Q: More visible "I-bar" cursor for dark backgrounds

[Jason Harrison]

When working with PPT presentations with dark backgrounds, the I-bar or
text cursor is very hard (impossible) to see against the dark
background. I've looked for a set of cursors on the web that would be
more visible, yet not "animated" or "dayglow" or "silly". Just a simple
outline of white pixels around the I-bar cursor would fix the problem.
I'd rather not have to switch between cursor sets every time I changed
background colours. On SGIs (and I believe Macs) the the cursors are
outlined in white so I only have this problem in MSWindows with PPT and
dark backgrounds (and text).

Has anyone seen such an outlined cursor? Does everyone else just use
"Black and White View" or Outline View for editing text? Any
suggestions for a simple, free cursor editing program (will
MSPhotoEditor work?)?

-Jason

--
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J. Harr...@cs.ubc.ca http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~harrison
Graduate Motto: Free-time with guilt. http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~harrison/dance

[Paul Bender]

what windows os are you running? in at least some versions of the windows
os (e.g. windows 2000), you can use the Mouse Control Panel to change
pointers (including the Text Select pointer). one of the available I-beam
pointers is a white outlined I-beam.

"Jason Harrison" <harr...@cs.ubc.ca> wrote in message
news:3A70B928...@cs.ubc.ca...

[Sonia]

Paul is very correct. In fact, it works the same in Win98, ME, and Win2K. Go to Start > Settings >
Control Panel > Mouse > Pointers and try Windows Black (Extra Large). I think it's just what you're
looking for.

_____________________________________________
Sonia Coleman, MS PowerPoint MVP Team
Website: http://www.soniacoleman.com
PowerPoint Tutorials: http://www.soniacoleman.com/Tutorials/Tutorials.htm
Autorun CD: http://www.soniacoleman.com/Tutorials/PowerPoint/Autorun_CD.htm

"Jason Harrison" <harr...@cs.ubc.ca> wrote in message news:3A70B928...@cs.ubc.ca...

[Jason Harrison]

Sonia wrote:

> Paul is very correct. In fact, it works the same in Win98, ME, and Win2K. Go to Start > Settings >
> Control Panel > Mouse > Pointers and try Windows Black (Extra Large). I think it's just what you're
> looking for.

Sigh. We have Win97 and NT4. Hopefully this problem will resolve itself when we upgrade. In the
meantime, if I find a computer with Win2K on it, and copy the cursor file for the Windows Black (Extra
Large), I can install that on my computer?

This will continue to be a problem for a while, since I teach PPT'97 at the university (I believe using
Win95, slightly later).

-Jason

[Sonia]

It's not a PowerPoint issue. It's a system level setting in the OS. I don't have NT here, but in
Win2000 the cursors are stored in C:\WINNT\Cursors. Have you tried the path I gave you?
I.e., Go to Start > Settings >Control Panel > Mouse > Pointers and try Windows Black (Extra Large).
In Windows 2000, the selection is actually "Windows Black (extra large) (system scheme).

I suspect that you do not have administrative privileges? Is that correct? Perhaps your privileges
are constraining your ability to make this change? Maybe your Administrator can make the change for
you?

In paragraph 1 of your note, you meant PPT97 not Win97, right?

Re: installing a cursor file. I don't really know. The association with a "scheme" would have to
exist and I don't know how you would do that. Maybe someone else has an idea.

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"Jason Harrison" <harr...@cs.ubc.ca> wrote in message news:3A748641...@cs.ubc.ca...