Automatic Scrolling

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated April 22, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

Mice in the PC world have, for some time now, been designed with a special little wheel or lever between the two buttons. The purpose of the wheel or lever is to scroll quickly through a long document. If you do not have such a mouse you can still get the benefits of automatic scrolling through an undocumented Word command. Simply follow these steps:

Choose the Customize option from the Tools menu. Word displays the Customize dialog box.
Click on the Commands tab. A list of Word commands appears. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Commands tab of the Customize dialog box.

In the left side of the dialog box, select the All Commands option.
In the right side of the dialog box, select the AutoScroll option.
Drag the AutoScroll option to some place on one of your toolbars. When you release the mouse button, a button named Auto Scroll should appear on the toolbar.
Click on Close to close the Customize dialog box.

To use your new command, simply click on the new toolbar button. When you do, the vertical scroll bar at the right side of your screen changes. A new double arrow appears in it. As you move the arrow up and down along the scroll bar, you control how fast the document scrolls either up or down. To exit the scrolling mode, you can either press the Esc key or click the mouse button.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1168) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Determining Your Serial Number

The serial number assigned to your copy of Excel is valuable. It allows you to get support and is necessary for some ...

Discover More

Entering Numbers in Excel

Enter information into a cell, and Excel needs to figure out what type of information it is. Here's how Excel interprets ...

Discover More

Determining the Number of Bookmarks Defined in a Document

If you develop a macro that needs to work with bookmarks defined in a document, it is inevitable that you will need a way ...

Discover More

Do More in Less Time! Are you ready to harness the full power of Word 2013 to create professional documents? In this comprehensive guide you'll learn the skills and techniques for efficiently building the documents you need for your professional and your personal life. Check out Word 2013 In Depth today!

More WordTips (menu)

Converting a Text Box to a Frame

These days, most people using Word know what text boxes are but have no idea about frames. Yet, for some purposes, frames ...

Discover More

Ignoring Punctuation in Names

If you have a word that includes punctuation as part of the word itself, then you may be frustrated by how Word treats ...

Discover More

Updating Document Links

If you establish dynamic links between documents, then you can force Word to update those links whenever you want. How ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is two more than 7?

2021-02-05 12:13:40

Jennifer K Stover

How do I UNDO this? I no longer want the autoscroll, I have an older version of Word - these instructions helped me to SET autoscroll, But now I want to go back to the default manual scroll but stuck on which setting to return to. I assumed it was through Tools > customize key board > all commands again....but not sure where to go from there. Help! Need this ASAP please.

2018-10-28 13:13:21

Phil

I've used Word for decades and always wondered why, especially in the age of web pages and html, that Word still follows a pagination paradigm.

I'm not interested in the scroll wheel but a long document, like a papyrus scroll, that goes on without the page breaks in between.

I use table quite a lot and want it to go beyond the bottom of the page. Are there Add ons that can do this?

2017-01-08 05:07:24

Thao Le

Hi!
Because I don't know where to post my question, so I write on this. It is not a comment, it's a question.

I have a problem with a wordsheet (about 119 pages). It is like when I want to go to an article in a word sheet, I spend a lot of time to roll the mouse to find the artical that I want.

Can you help me to find some tips that I can find the article more easily in a long words?

Thank you very much for spending time reading my question.

I look forwards to hearing from you.
Best regards,
Thao

2016-03-02 14:26:11

Eddie Seymour

Auto scroll still too fast for musicians readers etc. even when on slowest setting with mouse?

2015-07-21 17:15:47

alan roy

In Word 2013, the Auto Scroll is too fast. I want to use it for singing/playing chords on pop songs but it goes too fast. Any way of slowing it down? Thanks.
Alan

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.