(Windows only; Graphical interfaces only)

Specifies the mouse pointer to display when the pointer is moved over the widget. If you apply this method to a frame, field group, or window, the same mouse pointer is displayed when it is moved across all child widgets within the frame, field group, or window. However, if you load a different mouse pointer for a child widget, the child widget mouse pointer is displayed when it is moved over that child.

Return type: LOGICAL

Applies to: BROWSE widget (browse and column), BUTTON widget, COMBO-BOX widget, DIALOG-BOX widget, EDITOR widget, FILL-IN widget, FRAME widget, RADIO-SET widget, SELECTION-LIST widget, SLIDER widget, TOGGLE-BOX widget, WINDOW widget

Syntax

LOAD-MOUSE-POINTER ( pointer-name )
pointer-name
A character-string expression that specifies the name of a mouse pointer. The expression can contain Unicode characters. See Internationalize ABL Applications for more information about Unicode.

ABL provides a collection of mouse pointers that you can use in graphical applications. The following table names and describes each mouse pointer in the collection.

Table 1. ABL mouse pointers
Pointer name Description
APPSTARTING Arrow with an hourglass beside it
ARROW Standard arrow cursor
CROSS Cross hairs
HELP Arrow with a question mark beside it
IBEAM I-beam text cursor
NO Circle with a slash through it
RECTANGLE (NT 3.51 only) White rectangle
SIZE Sizing rectangle
SIZE-E Size to right
SIZE-N Size to top
SIZE-NE Size to top right
SIZE-NW Size to top left
SIZE-S Size to bottom
SIZE-SE Size to bottom right
SIZE-SW Size to bottom left
SIZE-W Size to left
UPARROW Up arrow
WAIT System busy
GLOVE Glove/finger
COMPILER-WAIT Compiler busy

If the mouse pointer is loaded successfully, the method returns TRUE.

In addition to the mouse pointers that ABL supplies, you can also use a bitmap that you supply that is in the form of a Windows cursor (.cur or .ani) file. To use such a bitmap, substitute the name of the Windows cursor file for pointer-name.

For browse columns, if you do not specify a mouse pointer, the AVM uses the mouse pointer the user specified for the browse.

In Windows, you can specify a URL pathname. If you specify a fully-qualified URL, LOAD-MOUSE-POINTER( ) loads the pointer file directly without searching directories or URLs in PROPATH. Valid URL protocols include HTTP and HTTPS.

Note: URL pathnames cannot contain the percent symbol (%). If an error exists in a URL specified on the PROPATH, the LOAD-MOUSE-POINTER( ) method continues searching with the next PROPATH entry.

If you specify URL pathnames on the PROPATH and your application repeatedly uses the LOAD-MOUSE-POINTER( ) method with a URL pathname, you can improve performance by using the SEARCH function once to determine the full URL pathname to the directory containing the pointer files. Use this value to create a fully-qualified URL pathname for pointer-name and avoid repeated searches of the PROPATH.