Custom Cursor

[Julie Bailey]

I am building a web site and would like to use a curser with the business name. How do I do this? Please be very explicit....I am a rookie!

TIA!

[jbinbpt]

Hi Julie,
Welcome to WebmasterWorld.

If you search for custom cursors, it will give you some ideas. They appear to be image replacements.

It's just my opinion, but playing with the users computer is not a great idea, but depending on site theme, it has it's place.

jb

[Julie Bailey]

Yes, just wanting to use the business name.

[cellularnews]

Ugh!

Horrid idea.

I personally think they remind me of a newbie web design from 5 years ago.

But it's your choice of course :)

[Julie Bailey]

Actually it is not my decision but that of the customer.

[asquithea]

Personally, I can't recall any time in the last 8 years in which I've seen a professionally written business site using a custom cursor. Very rarely, it's useful on interactive pages offering some game or tool that benefits from a non-standard interface. Usually, it's found on some kid's Geocities page, abandoned because they grew out of it.

Don't you think you have some responsibility to guide the customer? If I were you, I'd sweep that suggestion quietly under the carpet until you can show them a better design.

[encyclo]

Welcome to the forums, Julie!

To add a custom cursor, you need to use an icon editor or graphic editor to produce a .cur or a .anl file to use as your cursor. Once you have it, you add the cursor to your pages with CSS:

body {
cursor:url('mycursor.cur');
}

Currently, a custom cursor will only function in Internet Explorer 6.

Having said that, and following on from some other comments, as you said that you are a "rookie", I would strongly advise you to speak to your client and try your best to talk them out of doing this. Custom cursors are basically never seen on truly professional websites - they detract from the usual user experience, confuse and/or irritate the end user, and look terribly amateurish. This will especially be the case if you use a company name as a cursor - if the text remains legible, it will forcibly be too large to be useful, and it will make the site much harder to use. Try to bring your professional opinion into play - good luck! :)

[Robin_reala]

Custom cursors have been adopted into CSS3 and will turn up in Firefox 1.5 (and other upcoming Gecko browsers).

[Hester]

I remember cursor:url being part of the CSS2 test suite that Eric Meyer put together years ago. Only IE6 loaded the cursor, a spinning globe.

But since the cursor is part of the OS GUI, shouldn't it be left alone?

[j0rie]

There is a program called Microangelo Toolset that will create custom icons and cursors.

Although, I must side with others when it comes to using a custom cursor on a professional business website. It is just not done.