Is there any way to show the scroll indicator of a UITextView without starting to scroll?

Question

I have a UITextView with text that needs to be scrolled to see the complete text.

But there are paragraphs between the text blocks and it is not really obvious that the text is scrollable without starting to scroll so that the scroll indicator becomes visible. This is because the emtpy lines between paragraphs are just on the bottom of the visible text within the text view.

While I could insert some empty lines so that a text block gets broken up and the user could see that the text goes on, the issue is that the app will be translated to many languages and this solution is therefore not feasible anymore. Since all languanges would have to be tested individually and for each the empty lines will be inserted at different places.

That's why I am asking, if there is a way to indicate to the user that the shown text continues if he scrolls down - immediately when the view opens - so without the user tapping on the screen.

Many thanks

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3281900/tableviewcontroller-doesnt-flash-scroll-indicators-even-if-the-table-is-bigger — danqing, Aug 21 '12 at 17:47

score 25 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 21 '12 at 17:47

25

Since UITextView is a subclass of UIScrollView you can use the method flashScrollIndicators. This method flashes the scroll indicators of the scrollView, this is the way to show users that content is scrollable.

answered Aug 21 '12 at 17:47

Matthias Bauch

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Thanks very much! To have the scroll indicator visible a little longer I just call this in viewDidLoad and viewDidAppear. Super easy and according to iPhone standard! – user387184 Aug 21 '12 at 17:59
love this answer haha. – Papon Smc Feb 17 '20 at 11:19

score 12 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 04 '15 at 19:39

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You could try this:

[yourTextView flashScrollIndicators];

edited Oct 04 '15 at 19:39

swiftBoy

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answered Aug 21 '12 at 17:47

Ravi

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 21 '12 at 17:46

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I would hide the built-in scroll indicator and implement your own. Just create a custom view that looks like the scroll indicator, and determine it's position by the scrollOffset of the UITextView.

answered Aug 21 '12 at 17:46

James

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El Developer · Answer 4 · 2016-01-16T22:55:14.357

There is a solution provided in this site where you will be able to have your scroll bars visible all the time. Basically what you will be doing is creating a category for your UITextView.

That being said, Apple's Human Interface Guidelines discourage this, and they only provide a method to flash the scroll indicators. So you could call the flashScrollIndicators method on sensible moments i. e. when the user is first presented with the ViewController containing you UITextView.

score 0 · Answer 5 · edited Jan 27 '22 at 12:11

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Code in Swift:

textView.flashScrollIndicators()

edited Jan 27 '22 at 12:11

Eric Aya

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answered Jan 27 '22 at 10:48

p-mercier

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Is there any way to show the scroll indicator of a UITextView without starting to scroll?

5 Answers5