How to Create a Custom Cursor With MightyMouse

One of the few times Mac users suffer from Windows envy is when it comes to customizing cursors. Windows has a number of utilities for creating cursors and animated cursors. Mighty Mouse overcomes this limitation. You can import custom cursor files or create your own.

Instructions

1. Create a 16 by 16 pixel document in your image editor to draw your cursor. It can be any shape and size within the document boundaries, including a solid square. You can edit an existing cursor by dragging it to the finder from Mighty Mouse.

2. Mask any pixels outside the cursor image. Save the new selection as an alpha channel, or keep the background transparent.

3. Animate your cursor. Create frames by duplicating your cursor vertically and making changes to each cursor. Make sure to space the frames evenly from top to bottom. Save the image in RGB TIFF format with transparency.

4. Open Mighty Mouse in your System Preferences. Click on the "Cursors" button to find the individual system cursors.

5. Select the cursor to edit. Drag the scroll bar if you can't see all of the available cursors.

6. Choose "Edit Image" from the settings pulldown menu (the menu with the gear icon.) The edit dialog will open featuring a preview window and cursor settings. Copy and paste each frame into the edit window. You can also set the cursor hot spot and animation speed.

7. Test your cursor. Make sure the cursor is still selected in the cursors bar and choose "Test Cursor" from the Gear menu. Your active cursor will change to the selected custom cursor. Click "Apply Changes" when you're satisfied.

Tips & Warnings

• You can import images larger than 16 by 16 pixels, but they will consume more memory and decrease performance.

• If your image editor doesn't support alpha channels or transparent TIFF images, you will need to import the cursor image and mask images separately.

• You can restore the original system settings at any time by clicking "Restore defaults."