~

Reverse scrolling direction on macOS using shortcuts.app

If you’re using macOS and switching between trackpad and regular mouse often + you prefer natural scrolling direction on trackpad while not on mouse, then you’re forced to manually switch between the two modes everytime you switch. Apple won’t let you set different scroll direction for mouse and trackpad – you can only have one setting for both.

This sucks. Luckily, there are apps for that™. I’ve been using Scroll Reverser until now.

What happened then?

I’ve found out that Energy impact (Activity Monitor’s Energy tab) is not zero, OMG. 😱

Scroll Reverser energy consumption proof

Solution: shortcuts.app & AppleScript

First, I found the gist on the infinity store™, and edited it to solve my use case.

tell application "System Preferences"
	activate
end tell

tell application "System Events"
	tell process "System Preferences"
		delay 1
		click the menu item "Trackpad" of the menu "View" of menu bar 1
		delay 1
		click the radio button "Scroll & Zoom" of the first tab group of window "Trackpad"
		click checkbox 1 of tab group 1 of window "Trackpad"
	end tell
end tell

tell application "System Preferences"
	quit
end tell

I named it Invert scroll direction so I run it everytime I switch my pointing device.

Make sure to let your shortcut run AppleScript under Privacy tab inside shortcuts.app and under System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy tab: Accessibility needs to have a checkmark for siriactionsd app.

How to use

I selected a Pin in Menu Bar option so it’s always easily accessible from the Menu Bar top right.

shortcuts.app in my menu bar

Hope it’ll save me some battery :)