- The mouse is the physical device. It's quite rare that you ever use
this word.
What about the term 'mouse over' meaning to move the pointer over an
object which then shows a note or a drop down menu.
First, let me preface this by saying that when I say "X means
such-and-such" it comes from the style guides of IBM, Apple, and
Microsoft, and many others. I have not seen Sun's guide.
"Mouseover" as a closed compound or as the hyphenated compound
"mouse-over" would be a noun or adjective, but not a verb. We would not
normally use the open compound "mouse over" because it's the pointer or
sometimes "mouse pointer" that's positioned over something, not the
mouse.
Correct: This particular button is a mouseover button, which shows you
. . .
Correct: This is a mouseover control we use to . . .
Incorrect: Move your mouse over the button. [Should be pointer.]
Incorrect: Mouseover the button on the right. [Should be move your
pointer over the button.]
I also think that mouseover should be reserved for technical readers,
such as Java controls.
- The I-beam is the I-shaped graphic element you see when you type.
- A cursor is an underscore character you see in older DOS-type
screens. Rarely used.
- Use pointer to refer to the arrow or other shape that moves when
the user moves the mouse or other pointing device. Although the
pointer can assume many shapes, do not use descriptive labels to
refer to the pointer. It is all right to use descriptive labels in a
discussion of the different appearances the pointer can take. (I
ripped this off from the Microsoft Style Guide. You may dislike the
company, but the style guide is excellent.)
--
The I beam changed to a pointer now was the pointer connected to the I
beam. Or what is that hand in Adobe called.
When Adobe products refer to the pointer in the shape of an arrow, it
is almost always in a very specific usage context and the arrow takes
on a slightly different appearance. They usually use the word "tool"
with a modifier, such as move tool, direct-selection tool, selection
tool, and so on.
I don't think there was ever a question of swapping I-beam for pointer
... it was I-beam and cursor. I'm not a fan of cursor, but I can live
with it. Microsoft refers to an I-beam as a specific type of cursor.
Adobe tends to call it an insertion point.
Tim
