, September 18, 2008 10:46:02 AM
This is why you can enable it on the fly with Ctrl+Alt.
Unregistered userFriday, November 7, 2008 1:01:31 PM
Someone writes: Is it possible to make the pages scroll 2x or 3x the distance the mouse moves around? I really do like this pan-function but in more bigger websites it has to be stressed far too often. Maybe a modificator for the range a site is paned (scrolled) could be defined in opera:config? The value 1 would let things be as they are right now. And a 2 would scroll a site for 2 pixels if the mouse coursor has been moved by 1 pixel and so on... Anyway, thanks for this fine feature!! (and for Opera of course!!)
trevorspokeWednesday, December 17, 2008 6:49:21 PM
You can toggle "Scroll is pan" mode on and off with a keyboard shortcut. I use F7:

F7=Override Scroll Is Pan

Mnemonic for this shortcut is that Ctrl+F7 is how you toggle scrollbars.

You can choose whether you like to have it on by default when Opera starts using "opera:config#UserPrefs|ScrollIsPan".
trevorspokeWednesday, December 17, 2008 6:51:07 PM
For extra fun, you can zoom while panning using the Ctrl key+mouse wheel.
PneumatigFriday, October 8, 2010 11:54:30 AM
Works also on Ubuntu, in 10.70 though.