Cursorcerer: Hide Your Cursor at Will
Cursorcerer is a little tool I hacked together which allows you to hide the cursor at any time by use of a global hotkey. It can also autohide an idle cursor and bring it back as soon as you move the mouse.
The inspiration for this tool is one of my favorite and most utilized OS X features: the control-scrollwheel zoom trick. I use it all the time to make things like embedded flash videos full screen. The trick’s only major downfall is that it’s a constant battle to get the cursor out of the way.
To install, just double click on the prefpane. Hit control-option-k to zap and unzap the cursor. If you want to uninstall, go to ~/Library/PreferencePanes/ and trash Cursorcerer.
The technique behind this global cursor hiding hack originates in a useful post to the Apple carbon-dev mailing list from Red Sweater’s Daniel Jalkut.
Update: Cursorcerer has been updated to a 64-bit version that runs properly in Yosemite. The minimum idle hiding threshold has also been lowered at the request of some users. Legacy users can grab the 32-bit version here.
Download Cursorcerer 2.0
July 10th, 2007 at 3:18 am
Nice! I can also see this being useful when using other full screen video apps, VLC, Democracy, etc. The cursor is always in my damn way.
July 10th, 2007 at 6:56 am
Thank you very much. I’m using this with my MacMini on my HD TV.
July 11th, 2007 at 1:50 am
Kudos for this one, some people suggested that tapping any key while zoomed in works just as well, but it won’t and never has for me afaik so your implementation seems to be the sole solution to this issue. Thanks!
July 13th, 2007 at 12:55 am
Yea!! I, too, am always trying to manage getting the most zoom with my cursor being just below the movie .. and now you’ve solved it! Bravo!!
I don’t see a paypal link here to chip in beer money. Consider it!
July 22nd, 2007 at 12:33 am
just wanted to say thanks for this, it works amazingly well!
August 6th, 2007 at 8:23 am
You have answered my prayers. I’ve wanted this for a LOOOOOOONG time, now when I put my wacom pen back in its holder to type, the cursor disappears after 3 seconds.
YOU ARE THE SHIT!
August 29th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
The ability to toggle this via an AppleScript would be awesome. I control Apple’s DVD Player with AppleScript to be full screen and turn off the controller. To also hide the cursor would be Sweet.
September 8th, 2007 at 1:37 am
At last! I found the great solution! Thanks a lot!
September 11th, 2007 at 4:23 am
It doesn’t stick… For me… I need to activate the control panel AND click on the slider to have the functionality restored… It then works some time… Not sure what makes it stop. But it doesn’t survives restarts…
if it would do that too it would be perfect…
i have al the latest and gratest os updates
September 11th, 2007 at 11:03 am
I too have been looking for this for a long time, but could never find anything through message boards or googling.
1) Get the word out there! Other people might not know what search terms to use either.
2) Add a donate button. This is worth $5 to me, and maybe to some other people.
September 11th, 2007 at 11:14 am
Actually, as a further comment—I’d like to recommend a keystroke for people to use. The “clear” button on the number pad. Not sure what this key does in Mac OS X; it doesn’t seem to clear anything at all. Macbook users can access this with Fn+6. If you are like me, then you like your keyboard shortcuts to make sense, and I can think of nothing more fitting for the “clear” button than to make the mouse disappear.
September 12th, 2007 at 12:15 am
Thanks this is a big help to me, just last Friday night I was showing zoomed video on a big screen and annoyed at the damn mouse pointer.
FYI: Minor possible bug: after install I opened the preference pane and in the hot key window it said “ctrl-option-k.” I then exited system preferences and tried the hot key combo; it did not work. I went back to the preference pane and this time the hot key window said “??K.” I exited preferences & this time it worked.
September 27th, 2007 at 12:25 am
Cheers for this!
I’ve written a script to autoload a QuickTime on startup, and go full-screen (for a video screening in an exhibition space).
Previously, half the time the cursor vanished, half the time it hung around. Irritating.
With this however, the little bugger is out of sight for good
September 27th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
Bas :
I have the same problem on one machine. The hot key toggles, but the cursor does not obey the “Always show cursor if moved” setting. Intel Mac Mini. In my case I am loading DVD Player at login. I wonder if the cursor hiding in DVD Player is interacting with Cursorcerer.
October 4th, 2007 at 8:05 am
thanks for a great product.
October 8th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Wow, I absolutely LOVE this, but I find that no matter how many seconds I set it for, the “Hide Idle Cursor After:” setting hides the cursor after a random amount of time, usually around 15 seconds, sometimes more, sometimes as little as 8! Other than that one little quibble, though, this little add-on is the absolute BEST, and I think we should all nominate it for the upcoming MacWorld Reader Awards!! Write to: Philip Michaels pmichaels@macworld.com to nominate it!
October 15th, 2007 at 12:45 am
i am not worthy …
may your guinness never be headless or empty.
tanx, man.
October 26th, 2007 at 8:29 am
Somehow or another I have turned into the go to tech guy everytime we start a new season of Between the Lions. After finding this golden nuggett of tech lovelyness I wont be waiting but sending it to all of the cast and crew. Wow! Big big thanks.
anthony
aka
“Lionel”
Between the Lions
December 3rd, 2007 at 10:22 am
I love Cursorcerer, the best mouse app on mac os x.
December 3rd, 2007 at 11:58 pm
I’ve been looking for this for a long time. Thanks!
December 4th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
You rock! May your ancestors smile upon you and the Fates be most kind to you. Hiding the mouse cursor is a great service to MacManKind.
December 9th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
Hey I love Cursorceror, I have it set to disappear after 3 seconds. But when I reboot, it doesn’t do it anymore until I go into the preference pane and alter the timing slightly to 2 or 4 seconds.
Is there a way to have it permanently automatically hide after 3 seconds, and last through reboots, without ever having to go back into the preference pane?
January 13th, 2008 at 5:28 am
I use a mac mini with keynote as a player and hide the menubar with menu bar tint (http://www.manytricks.com/blog/?id=21). By making the menu bar black it only shows up when I move the cursor above it. Every nigh I do a reboot for my system, but after a reboot the cursor is always on the left up corner, and Cursorcerer doesn’t work yet, I first have to click on the prefernce panne to activate it? “”What I need for a perfect presentation machine is Cursorcerer to hide the mouse after a reboot.””” Or a script witch moves the corsor after a reboot? Maybe I can activate Cursorcerer with the login pane.I would be very happy with a tip.
January 16th, 2008 at 8:58 am
Hello:
Just trying your utility with a ModBook Mac (tablet mac) that I just received. It’s great because it allows me to forget that there is a slight offset of the pen. I have a request to keep the cursor hidden at all times as well as one to allow the utility to work after a reboot, without having to go to the control panel.
Great job.
Thanks!!
January 17th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
I also wish it would stay active after reboot. I keep forgetting I have it installed, which sucks, cos this is otherwise great.
January 19th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Hi,
I’ve been looking for a way to look at those flash embedded movies without my cursor being in the way (as you described)
just perfect! thanks for the tool!
grtz,
Julien
January 22nd, 2008 at 12:05 pm
FANTASTIC application. But I am running into the issue with reboots. After a reboot on a Tiger machine the cursor doesn’t hide until I go into the cursorcerer pref panel and click on the timing slider.
February 1st, 2008 at 4:20 am
Brilliant app thingy! Thank you very much! ^_^
February 4th, 2008 at 11:04 am
I can’t seem to get it to work using Photoshop, which is what I really wanted this app for. Any reason why PS seems to thwart Cursorcerr.
February 28th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
I’m with Jack – getting it to function in Photoshop is my number one wish. Just got my Modbook also, and if the pencil cursor could be eliminated… I’d have to do a little dance.
March 2nd, 2008 at 7:56 am
Great little app, just one comment, do we really need to fill the console log with these lines?
2008-03-02 14:50:28.833 Cursorcerer[212] HIDING IDLE CURSOR!
2008-03-02 14:50:30.233 Cursorcerer[212] SHOWING CURSOR! autoShow: 1
etc…
etc..
etc.
April 16th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Great little app!
Want to report a little bug:
Hide idle cursor after: NEVER
Always show
April 16th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
1) I like your application, it’s very handy!
2) I hereby file a BUG REPORT.
SETTINGS in my System Preferences Tab:
Hide idle cursor after: NEVER
Always show cursor if moved: FALSE
BEHAVIOUR
If I set it like this the program works correct, also after awaking from a system-sleep, but after the next reboot, Cursorcerer forgets its adequate behaviour, although the settings at com.doomlaser.cursorcerer.plist look correct.
WORKING ENVIRONMENT
MacOSX 10.4.11 + Cursorcerer 1.0
Please fix this! You can contact me via email. Please keep my address really private (as you promised next to the form).
August 23rd, 2010 at 8:59 am
Useful app… as you don’t appear to have time to address the initialization issues reported above and it remains a 32 bit application, any chance you would be willing to release the code to the public domain so it can be updated to be 64 bit Snow Leopard compliant?
Thanks regardless!
September 17th, 2010 at 9:32 am
Love it! thanks a lot!
December 2nd, 2010 at 7:08 am
Hi,
Would you consider releasing Cursorcerer under GPL? I’d love to fix autostart and disable logging.
December 24th, 2010 at 1:51 am
Thank you so much!!!! I love it. I was always irritated about the mac cursor getting in the way in full screen modes. The only issue that I’ve found so far is that on Snow Leopard, the pref pane keeps wanting to restart once, every time you try to open it.
January 29th, 2011 at 3:03 pm
Would love to see a revival of this app. Just found it and it works great. I think a few things would be the ability to always hide cursor all the time in certain apps, like Boxee.
April 12th, 2011 at 8:50 pm
A 64-bit version would be soooooo appreciated!!
Thanks in advance!!
May 3rd, 2011 at 8:56 am
I too would appreciate a 64-bit version! Thanks!
August 24th, 2011 at 5:15 pm
Perfect fix for the Hulu desktop cursor bug!!!!! Thank you so much!!!!
August 26th, 2011 at 2:18 am
sweet!! one thing though: it would be great for looking at pictures and videos or anything with universal access mouse scroll zoom, but the mouse won’t hide when zoomed…
November 4th, 2011 at 10:07 am
Looking forward to a 64-bit version as well!
March 15th, 2012 at 3:53 pm
Joining the chorus hoping for a 64-bit version! Love the app, does what it says on the box.
December 7th, 2012 at 8:39 am
Thank you for providing such a great little applet. This is fantastic for use with touch system configurations as there is no real need for a cursor in a touch interface kiosk.
January 20th, 2013 at 9:00 pm
Thanks so much!! I really urgently needed something like that.
February 20th, 2013 at 11:30 am
This still works in Mountain Lion! You sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.
I kinda hate myself for putting it that way but dammit I’m taking that phrase right back from the hipsters..
February 24th, 2013 at 10:50 am
YESSSSSSSSSSS!
Thanks!
April 12th, 2013 at 7:54 am
Hi,
thank you for this tool!
Do you think you could make it applescriptable or even just have a command line tool? This would allow touch screen app developers to integrate it in their (our 😉 applications.
Thanks!
April 18th, 2013 at 10:40 am
Does this work with OS X 10.8.3? Trying it out with QuickTIme Player, iTunes & Safari and doesn’t auto hide mouse cursor. It worked in previous OS’s like OS X 10.8.2 I believe.
July 24th, 2013 at 1:37 pm
This is what I wanted.
It’s like, I imagined that soft, and you did it;
Thanks.
August 17th, 2013 at 11:58 am
Perfect. Thank you.
Jeff
August 27th, 2013 at 10:42 pm
Hi! This program is a life-saver for presentations. Thanks!
September 9th, 2013 at 11:49 am
Absolutely brilliant! Thanks so much!
October 12th, 2013 at 11:27 pm
This is perfect. Simple and elegant. Thanks heaps.
October 16th, 2013 at 6:28 pm
Hey, LOVE THE PROGRAM!!! but is it possible to make it so the cursor is just barely visible? like a TINY dot on the screen or maybe transparent?
January 24th, 2014 at 6:26 pm
Doesn’t look like it has worked since OS X 10.8.3 like Mavericks, etc. Any plans on upgraded or supporting it for newer OS’s?
March 16th, 2014 at 4:26 pm
Absolutely great! 64 bit would be so amazing!!!
March 20th, 2014 at 4:55 pm
Thanks for creating this! I’m using it but I’m running into reliability issues on OS 10.9. I created an automator app that launches Cursorcerer.app, pauses a few seconds, then simulates the Command+Option+K key presses to hide the cursor. The automatic timeout does not work unless I go into the preference pane and move the slider.
It’s been many years since there was an update (maybe there was only the initial release). Would you mind releasing the source and posting it on Github? It would be great if someone could update this app for the newer versions of Mac OS and maybe add in some command line access so it can be scripted.
May 25th, 2014 at 7:36 am
DOESNT HIDE ON DOCK!!! :'(
May 30th, 2014 at 5:50 pm
Thanks man,
This is perfect for iTunes 10 visualiser.
Cheers
September 9th, 2014 at 10:14 am
This is excellent! I was using WINE to run an old game, but the game would show a cursor over the HUD, so you couldn’t aim well. This let me hide it and get some nostalgia flowing! Thanks!
October 11th, 2014 at 12:26 am
Brian Y +1
Update please!!!
November 16th, 2014 at 6:55 pm
WOW!!! thanks much..perfect!!!
as for not being active at reboot…
a little applescript in the startup folder..works a charm!!!
tell application “System Preferences”
activate
set current pane to pane “Cursorcerer”
end tell
January 20th, 2015 at 6:40 am
Thanks so much! Now I can view Netflix without the cursor, at last!
February 21st, 2015 at 5:47 pm
Not working. Crashes prefs-pane when I click on it. Tried rebooting, still crashes. Mountain Lion.
May 17th, 2015 at 4:21 am
Thanks. Perfect for getting an enlarged mouse pointer out of the way so you can see the help text underneath. Using Yosemite.
May 18th, 2015 at 4:19 pm
I used it to hide the on a Touch Screen installed on a Mac Mini. Awesome, and free!
Thank you!
May 28th, 2015 at 5:49 am
Hello this does not seem to work in Photoshop CC 2014. OSX Yosemite. I have set a few different keystrokes in the pref pane and the cursor is still visible regardless of how I set my cursor prefs within Photoshop. Ami Doing something silly?
June 12th, 2015 at 6:03 am
This little tool solved the annoying Photoshop problem where minimizing the Brush Tool over a certain point makes crosshair appear. Thank you so much for this!
June 28th, 2015 at 7:52 am
Great little tool. Thanks!
September 18th, 2015 at 11:44 am
I’ve been trying to screen capture a Unity game animation, and of course the cursor is in the middle. This should work nicely. Thank you
April 25th, 2016 at 10:27 am
Funny, I had an old version lying around. Stumbled on it today and ok I’ll download and try the latest version instead (2.0). But it didn’t work (crash on launch pref pane). So I tried the older version I have (file dates may 2014) and it worked. I have OSX 10.8.5. Anyway. seems like a nice solution. I magnify the cursor because my vision sucks (after a TBI) and often I search the screen to find the default cursor, which is waaay too small and unnoticeable. But then oftentimes it just hide important info (button text, popup helps, etc. Hence this seems like a good usability improvement for those cases. Thanks!
May 12th, 2016 at 1:56 pm
You’re the best man – Thanks a LOT and thank goodness it works great in El Capitan .. much apprec!
July 1st, 2016 at 4:27 am
Works great on El Capitan!
I don’t use it for videos, I use it to focus on reading PDFs in Preview.
Can you develop a CMD+OPTION+CONTROL shortcut? (“MouseHider” has it)