Hiding the mouse cursor when idle using JavaScript

user_365975 0
Viewed 21255

Is it possible to use JavaScript to set the cursor attribute to the property none if the mouse is inactive for a certain amount of time (say, five seconds) and set it back to auto when it becomes active again?

EDIT: I realize that none is not a valid value for the cursor property. Nonetheless, many web-browsers seem to support it. Furthermore, the primary user for this is myself, so there is little chance of confusion arising as a result.

I've got two scripts that can do something similar:

window.addEventListener("mousemove",
    function(){
        document.querySelector("#editor").style.background = "#000";
        setTimeout("document.querySelector('#editor').style.background = '#fff'", 5000);
    }
, true);

and

var timeout;
var isHidden = false;

document.addEventListener("mousemove", magicMouse);

function magicMouse() {
    if (timeout) {
        clearTimeout(timeout);
    }
    timeout = setTimeout(function() {
        if (!isHidden) {
            document.querySelector("body").style.cursor = "none";
            document.querySelector("#editor").style.background = "#fff";
            isHidden = true;
        }
    }, 5000);
    if (isHidden) {
        document.querySelector("body").style.cursor = "auto";
        document.querySelector("#editor").style.background = "#000";
        isHidden = false;
    }
};

With each of these, when the mouse is inactive for more than five seconds the background color turns white, and when the cursor is moved the background turns black. However, they don't work for making the cursor disappear. What surprises me is that if I put the command document.querySelector("body").style.cursor = "none"; into the JavaScript console it works perfectly. Inside the scripts, it does not seem to work.

I've posted the above scripts as this is as far as I have come in getting this to work. I'm not necessarily asking for a fix for either of the scripts; if you know of a more efficient way of hiding the cursor, please share.

mousemove mouse-cursor css javascript
7 Answers

The following works for me in Firefox 3.6.13 so long as the cursor is over an actual element that doesn't have a non-default cursor (so it doesn't work if the cursor is over a form element or link, for example), although in general I recommend against doing this, because it is non-standard and extremely poor usability.

Aside: It's more compatible not to use querySelector() when there's an alternative, such as document.body or document.getElementById().

(function() {
    var mouseTimer = null, cursorVisible = true;

    function disappearCursor() {
        mouseTimer = null;
        document.body.style.cursor = "none";
        cursorVisible = false;
    }

    document.onmousemove = function() {
        if (mouseTimer) {
            window.clearTimeout(mouseTimer);
        }
        if (!cursorVisible) {
            document.body.style.cursor = "default";
            cursorVisible = true;
        }
        mouseTimer = window.setTimeout(disappearCursor, 5000);
    };
})();
user_961000

If anyone still looking for answer in 2019 (as did I), this approach works on FF 71 and Chrome 78:

var DEMO = {
  INI: {
    MOUSE_IDLE: 3000
  },
  hideMouse: function() {
    $("#game").css('cursor', 'none');
    $("#game").on("mousemove", DEMO.waitThenHideMouse);
  },
  waitThenHideMouse: function() {
    $("#game").css('cursor', 'default');
    $("#game").off("mousemove", DEMO.waitThenHideMouse);
    setTimeout(DEMO.hideMouse, DEMO.INI.MOUSE_IDLE);
  },
  showMouse: function() {
    $("#game").off("mousemove", DEMO.waitThenHideMouse);
    $("#game").css('cursor', 'default');
  },
};
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

It's simple and clear. This version uses DEMO.hideMouse() to start hiding mouse and DEMO.showMouse() to cancel the event. Change #game to div of your choice ...

It's more clear to work with on and off switch and named functions instead of lambdas.

I know that OP didn't specify that answers using JQuery are expected, but in my experience: I am always happy to see different approaches to learn from.

user_41542500

There is a jquery plugin idletimer that checks if a user is inactive or not.

user_3048940

I have found a simple work-around to intermittent no-cursor problem, is to create a transparent <div id="overlay"> </div> as the last element on the page, and set the css style properties to:

#overlay {
  position: absolute;
  left: 0;
  top: 0;
  height: 100%;
  width: 100%;
  background-color: transparent;
  cursor: none;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
  border: 0;
}

Make the javascript change the visibility to either "visible" or "hidden". A "visible" layer will hide the cursor. Vice-versa with hidden layer.

user_72841780
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