Cursor, selection, don't show up in controls with a dark background

04-21-2008 11:26 AM |

Edit: The Problem is with the flashing cursor inside the TextBox control (and the selection highlighting in the same control) 

I've heard this actually happens in WPF too, even in applications like Visual Studio, how embarrassing. It shouldn't be up to the application to somehow replace the cursor (which Silverlight doesn't support yet) for dark controls. All that needs to happen is use current cursor when background is lighter than a certain threshold, and a cursor with inverted color when the background is darker than a certain threshold.

The mouse pointer is fine, it is white with a black border, which works anywhere. But the I-beam cursor is black, and vanishes against a dark background.

The simplest solution is just give it a white border, it will look the same on white, but at least on black it will be visible. No programming changes required at all.

Re: I-beam cursor, selection, don't show up in controls with a dark background

04-21-2008 12:36 PM |

This isn't a bug.  You can fix this by going to Start->Control Panel->Mouse

Click the pointers tab.

From the list, select the "Conductor" theme.

Click OK.

Re: I-beam cursor, selection, don't show up in controls with a dark background

04-21-2008 12:54 PM |

This IS a bug. Requiring the user to change his/her windows theme to use your app is very clearly a bug.

But it is not the I-beam cursor. That shows up just great. Actually it's the little flashing cursor inside the TextBox that has the problem. 

Re: I-beam cursor, selection, don't show up in controls with a dark background

04-21-2008 1:24 PM |

OK.  What you need to do is click Start->All Programs--> Accessories--> Ease of Access

and run Microsoft Narrator. 

This way, when you click in the textbox it will read the entire page to you and let you know that you've clicked inside of a textbox.  Plus, you can change your cursor theme to "Dinosaur." 

It's a Win / Win situation.

Re: I-beam cursor, selection, don't show up in controls with a dark background

04-22-2008 1:26 AM |

That is why there should be a <sarcasm> tag in HTML 5. 

Re: Re: Cursor, selection, don't show up in controls with a dark background

10-19-2008 11:41 AM |

This seems to still be a problem with SL 2 RTW.