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1.1 Mouse Skills
1.1. c. Mouse Pointers

As you use the mouse, the appearance of the mouse pointer can change. The appearance of the pointer provides feedback about a particular operation, location, or state.

The following mouse pointers are shown as your mouse passes over different elements of the screen:
Note:

Your mouse pointers will differ from those shown here if you are using a different pointer theme. Your distributor or vendor may have set a different default theme.

Normal pointer. Normal pointer

This pointer appears during normal use of the mouse.
Busy pointer. Busy pointer

This pointer appears over a window that is busy performing a task. You cannot use the mouse to give this window any input, but you can move to another window and work with that.
Resize pointer. Resize pointer

This pointer indicates that you can grab the control to resize parts of the interface. This appears over the borders of windows and over resize handles between panes in a window. The direction of the arrows indicates in which direction you can resize.
Hand pointer Hand pointer

This pointer appears when you hover over a hypertext link, in a web page for example. This pointer indicates that you can click on the link to load a new document or perform an action.
I-beam pointer I-beam pointer

This pointer is shown when the mouse is over text that you can select or edit. Click to place the cursor where you want to type text, or drag to select text.

The following mouse pointers are shown when dragging an item such as a file, or a piece of text. They indicate the result of releasing the mouse button to drop the object being moved.

Move pointer. Move pointer

This pointer indicates that when you drop the object, the object is moved from the old location to the new location.
Copy pointer. Copy pointer

This pointer indicates that when you drop the object, a copy of the object is created where you drop it.
Symbolic link pointer. Symbolic link pointer

This pointer indicates that when you drop the object, a symbolic link to the object is created where you drop the object. A symbolic link is a special type of file that points to another file or folder. For more on this, see the section called Creating a Symbolic Link to a File or Folder.
Ask pointer. Ask pointer

This pointer indicates that when you drop the object, you will be given a choice of what to do. A menu will open to allow you to choose which operation you would like to perform. For instance, you may be able to move, copy, or create a symbolic link.
Not available pointer. Not available pointer

This pointer indicates that you cannot drop the object at the current location. Releasing the mouse button now will have no effect: the dragged object will be returned to its starting location.
Move panel object pointer. Move panel object pointer

This pointer appears when you drag a panel or a panel object with the middle mouse button. See Chapter 4, Working With Panels for more information on panels.
Move window pointer. Move window pointer

This pointer appears when you drag a window to move it. See the section called Manipulating Windows for more information on moving windows. (Next: Keyboard Skills)

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GNOME Desktop Basic Skills
Table of Contents

1.1 Mouse Skills
1.1.a. Mouse Buttons
1.1.b. Mouse Actions
1.1.c. Mouse Pointers (You are here)

1.2 Keyboard Skills
1.2.a. Global Shortcut Keys
1.2.b. Window Shortcut Keys
1.2.c. Application Keys
1.2.d. Access Keys