Help! Text select cursor has gone white and invisible?!

[discofuel]

For some reason my text select cursor - the I style cursor, has suddenly changed to white instead of black and I can't see it on the white background of the page.

This is happening in Microsoft Word and Dreamweaver.

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[GGJstudios]

As a first step in troubleshooting, have you restarted your computer?

Can't see cursor in MS Word 2011

 

[discofuel]

Yes I've restarted several times and repaired my disk permissions.

I think I may have recently updated something on Software update but aside from that can't think of anything else I've modified.

I'm using Snow Leopard 10.6.8

----------

I've just created a test user account and the problem doesn't not happen on that account.

 

[GGJstudios]

I've just created a test user account and the problem doesn't not happen on that account.

What mouse or trackpad are you using?

 

[discofuel]

Using an Apple Magic Mouse. I've just tried my Mighty Mouse and it's the same.

 

[GGJstudios]

Using an Apple Magic Mouse. I've just tried my Mighty Mouse and it's the same.

Ordinarily, a mouse or trackpad wouldn't make a difference in the cursor, but I was checking to see if you might be using a 3rd party device that came bundled with a different cursor set.

I'm guessing, since it doesn't happen on another account, that it may be tied to a .plist file, but I'm not sure which one at the moment... (too many projects on the brain at the moment!). You might try investigating something like the
/Users/yourusername/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systemuiserver.plist or another.

 

[discofuel]

Ok thanks, I'll have a look into that.

It's strange because it's not happening in Finder, TextEdit or Safari

 

[discofuel]

I'm not sure it is the user preferences because I deleted the Preferences folder for the test account and replaced it with my account's Preferences folder and the problem still didn't occur on the test account...

 

[Mac-Michael]

Mentioned on here:

There was a similar issue in some versions of Word for Windows, and you could correct it by changing the zoom to 500% and then back to your preferred value.

 

[discofuel]

Thanks Mac-Michael, but unfortunately this doesn't work for me.

My issue isn't limited to Microsoft Word. Adobe Dreamweaver also has the same problem.

 

[discofuel]

For some reason today it just returned to normal! Strange

 

[GGJstudios]

For some reason today it just returned to normal! Strange

Let's hope it stays that way!

 

[discofuel]

Today it changed to a light grey! This is so strange!

 

[MacEs]

Solution to white text select cursor

After reading some suggestions about third party plugins, I checked out the Shades settings (wonderful plugin to reduce brightness below system settings) and this is what seems to cause the annoying cursor appear in white. I guess the monitor is too low of brightness that the cursor automatically changes into white for more contrast. (which is a very bad move as the cursor just disappears...)
So... I stopped Shades from running, have my black text cursor back, but at the same time a monitor with it's brightness too high! :-S

 

[discofuel]

Ha! So that's what it is! Thank you so much!!!!!!

 

[freakqnc]

Ha! So that's what it is! Thank you so much!!!!!!

Indeed that is the "culprick" I thought Shades was a cool utility apparently it isn't that cool ;P

A certain threshold of low luminosity triggers the color inversion turning the text cursor into white. A real PITA that should be addressed in shades prefs by letting users enable or disable such behavior (if that is not a system controlled feature). Thanks MacEs! The you "hint" the nail on the head ;PP

 

[Icy1007]

Just lower the brightness than.