Steps on Screen

What Is the Pointer on a Computer Screen?

The pointer is the small arrow on the screen that moves when you move the mouse, or slide a finger on the touchpad or trackpad. You point at something with it before you click. Its shape changes to show what clicking there will do.

What it looks like

A drawing of three pointer shapes, each with its label: an arrow over a button, a hand with a pointing finger over an underlined link, and a thin I-shaped line over a row of words.

Most of the time the pointer is an arrow. Over a link, it becomes a hand with a pointing finger. Over words, it becomes a thin upright line shaped like a capital I. The pointer is not the text cursor, the blinking line that shows where typing will appear.

Lessons that use this word

See every computer word