How to hide a cursor

[darylsewell]

Hi everyone. Is there a way to hide the mouse cursor (eg.after a "Jump to page" function) until the mouse is physically moved?

[Derek]

Re: How to hide a cursor

Hi - there's no 'regular' way to do this in AMS. Don't know if there is a utility out there that someone know's about that can help, or perhaps a dll function that will do the trick (on second thoughts, that may be harder than i first thought - trying to get it to show again when the mouse is moved. Maybe Brett can offer an opinion on this).

[Corey]

Re: How to hide a cursor

Here's one link:

http://www.developerfusion.com/show/199/

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software

[Derek]

Re: How to hide a cursor

Hmm - well, one for the programmers: how would we put that code into a File.CallDLLFunction ?
What is shown there doesnt seem to tie up with the input fields on the dialog (I think). Help Brett/Lorne/anyone else?

[Corey]

Re: How to hide a cursor

I'm no VB expert, in fact I don't even qualify as a VB beginner so I wouldn't know. But I bet there's a way.

You know me, I would do it in flash if it was crucial... In that case it's very simple to hide the mouse cursor, there's an actionscript function for that...

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software

[darylsewell]

Re: How to hide a cursor

Thanks Corey and everyone else. I checked the link and the code seems to be for Visual Basic? I have absolutely no experience with code in general (although AMS is teaching me heaps), and I haven't had time to get into Flash as yet, so it's still got me stumped.
Regards,
Daryl Sewell.

[Corey]

Re: How to hide a cursor

The thing is that doing it in flash is easy but it wouldn't help you unless you build your whole page in flash, or at least until our dev team figures out how to support transparent flash. [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Why is this crucial to you? Explain what your issue is and I'll try to figure something out. But if it's just a question of you being uncomfortable with the mouse on one of your pictures or video then I certainly would advise you just get used to it for a few reasons:

a) End users do not enjoy losing track of their mouse cursor, especially non-cyber people.

b) If you look around at existing applications you'll notice no one else is doing that.

c) Not hiding the mouse cursor is industry defacto standard methodology.

Anyhoo if you have some other reason let me know and we'll rig something up.

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software

[darylsewell]

Re: How to hide a cursor

Thanks Corey...it's actually not crucial for a project, I'm simply curious as to whether it could be done, so don't spend too much time on it.

Regards,
Daryl Sewell.

[Worm]

Re: How to hide a cursor

You can use the user32.dll to hide and show the cursor.

See the attached project to see the usage.


14122-HideCursor.zip

[Corey]

Re: How to hide a cursor

Cool...

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software

[TJ_Tigger]

Re: How to hide a cursor

Very cool. You will notice that it is hidden while over the application, but if you move the cursor off the AutoRun app, it will show.

Will the User32.dll be in the same place for both NT and 9x platforms. I don't have my 98 box here while I am on the road.

Thanks

[Worm]

Re: How to hide a cursor

It is always in the system directory. So it's a safe bet.

[TJ_Tigger]

Re: How to hide a cursor

I was thinking of when we did the "adding Volume Controls" to a project.

In that one we looked in %WinDir% and depending on if it was NT we had to add \System32 to the application.

I didn't know if it was an application like that where the .dll was stored in different places depending on the platform.

probably not since it is a .dll and not an .exe huh?

Here is the action example. I changed it to look in %SysDir% if it is NT, 2000, or XP otherwise look in %WinDir% if it is something else.

seems to work

<IR_ACTIONS_LIST>
<Action name="IF">
<Type>200</Type>
<Function>1</Function>
<DTIndentLevel>0</DTIndentLevel>
<Enabled>1</Enabled>
<ErrorHandling>
<UserNotificationMode>2</UserNotificationMode>
<CustomErrorMessage/>
<OnErrorAction>0</OnErrorAction>
<JumpToLabel/>
</ErrorHandling>
<Condition>%IsWinXP% OR %IsWinNT4% OR %IsWin2000%</Condition>
</Action>
<Action name="Execute">
<Type>8</Type>
<Function>0</Function>
<DTIndentLevel>1</DTIndentLevel>
<Enabled>1</Enabled>
<ErrorHandling>
<UserNotificationMode>2</UserNotificationMode>
<CustomErrorMessage/>
<OnErrorAction>0</OnErrorAction>
<JumpToLabel/>
</ErrorHandling>
<FileName>%SysDir%\sndvol32.exe </FileName>
<CommandLine>/tray normal</CommandLine>
<WorkingDir/>
<RunMode>0</RunMode>
<WaitForReturn>0</WaitForReturn>
</Action>
<Action name="ELSE">
<Type>206</Type>
<Function>1</Function>
<DTIndentLevel>0</DTIndentLevel>
<Enabled>1</Enabled>
<ErrorHandling>
<UserNotificationMode>2</UserNotificationMode>
<CustomErrorMessage/>
<OnErrorAction>0</OnErrorAction>
<JumpToLabel/>
</ErrorHandling>
</Action>
<Action name="Execute">
<Type>8</Type>
<Function>0</Function>
<DTIndentLevel>1</DTIndentLevel>
<Enabled>1</Enabled>
<ErrorHandling>
<UserNotificationMode>2</UserNotificationMode>
<CustomErrorMessage/>
<OnErrorAction>0</OnErrorAction>
<JumpToLabel/>
</ErrorHandling>
<FileName>%WinDir%\sndvol32.exe </FileName>
<CommandLine>/tray normal</CommandLine>
<WorkingDir/>
<RunMode>0</RunMode>
<WaitForReturn>0</WaitForReturn>
</Action>
<Action name="END IF">
<Type>201</Type>
<Function>1</Function>
<DTIndentLevel>0</DTIndentLevel>
<Enabled>1</Enabled>
<ErrorHandling>
<UserNotificationMode>2</UserNotificationMode>
<CustomErrorMessage/>
<OnErrorAction>0</OnErrorAction>
<JumpToLabel/>
</ErrorHandling>
</Action>
</IR_ACTIONS_LIST>

[darylsewell]

Re: How to hide a cursor

Thanks Worm and everyone else...