Selecting Mouse Pointers in Windows 95

• Why change mouse pointers?
• Adjusting mouse pointers

Why change mouse pointers?

The standard Windows 95 mouse pointers can be difficult for some users to see. Fortunately, Windows 95 comes preinstalled with a large variety of mouse pointers. You can choose which of these to use, and in what situations.

For example, move your mouse pointer inside a text input area. If you are using Windows standard pointers, your pointer will look like this:

Now move your pointer to the desktop. It should look like this:

When a program is busy, for example when loading or saving a large document, your pointer will take on the shape of an hourglass like this:

There are fourteen categories of mouse pointers, which determine when you see what shape. They are: normal select, help select, working in background, busy, precision select, text select, handwriting, unavailable, vertical resize, horizontal resize, diagonal resize, move, alternate select, and link select. Some of these, such as normal select and text select, are used a lot. Others, such as handwriting, are used only in specific applications.

Typically the pointers come in schemes. Each scheme has one mouse pointer for each category. If you have not changed your settings, you are currently using the Windows standard scheme, with the pointer shapes shown above. Windows allows you to select another scheme of mouse pointers to use, or create your own scheme by choosing from the available pointers.

Some of the schemes are made specifically to help people with low vision. The Windows standard pointers, which tend to be white edged in black, are also available in large and extra large. In the Windows inverted scheme, most pointers are black. There is also a Windows black scheme with black pointers edged in white. These last two schemes are also available in large and extra large sizes for improved visibility.

Adjusting mouse pointers

The following instructions explain how to select a set scheme. If you want to personalize your scheme, Search the Help menu using the keywords "mouse pointer appearance" for instructions.

1. Press CTRL+ESC to bring up the Start menu. (On some keyboards you can bring up the Start menu by pressing the special Start menu button between the CTRL and ALT keys. This button has the same symbol as the Start menu button on the screen.)
2. Press s for "Settings".
3. Press c for "Control Panel". You should see a window like this:
   
4. Move through the Control Panel icons using the arrow keys until you come to the one labelled "Mouse":

   

5. Hit ENTER to bring up the Mouse Properties window.
6. If the focus (the highlighted or outlined portion of the screen) is not on the StepSavers label at the top of the window, press TAB until it is (this should take six presses) and then use the right arrow key to bring the focus over to the Pointers label. Or, press CTRL+TAB once, until the Pointers tab comes to the front. When you are done with this step the window should look like this:
   
   You can see that this window has two main areas. The top consists of a frame labelled Scheme. Its main feature is the option box, which shows the name of the current scheme. The bottom contains a scrolling box of example pointers, one for each category. The pointers in this box make up the entire scheme. The picture above is showing the Windows Black extra large scheme.
7. Press ALT+s to bring the focus to the "Scheme" option box.
8. Use the arrow keys to move through the possible schemes. The pointers in the scrolling box will change to reflect the current scheme.
9. When you find a scheme you like, press ENTER to save your settings and close the Mouse Properties window.
10. Hit ALT+F+C to close the Control Panel window if it is still open.

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