Cursor size in presentations

Question

I give presentations using my PowerBook, and I like to point at objects in the presentation using the cursor as I look at the PowerBook (not at the screen). When I have the cursor in the PowerBook screen, the cursor shows up on the room screen for the audience to see, which is what I want. Trouble is, the cursor on the room screen is too small: how do I increase its size? Please note: I can increase the cursor size on the PowerBook screen (Universal Access), and move it to the room screen, where it is indeed now bigger, BUT, I now have to turn my back and look at the room screen to see where the cursor is going. Mousepose' is not the answer: I don't want a dim screen, I just want a bigger cursor on the room screen without sacrificing the cursor on the PowerBook screen.

Answer 1

Hi,
I'm a bit confused here. Based on your initial post in this thread, and on later post, I'm trying to figure out exactly what you need. I'm guessing that you are presenting in the front of some sort of lecture hall, seated at your computer, facing the audience. On the wall in the front of the lecture hall, beside you and just behind you, is the projection of the second monitor, where the audience-intended display is shown. You're using dual-display, and not mirroring, so you can have the audience-intended content on the room monitor and other things, such as your notes and preview on your laptop's screen.
Assuming that this is true, then the next question is, do you want a single cursor that can move between displays, or do you want two independent mouse pointers? In your initial post, you stated that by using the Universal Access, you were able to make the mouse pointer large and move it to the room display. On my system (12" PowerBook 867Mhz with a 20" Samsung external monitor), I was unable to reproduce your situation in which the mouse cursor was large on the computer display but not on the external display. Unless mirroring was used (or unless you used something like an actual mirror or a video camera connected to a closed-circuit display that faced you, wouldn't you have to turn your back to follow the cursor's motion on the room display whether the cursor were large or not? I'm not sure what presentation software you are using (probably Keynote or PowerPoint?) but you might be able to use the cursor solely for use on the room display, and use keystrokes (or mouse clicks) to navigate through the presentation. I don't know what the constraints are of the presentation room, but it would seem that if you could position yourself in a way that you could view your computer display as well as the room display, and still be situated so you could easily speak to your audience, you might be able to solve your problem without a technological solution. Another possible solution would be a bluetooth remote handheld pointer (essentially a wireless mouse that's contoured for handheld use), which would allow you to stand away from the computer, but I'm guessing that this wouldn't work because you wouldn't have easy access to the notes and previews on your computer screen.
I hope that some of this helps; please supply more detailed information as to your needs if I'm not addressing your problem, and I'll try to help further.
Ken