How To Make The Mouse Pointer Easier To See

There are a number of ways you can adapt your computer to make it easier to see the mouse pointer or cursor. These guides explain how to customise your operating system (Windows or Mac), so that you can change the colour and size of the mouse pointer, add trails to make it more visible, or highlight its location on your screen when a certain key is pressed.

Here’s how to do this…

• Make the mouse pointer easier to see by changing its appearance, speed or how it functions.
  1. This guide is different depending on your operating system (Windows or Mac)). Please select from the options below.
     1. Windows 7
     2. Mac OS X

How To Make The Mouse Pointer Easier To See In Mac OS X

This page explains step-by-step how to make the mouse pointer easier to see in Mac OS X by making the pointer larger. This is only available in Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger) and later versions; to do this for earlier versions of Mac OS X requires third-party software.

Note: The following abbreviations for keys on the Mac are used: Ctrl is used for the Control key, Apple is used for the Command key, and Alt is used for the Option key. For keyboard access, make sure ‘Full keyboard access’ is turned on – you can turn it on or off by pressing Ctrl + F1 at any time.

Step 1: Open the ‘Universal Access’ window

Make sure you are in ‘Finder’. If necessary, press Apple + Tab to cycle through the open applications until you return to ‘Finder’.

Click on the ‘Apple‘ icon on the menu bar or press Ctrl + F2.

Click on ‘System Preferences‘, as shown in Fig 1, or press the down arrow key to highlight it and then press Enter.

Fig 1

In the ‘System Preferences’ window (shown in Fig 2), click on the ‘Universal Access‘ icon, or press Tab repeatedly (you might need to press Ctrl + F7 first) to cycle through the icons until the ‘Universal Access’ icon is highlighted and then press the Spacebar.

Fig 2

Step 2: Make the mouse pointer larger

In the ‘Universal Access’ window that opens (shown in Fig 3), make sure the ‘Mouse‘ tab is selected. If it is not, click on it, or press Ctrl + F7 to highlight one of the tabs and then press the left or right arrow key to select it.

Fig 3

To make the mouse pointer bigger, click on the slider next to ‘Cursor Size‘ and then drag it until the mouse pointer is the size you want. Alternatively, press Tab until the slider is highlighted and then use the left and right arrow keys to move the slider.

When you are finished, click on the window’s red close button or press Apple + W.

Note: If this does not work it could be because your computer settings cannot be changed due to local IT policies – contact your local IT support for further help.

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