Larger Cursor

[Randy B. Singer]

Here is a simple tip. It has come up a couple of times recently. Many of us long-time Mac users are getting old, and our eyesight isn't what it used to be. It can be hard to find a tiny mouse cursor (pointer) on your Mac's screen. The Mac has the ability to set the cursor so that if you jiggle the mouse, the cursor momentarily gets larger, making it easier to locate. (The following is a bit different in different versions of the Mac OS):

Apple menu —> System Preferences —> Accessibility —> Vision/Display --> enable: Shake Mouse Pointer To Locate
(In more recent versions of the Mac OS, there is a slider to adjust this feature.)

However, if you want to set the size of the mouse pointer (cursor) to be bigger all the time, without having to jiggle the mouse:

Apple menu —> System Preferences —> Accessibility —> click Display in the sidebar —> Cursor tab —> Cursor Size

or

Apple menu —> System Preferences —> Accessibility —> click Display in the sidebar —> Cursor Size

I hope this helps.

For those of you who want even more, there are third party commercial utilites that make it possible to put a colored circle around the mouse cursor, or to cause your mouse cursor to momentarily leave a brilliant tail behind it as it moves. Let me know if you need these.

 

[Rod]

I use the "Jiggle" function myself, really handy in some circumstances.

 

[dufchick]

This is a great tip, thank you! Tried it, love it!

 

[Slydude]

I use both features routinely--especially under Sonoma. I've been using it for some time. Both features make finding the cursor on a dual monitor setup much easier.

 

[Jimmysb]

Just checked my settings, and the "jiggle" is already on, bit I did increase the size by half a notch.

 

[pm-r]

Here is a simple tip.

Always worth reposting, especially for bills who may be suffering from not having perfect eyesight such as myself in my older years and I wouldn't even be able to use my iMac properly without having most of these options enabled, and I would also mention I have been using the Zoom feature quite frequently lately as my macular degeneration gets worse and worse. Especially useful on those pages which end up having small print that I cannot read easily with normal settings.

And of course I should mention the Dictation feature which is almost vital for me to use with the rheumatoid arthritis that is getting worse in my hands and makes typing very uncomfortable.

So thanks Apple for your various Accessibility features and options that some of us rely on quite heavily and to make using or Macs or more pleasant experience.

I just wish the built-in macOS Dictation was a bit better and at least match Google's version that I can use with my Google products. The comparison is almost embarrassing as far as Apple's version goes. But at least it works in all applications which is more than Google's speech voice in can do.




- Patrick
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[Randy B. Singer]

I just wish the built-in macOS Dictation was a bit better and at least match Google's version that I can use with my Google products. The comparison is almost embarrassing as far as Apple's version goes.

Funny you should mention that. A gentleman contacted me recently because he badly needed voice to text for his work, and he wasn't finding any products for the Macintosh that were acceptable.

I referred him to a specialist in the field, and to make a long story short, he found that Apple's built-in voice to text feature in the latest versions of the Mac OS was just about perfect if paired with a high quality audio interface and a high quality microphone meant for speech. He was tickled by how well it all works.

If you'd like me to post his adventures in finding the perfect setup, just let me know. I'll start a new thread.

 

[pm-r]

If you'd like me to post his adventures in finding the perfect setup, just let me know. I'll start a new thread

Thanks for your kind offer Randy but my current dictation situation is quite adequate and works fairly well for what I need to do and a new Mac or a more recent macOS is not on the distant horizon at this point at all for me.



- Patrick
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[Slydude]

If you'd like me to post his adventures in finding the perfect setup, just let me know. I'll start a new thread.

When you have time I'd appreciate reading about those experiences. I used to use dictation quite a bit because I'm a horrible typist. Over the years I've used ViaVoice and probably all of the Nuance offerings.

I haven't used the built-in features in some time. It's possible that the mic I was using was part of the accuracy issues I had.