OS X Mountain Lion: Pointers in OS X

Pointers in OS X

OS X has several styles of pointers—small indicators, such as the arrow or pointing hand, that move when you reposition the mouse, press the arrow keys on your keyboard, or use other input devices.

Pointer Name Purpose

Arrow cursor

Arrow

Points to and selects items in windows and on the desktop, including menus, scroll bars, resize controls, title bars, buttons, and other controls.

Contextual menu cursor

Shortcut menu

Appears when you Control-click an item such as a toolbar or window, and indicates that you can open a shortcut (contextual) menu for the item.

Curved arrow cursor

Alias

Appears when you Command (⌘)-Option-click an item, and indicates that dragging the item to a new location will create an alias for the item without moving the item itself.

Disappearing item (“poof”) cursor

Poof

Indicates that the item you’re dragging will disappear when you release the mouse button. If the item is an alias, its original is not deleted. This pointer appears when you drag an alias out of the Finder window sidebar or from the Dock, drag a tool or bookmark from a bar, and in similar situations.

Copy arrow cursor

Copy

Appears when you Option-click a file or folder, and indicates that dragging the item will create a copy of it at the new location without moving it from the current location.

No access cursor

Not allowed

Indicates that the item you’re dragging can’t be placed at the current location.

I-beam cursor

I beam

Appears when you select and insert text.

Crosshairs cursor

Crosshair

Appears when you select a rectangular area in an image.

Pointing hand cursor

Pointing hand

Appears when the mouse pointer is over a link to a webpage, document, or other item.

Open hand cursor

Open hand

Appears when the mouse pointer is over an item that you can move and adjust within specific bounds—for example, text within a cell on a spreadsheet or one row of a table in a text document.

Closed hand cursor

Closed hand

Appears when you’re moving and adjusting an item within specific bounds—for example, text within a cell on a spreadsheet or one row of a table in a text document.

Resize left cursor

Move left

Indicates that a divider in a sidebar, toolbar, window, or other location can be moved and resized to the left.

Resize right cursor

Move right

Indicates that a divider in a sidebar, toolbar, window, or other location can be moved and resized to the right.

Resize left or right cursor

Move left or right

Indicates that a divider in a sidebar, toolbar, window, or other location can be moved and resized to the left or right.

Resize up cursor

Move up

Indicates that a divider in a sidebar, toolbar, window, or other location can be moved and resized up.

Resize down cursor

Move down

Indicates that a divider in a sidebar, toolbar, window, or other location can be moved and resized down.

Resize up down cursor

Move up or down

Indicates that a divider in a sidebar, toolbar, window, or other location can be moved and resized up and down.

Wait (spinning disk) cursor

Spinning (wait)

Appears when a delay of more than 2 to 4 seconds occurs.