The only way I found to do panning (move the map) in the id-editor (the default one) is to “grab” the map at an empty space by clicking the mouse and then mode the map. However if you aren’t careful, and the mouse is over some object, you will move that object on the map by mistake instead.
The mouse wheel seems to zoom always.
What I’m looking for is some composite key (like Shift, Alt, Cntrl) to force the mouse “hold+move” to be a panning grab. In many programs the Space bar has the effect of being such a modifier (i.e. holding down space while moving the mouse will pan the view).
As an alternative modifiers for using the mouse wheel to scroll up/down and left/right would be nice. Many programs default the mouse wheel to scrolling up/down with the Shift being a modifier to scroll left/right instead, and Cntrl as modifier to zoom instead. However that’s not a universal convention.
I also found this frustrating, so I’ve proposed a change to iD’s code which allows the PageUp/PageDown/Home/End keys to be used for panning.
However, no one has reviewed those changes in 6 months so I assume it won’t be accepted…