Mouse Pointer vs Cursor

Any computer needs to know what you the human sitting in front of it want it to do, or to put it another way it needs "Input" from you.

Two well known Input methods are the Keyboard and the Mouse. On a laptop PC you will usually have a Touchpad with 2 associated buttons on the side facing you which performs the same function as a Mouse.

More recently, Touch Screens have appeared which you stroke and tap with one or more fingers or a stylus and products like Google Voice Search in Chrome allow you to provide your Input by talking to your computer. All of these are Input Devices.

Cursor vs Mouse Pointer

So that you know where the PC is going to respond to your Input, 2 helpers appear on screen, these are the Cursor and the Mouse Pointer. Both may be on screen at the same time so it is useful to understand which is which and its purpose.

Cursor
The Cursor is a flashing vertical line " | " and shows where the Keyboard is currently active. The Cursor only appears in places where text can be entered such as boxes in forms and in email and word processing applications.

If you are typing and nothing is happening, check where the Cursor is as you will sometimes need to deliberately place it where you wish to type. Alternatively, you may be looking at something which is read only and cannot be edited so the Cursor will not be displayed.

Mouse Pointer
The Mouse Pointer shows you where the PC will react to a Mouse Click and takes a variety of forms depending what it is over on the screen and whether or not a Mouse Button is currently pressed.

Here are some examples of the different Mouse Pointer appearances and their meaning:

Left Tilted Arrow; It's default General Pointer behaviour

Right Tilted Arrow; ready to Select a Block e.g. in the left margin on word processing

Upward Pointing Finger; when over a Link on a web page

Grabbing Hand; ready to Drag Page Content around, e.g. centre a map (left button pressed)

Capitol 'I' (or end of an iron girder); over Text. This shape makes it easier to align with letters and lines.

Left Tilted Arrow Dragging a Shaded Box; ready to Move a Block of Text in Word or Outlook and others by Dragging (left button pressed)





There are others including Double Headed Vertical, Horizontal and Diagonal Arrows when resizing the edge of a Window and some Programs allow it to become a Magnifying Glass to zoom in or out.

Some only seen in Tables and Spreadsheets:

  Select Cell

  Select Column



Resize Row Height



Resize Column Width


18 Jul 2013: 
I have changed some of the wording referring to "Input Devices" following feedback. 
Comments are always welcome.  Ged