Remember the good old days? Computer screens were no bigger than 640 x 480 pixels, we generally had only one window open, our eyes were better!

NOT!

I couldn't do without my 17'" MacBook Pro with a screen resolution of 1680 x 1050. I love having that 20 HDTV that connects to my computer and functions as a second monitor. I don't know how I could work if I could only use one program at a time, but I hate not being able to find that little tiny arrow that is my cursor. It gets lost among the windows and among photos of the grandchildren that are my frequent finder backgrounds.

I give lots of presentations from my computer and being able to locate my cursor needs to be easy and effortless. My favorite cursor locator is a freeware application, Mouse Locator from 2Point5Fish.com. Whenever Mouse Locator pops up during a presentation I am sure to get several questions regarding exactly what that neat "thing" is that appeared on my screen.

Mouse Locator is a System Preference and it is accessed through the Macintosh System Preferences.

Click on its icon to configure it.

You will want to do a little exploring and testing to determine which settings work best for you. In my case, I find Mouse Locator to be distracting if it is always on. I have also changed the default hot key to activate Mouse Locator. I find that being able to click the option and the space bar keys to activate Mouse Locator works best for me.

If you would like more information and a quick tutorial guide to Mouse Locator's features, click the Info button in the upper right corner of the window. It will open a drop down menu with several tabs of information.

I also discovered that there are a wide variety of cursor indicators available on the 2Point5Fish.com web site if the green circles are not attention-grabbing enough for your screen. In fact, I am off to install a new cursor pattern. I think I will try the multicolored circles today, and perhaps a different one tomorrow!

If you would like help in customizing your Macintosh to make it even easier to use, consider booking a tutoring session with me at Bob LeVitus Consulting. Sessions are booked in one hour time blocks and cost $60. We can cover quite a bit of ground in just one hour!

-- Pat