3 Sep 2023

JupyterLab 4.0.5: Scroll output with keyboard shortcut

In the latest version of Jupyter Notebook/Lab (at least), the output of each cell is shown in full, regardless of how long it is. I wanted to limit the height of the output and then scroll through it within that inner window, ideally by triggering a keyboard shortcut.

I learnt how to do this with the help of Stack Overflow. First, you need to open the settings editor by typing Cmd + , on a Mac or by clicking on that screen from the top menu:

Figure 1. Settings > Settings Editor

Next, click on JSON Settings Editor in the top right-hand corner:

Figure 2. JSON Settings Editor

And then paste the following JSON into the shortcuts array:

        {
            "command": "notebook:enable-output-scrolling",
            "keys": [
                "S"
            ],
            "selector": ".jp-Notebook:focus",
            "args": {}
        },
        {
            "command": "notebook:disable-output-scrolling",
            "keys": [
                "Alt S"
            ],
            "selector": ".jp-Notebook:focus",
            "args": {}
        },

This is how it should look like once you’ve done that:

Figure 3. Keyboard shortcuts added

You can then add a scrollbar to an output cell by pressing s or remove the scrollbar by pressing Alt + s. Below is an example of what happens when you toggle output scrolling:

Figure 4. No scrollbar vs Scrollbar

About the author

I'm currently working on short form content at ClickHouse. I publish short 5 minute videos showing how to solve data problems on YouTube @LearnDataWithMark. I previously worked on graph analytics at Neo4j, where I also co-authored the O'Reilly Graph Algorithms Book with Amy Hodler.