More Website Knick Knack

Even before CSS2 and its cursor property allowed us to change the display of the cursor – or pointing device, as the CSS specifications call it – people wanted to do it. This lead to a free plug-in called “comet cursor” which made every website a lot cooler – until people realized that it also spied on them (http://www.spywareguide.com/product_show.php?id=428).

Changing the cursor can make a lot of sense at times – for example, when you develop a Web application that allows for resizing of images or picking a certain area within another. Another good use is to indicate to the visitor that there is more information than meets the eye – for example teaching Microsoft Internet Explorer that an acronym was properly marked up:

HTML:

<acronym title=”Cascading Style Sheet”>CSS</acronym>

CSS:

ACRONYM{cursor:help;background:#eee;}

Output:

The available cursor styles do all have their meaning, though, and visitors will know what they are for. If we use a crosshair cursor on our navigation mainly because it looks cool it might annoy them, as they expect more to happen than just a reload of the page. So, unless we really do provide more functionality, it is best to allow the browser to choose the different types of cursors.