Cursors

It is possible to change the normal arrow cursor into something else by setting the cursor for an element or the entire window. The result will be the cursor changing when you move the mouse over the elements or Window.

One of the best examples is URLs. Users are accustomed to seeing a hand cursor when the mouse is moved over a link. By setting the cursor to a hand for a Text element that has text that is in the format of a URL, it signals to the user that it's a link that can be clicked.

The set_cursor method is used to set the cursor for an element. Perform an element look-up or use a variable containing an element, and call the set_cursor method, passing in a string that selects the cursor. The valid cursor names are documented in the tkinter docs as this call maps directly to a tkinter call.

These cursor strings were obtained from the Tk manual and are what you pass into the set_cursor methods.

Windows Level Cursor

You can also set the cursor for the Window as a whole, including the margins and areas elements don't directly fill. Call Window.set_cursor() to set the cursor at the Window level.

Valid Cursor Strings

X_cursor, arrow, based_arrow_down, based_arrow_up, boat, bogosity, bottom_left_corner, bottom_right_corner, bottom_side, bottom_tee, box_spiral, center_ptr, circle, clock, coffee_mug, cross, cross_reverse, crosshair, diamond_cross, dot, dotbox, double_arrow, draft_large, draft_small, draped_box, exchange, fleur, gobbler, gumby, hand1, hand2, heart, icon, iron_cross, left_ptr, left_side, left_tee, leftbutton, ll_angle, lr_angle, man, middlebutton, mouse, pencil, pirate, plus, question_arrow, right_ptr, right_side, right_tee, rightbutton, rtl_logo, sailboat, sb_down_arrow, sb_h_double_arrow, sb_left_arrow, sb_right_arrow, sb_up_arrow, sb_v_double_arrow, shuttle, sizing, spider, spraycan, star, target, tcross, top_left_arrow, top_left_corner, top_right_corner, top_side, top_tee, trek, ul_angle, umbrella, ur_angle, watch, xterm

No Cursor

To specify no cursor should be shown, the cursor 'no' can be used on some platforms

Windows OS Specific

One windows, these cursors map to native Windows cursors:

arrow, center_ptr, crosshair, fleur, ibeam, icon, sb_h_double_arrow, sb_v_double_arrow, watch, xterm

And these are also available:

no, starting, size, size_ne_sw, size_ns, size_nw_se, size_we, uparrow, wait

Mac OS Specific

arrow, cross, crosshair, ibeam, plus, watch, xterm

And these additional native cursors are available for the Mac

copyarrow, aliasarrow, contextualmenuarrow, text, cross-hair, closedhand, openhand, pointinghand, resizeleft, resizeright, resizeleftright, resizeup, resizedown, resizeupdown, none, notallowed, poof, countinguphand, countingdownhand, countingupanddownhand, spinning