Changing the mouse pointer in Mate

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Mate uses themes and mouse pointers of gnome2 (gtk2 actually), so a good place to start looking is gnome-look.org , here you can find many themes for the mouse pointer to install, and it works, I use mate myself.

After downloading the theme file (do not extract it!) go to the appearance screen of gnome or mate, there you have a install button, use it to install the downloaded theme. afterward you can go to customize to change it.

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Harry Weston
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Harry Weston

I am a retired higher education lecturer, taught programming, mostly C and Assembler for 25 very happy years. Now concentrating on delaying the inevitable as long as possible.

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

  • Harry Weston
    Harry Weston over 1 year

    I am using Fedora 20 with the Mate desktop. I sometimes give talks, using LibreOffice Impress for a slide show, with a laser to point out details on the screen. I will be giving a talk where the slides are displayed on a TV screen, which is non-reflective so the little red spot does not show. The mouse pointer is an obvious substitute, but the arrow icon does not show up very well. Is there a way of using a different, more visible icon, say one that I can choose from a set provided, or that I can design for myself?


    I see my question has been edited, but I'm not sure it was needed or that it is now an improvement on what I wrote originally. Especially the comma after "more visible", that has changed the sense of it, and I particularly do not like to see the "Please" deleted, I like to be polite.


    I have followed switch87 suggestions and downloaded a new theme, which is now installed thanks to his help. I very much appreciate his patient help.

    • Admin
      Admin over 9 years
      Have you looked in the settings? You should be able to change the cursor in Appearance -> Customize -> Cursors.
    • Admin
      Admin over 9 years
      Thanks terdon, but that offers only two choices, the default white arrow with black outline, or black with white outline, both a bit too small really.
    • Admin
      Admin over 9 years
      You do not have to unzip/untar, the zioped file is the installation file.
    • Admin
      Admin over 9 years
      Thanks again switch87, worked instantly and brilliantly, but now please, for my curiosity, how did you discover that, i.e. that unzipping etc not needed? -- it is so counter-intuitive that I would never have thought of even looking at that as a possibility.
    • Admin
      Admin over 9 years
      just by trying I suppose... It's to long ago I did this for the first time - I think 9 or 10 years ago - so I don't remember.
  • Harry Weston
    Harry Weston over 9 years
    Thanks switch87, that is very good, looks like exactly what I want, so I will mark that as answered, but it would be useful if you could kindly explain a little bit more. Later today I will put the details of where I have got to, in an edit to my question.