cursor Attribute | cursor

HTML (DHTML)

cursor Attribute | cursor Property

Internet Development Index

Sets or retrieves the type of cursor to display as the mouse pointer moves over the object.

What's New for Microsoft® Internet Explorer 6

The cursor property supports progress, not-allowed, no-drop, vertical-text, all-scroll, col-resize, row-resize, and url(uri) as new cursor styles.

Syntax

HTML { cursor : sCursor }
Scriptingobject.style.cursor(v) [ = sCursor ]

Possible Values

sCursorString that specifies or receives one or more of the following possible values, separated by commas.
all-scroll  Internet Explorer 6 and later. Arrows pointing up, down, left, and right with a dot in the middle, indicating that the page can be scrolled in any direction.
autoDefault. Browser determines which cursor to display based on the current context.
col-resize  Internet Explorer 6 and later. Arrows pointing left and right with a vertical bar separating them, indicating that the item/column can be resized horizontally.
crosshairSimple cross hair.
defaultPlatform-dependent default cursor; usually an arrow.
handHand with the first finger pointing up, as when the user moves the pointer over a link.
helpArrow with question mark, indicating help is available.
moveCrossed arrows, indicating something is to be moved.
no-drop  Internet Explorer 6 and later. Hand with a small circle with a line through it, indicating that the dragged item cannot be dropped at the current cursor location.
not-allowed  Internet Explorer 6 and later. Circle with a line through it, indicating that the requested action will not be carried out.
pointerInternet Explorer 6 and later. Hand with the first finger pointing up, as when the user moves the pointer over a link. Identical to hand.
progress  Internet Explorer 6 and later. Arrow with an hourglass next to it, indicating that a process is running in the background. User interaction with the page is unaffected.
row-resize  Internet Explorer 6 and later. Arrows pointing up and down with a horizontal bar separating them, indicating that the item/row can be resized vertically.
textEditable text; usually an I-bar.
url(uri)  Internet Explorer 6 and later. Cursor is defined by the author, using a custom Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), such as url('mycursor.cur'). Cursors of type .CUR and .ANI are the only supported cursor types.
vertical-text  Internet Explorer 6 and later. Editable vertical text, indicated by a horizontal I-bar.
waitHourglass or watch, indicating that the program is busy and the user should wait.
*-resizeArrows, indicating an edge is to be moved; the asterisk (*) can be N, NE, NW, S, SE, SW, E, or W—each representing a compass direction.

The property is read/write for all objects except the following, for which it is read-only: currentStyle. The property has a default value of auto. The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) attribute is inherited.

Expressions can be used in place of the preceding value(s), as of Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5. For more information, see About Dynamic Properties.

Remarks

The property handles a comma-separated list of cursor values. If the user agent does not understand or cannot find the first cursor specified, it looks at the next cursor in the comma-separated list and continues until it finds a usable cursor. If the user agent does not understand any of the cursors that are listed, the cursor does not change.

Examples

The following examples use the cursor attribute and the cursor property to change the cursor as it passes over an object.

This example uses a call to an embedded (global) style sheet to set the cursor to hand as the cursor passes over all paragraphs.

<STYLE>
P { cursor : hand; }
</STYLE>
This feature requires Microsoft® Internet Explorer 4.0 or later. Click the following icon to install the latest version. Then reload this page to view the sample.

This example uses inline scripting to set the cursor to hand as the cursor passes over the paragraph.

<P onmouseover="this.style.cursor='hand'">
This feature requires Microsoft® Internet Explorer 4.0 or later. Click the following icon to install the latest version. Then reload this page to view the sample.

This example demonstrates setting a custom cursor, by using the url(uri) value.

<STYLE>
oBox.style.cursor = "url(" + Some_Uniform_Resource_Identifier + ")";
</STYLE>
This feature requires Microsoft® Internet Explorer 6 or later. Click the following icon to install the latest version. Then reload this page to view the sample.

Here is a sample of all currently supported cursors, as of Internet Explorer 6.

This feature requires Microsoft® Internet Explorer 6 or later. Click the following icon to install the latest version. Then reload this page to view the sample.

Standards Information

This property is defined in Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Level 2 (CSS2) Non-Microsoft link.

Applies To

A, ADDRESS, APPLET, B, BIG, BLOCKQUOTE, BODY, CAPTION, CENTER, CITE, CODE, COL, COLGROUP, currentStyle, CUSTOM, DD, defaults, DFN, DIR, DIV, DL, DT, EM, EMBED, FIELDSET, FORM, hn, HR, HTML, I, IFRAME, IMG, INPUT type=button, INPUT type=checkbox, INPUT type=file, INPUT type=image, INPUT type=password, INPUT type=radio, INPUT type=reset, INPUT type=submit, INPUT type=text, KBD, LABEL, LEGEND, LI, LISTING, MARQUEE, MENU, OBJECT, OL, P, PLAINTEXT, PRE, RT, RUBY, runtimeStyle, S, SAMP, SMALL, SPAN, STRIKE, STRONG, style, SUB, SUP, TABLE, TBODY, TD, TEXTAREA, TFOOT, TH, THEAD, TR, TT, U, UL, VAR, XMP