In this paper, a novel anti-swing controller is proposed for 3-dimensional (3-D) overhead cranes, which ensures fast transportation and efficient swing suppression during the regulation control process. Specifically, to increase the performance of the payload swing suppression, a swing-suppressing element is introduced, based on which a novel error signal is constructed. Then, a new control method is developed according to partial feedback linearization, and the overall system is divided into two subsystems including a defined error subsystem and a swing-suppressing subsystem. The stability analysis of the two subsystems and the overall system is given. Besides, the convergence of the system states is also proved. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness and superior performance of the proposed approach over the energy-based method.