How to Change iPad's Mouse Pointer Color

Published October 2, 2022

It's crazy how little things can make me so happy. Little things like changing the appearance of the mouse pointer on my iPad has made my day. I don’t know why it’s called a pointer, it’s actually a dot. And no...you cannot change the mouse from a dot to a pointer, but that's okay. The instructions below only work if you are using an external mouse and or a trackpad.

I had a couple of reasons for changing the appearance of the mouse. First, is that I sometimes have a difficult time finding the mouse, depending on the screen I’m viewing. Honestly, I think it’s an age-related issue and not the fault of the mouse.

Secondly, I’ve been playing around with screen recording. With screen recording, it is difficult to show viewers where I’m tapping without some kind of visual indicator such as a mouse. That little transparent gray dot works but I think the modified mouse works better.

Before changing the mouse, I tried using the Assistive Touch method for showing finger taps, but I just couldn’t quite understand how to get it to work for me. All of the instructions I read and viewed seemed too complicated. The external mouse/trackpad works so much better for me.

Changing the Mouse Pointer Appearance

For those who prefer written instructions, here’s what you do:

1. Go into Settings and scroll down to Accessibility


2. Tap on Accessibility


3. Scroll down to Pointer Control on the Accessibility screen


4. In the Pointer Control Screen, tap on Color


5. Choose your preferred color

Note: Selecting a color only changes the border color of the mouse dot. You can increase or decrease the width of the colored border, but currently, you’re not able to change the color of the dot itself.

Changing the Pointer Size

Navigate out of the Color screen back to Pointer control. There you can change the size of the pointer (dot) by sliding the Pointer Size slider. When the slider is about midway between the two set points, you’ll note a small dot in the center of the newly sized pointer. It disappears when the slider is shifted back to the small end of the scale.

Pointer Animations

When Pointer Animations is enabled, you’ll note how the pointer changes shape when hovering over clickable system menus. I’ve found it only changes shape with native iPad programs. It does, however, change its shape when hovering over certain text on web pages.

Video Instructions

For those who prefer visual instructions, I did a short video on how I changed my iPad’s mouse pointer. Please be kind, I am not a video expert. You will, however, be able to change your mouse pointer’s border color after watching the video.

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Felicia (aka Low Tech Grandma) is a wife, mother, grandmother, freelance writer and low tech blogger.

Last Modified: 5 September 2023