Whereas on Daring Fireball I can scroll the page pretty well using the scroll bar or the Page Up and Page Down keys, on many sites lines of text are skipped or the top of the screen ends up cutting the top of a line of text. This happens often with articles of the New York Times for example. This happens also with PDFs in Preview, though the amount of text that is scrolled depends on whether you’re using the scroll bar or the keyboard. Using the scroll bar to move the text by a screenful works, but using the keyboard causes the ”clipping” behaviour.
Firefox seems to handle PDFs well, but displays websites, for example the New York Times, poorly. Reading Mode in Safari works, but is problematic since it of course does not show the web page as intended, causing pictures and other objects to be missing.
Is there a solution to show web pages and PDF files in such a way that lines of text aren’t skipped while scrolling and the top of the view doesn’t end up in the middle of a line? The way I read is to first skim for the structure by scrolling in predictable units, like turning the page of a book. I do have both a Magic Mouse and the trackpad and like them both. Especially the way scrolling on the mouse slows down for precision when more fingers are resting on it is very nice. I much prefer this behaviour to a mouse with a scroll wheel.
For a somewhat related question, I seem to remember being able to fit Safari windows to the content of the page, instead of maximizing the window or changing into a full-screen view. I remember being confused by this behaviour in maybe 2007, when buying my first Mac. The Finder still works this way, but have web pages changed along the way to a design that doesn’t define for example the width of a page for viewing on a desktop computer? I would like to have more freedom in positioning a window in front of me in such a way that the text is about in front of my eyes, not to the side. In my mind, the sides of even a 13" MacBook Air are for sidebars and inspectors, not for displaying text to be read.
Is this what happens when geeks hit the middle-age? You blabber on about how you think things used to be? My wife politely gestured towards the computer, suggesting I talk to someone else for a change. Thanks for reading my post.