The macosxhints Rating:
[Score: 8 out of 10]
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On my home Mac, though, I had a related but different issue. I have two fairly-sizable displays, and I'd often find myself flicking the mouse about wildly, trying to locate the cursor. This was especially true if I'd been away from the machine for a few minutes, as I wouldn't have any clue in which application I may have left the cursor. Sure, I could use Mouseposé and hit F1, which is what I had been doing until Friday. Under 10.4, I could also use the Universal Access panel to make a truly huge mouse cursor, but I didn't want it big all the time; I just wanted some way of spotting it a bit quicker.
Then on Friday, I caught this article by Chris Breen over at Macworld. Almost in passing at the end of the article, he mentioned Mouse Locator. This handy utility does one thing: it helps you find the cursor. It works automatically, activating itself after a user-defined 'no cursor movement' time period, anywhere from one second to 30 minutes. (If you'd like to always highlight the cursor, there's also an Always On checkbox.)
And what exactly does Mouse Locator due when activated? Nothing. Until you move the mouse. Then the locator appears, surrounding the cursor. It stays onscreen for a user-definable time period, from one to nine seconds. The default locator graphic is the concentric green circles, shown in the icon at the top of this hint. But you can also easily change the highlight, and there are other images available, from both the developer and third parties. You can even make your own, if you're so inclined. As seen in the screenshot at left, I'm using one of "Ian A's" designs at the moment.
Mouse Locator is perfect for what I need -- it stays out of the way until I need it, which is usually after a longish absence from the machine, so I have it set for a 20 minute delay. You can also use a hotkey to instantly display the locator, which can be very useful when editing a long Word document, for example.
I have only two small complaints about Mouse Locator. The first issue is the most annoying, and it has to do with the custom locator images. When you use a custom image, the program will only look for it in one spot -- in the top level of your user's Pictures folder. It just so happens that I use the Pictures folder as the source for my rotating desktop images on one monitor, so my custom image is now technically in the rotation. Thankfully, I have a lot of pictures in there, and it hasn't come up yet. I've written the author, asking for the ability to specify a location of our choosing (or at least to use any folder other than Pictures), but haven't heard back as of yet. If a fix isn't forthcoming, I'll end up moving my desktop images to a folder of their own, then specifying that folder in the Desktop preferences panel.
The second (minor) issue is that while the instant-on hotkey is user-settable, it's not completely customizable. You can use any combination of Shift, Command, Control, and Option, but only with Space or F1 through F15. I would prefer to use another keystroke, but there's no way to do that presently.
Outside of these two issues, though, I love this system preferences panel. I no longer have to do the repetitive mouse flick to find my cursor when I return after an absence. As soon as I start moving the mouse, it lets me know where it is on the screen.
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