The Mouse Wheel Problem

[George Chen]

Adding a wheel to a mouse is a smart design that has greatly eased the way people browse web pages and edit documents. It is so intuitive that computer users turn their mouse wheel with their fingers without any practice. It is practically a standard function built with any computer. However, a body of CD-ROM dictionaries are challenging this intuition. Interestingly, all the products that suffer from this problem are created with the same developing tool, which is from IDM, France.

In some CD-ROM dictionaries, when users turn the mouse wheel, trying to view the contents just one or two lines out of viewing box, the text is pushed away by two or three pages forwards or backwards. Users thus get lost in the sea of words. They have to turn back and restore the previous messages, and have to be very cautious in using CD-ROM dictionaries. It has been an annoying problem for many users who switch among web browser, word processor, and many others. As I can see in many cases, users turn away from the problematic dictionary software in the end.

So far, the problem can be found in the following CD-ROM dictionaries, or books:

1. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 5th edition
2. Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners, version 2.1 and 2.2
3. Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, 3rd edition
4. Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, 7th edition
5. Oxford Collocations Dictionary, 2nd edition
6. Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 17th edition
7. Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd edition
8. Cambridge Grammar of English, version 1.1

I've ever tried to figure out this problem and find a way to fix it. Unfortunately, I got no positive reply from the renowned publishers, like OUP, CUP, and Longman. Even worse, the reply from IDM France only tried to convince me it is an incurable problem at least at this moment.

While insiders stepped out, outsiders stepped in. Luckily, some Chinese programmers have managed to solve this pressing problem in a few CD-ROM dictionaries, that is, the most common and popular learner's dictionaries. To our delight, several awkward interfaces were improved and more functions and flexibility were added beside fixing the stupid mouse wheel trouble.

I will explore these patches in every specific bulletin board.

[Kuo]

If this problem is so hard to fix
Why a individual user fix it.
I hope a company should do best.