Knowledge Base Articles » KB100205: Using JavaScript, How Can I Change the Mouse Icon from Arrow to Finger to Simulate Hovering Over a Link?

In IE4+ you can use the "cursor" style of an HTML element to change the mouse pointer. Note that this solution will not work in Netscape browsers.

We use the onmouseover event attribute to detect when the mouse moves over an element, and we then change the cursor style as required. For example, to make the cursor change to a hand when the mouse moves over an applicable HTML element, set the onmouseover event of the element as follows:

onmouseover="this.style.cursor='hand'"

If you want to apply this trick to some standard text, wrap the text in a span element, and set the onmouseover event:

<span onmouseover="this.style.cursor= 'hand'">Poke Me!</span>

There are nine types of cursors to choose from:
TO SEE EACH TYPE, RUN THE CURSOR OVER THE NAME

1. auto
2. crosshair
3. default
4. hand
5. move
6. *-resize (where * is n, ne, nw, s, se, sw, e or w)
7. text
8. wait
9. help

In Internet Explorer the cursor style applies to all of these HTML elements:

a, address, applet, b, big, blockquote, body, caption, center, cite, code, col, colgroup, currentstyle, custom, dd, dfn, dir, div, dl, dt, em, embed, fieldset, form, h1-6, hr, html, i, iframe, img, input, kbd, label, legend, li, listing, marquee, menu, object, ol, p, plaintext, pre, runtimestyle, s, samp, small, span, strike, strong, style, sub, sup, table, tbody, td, textarea, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, var, xmp

In Internet Explorer, the onmouseover event applies to the following tags:

a, address, applet, area, b, bdo, big, blockquote, body, button, caption, center, cite, code, custom, dd, dfn, dir, div, dl, document, dt, em, embed, fieldset, form, h1-6, hr, i, img, input, kbd, label, legend, li, listing, marquee, menu, nextid, nobr, ol, p, plaintext, pre, tr, ruby, s, samp, select, small, span, strike, strong, sub, sup, table, tbody, td, textarea, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, var, xmp