That's a little spinning circle there with colors in it.

Another type of cursor you may see sometime is a wait cursor. So there are three main types of cursors. Of course wherever you are there when you start typing, that's where the text is going to go. The blinking line there, that is your actual text cursor and you can use the arrow keys to move that back and forth. Think of this cursor here as something that allows you to quickly transport the actual text cursor to another place inside the text you're writing. The insertion point means I can click and move the text cursor. But as soon as I use my trackpad to move I get this insertion cursor.

Notice when I do that the regular cursor, the one that works with my trackpad or mouse, goes away to avoid confusion. So back arrow, forward arrow, left arrow, right arrow, in other words. I can move the text cursor around with the arrow key. Now notice that the place where I'm going to put a new character whenever I type, that is where the blinking line is. Now where it gets a little confusing is that if I move my arrow cursor over the text area it changes to another type of cursor. Now there' s another type of cursor as well. Sometimes you see indicators like that if you pay attention to the cursor. So the cursor there is indicating that I'm about to add something to this drop zone. If I were to select an image and go to drop it notice how I get a green circle with a plus in it. For instance, in System Preferences in Desktop & Screen Saver, Desktop there's a drop zone where I can drop an image. It's to indicate that I've selected four items and I'm dragging four items. If I were to start dragging them notice that the number four in a red circle appears underneath the cursor. For instance I have four images selected. Now notice sometimes the cursor gives us extra information. You can see the cursor is the focal point for the corner of this drag. If I click outside several images I can drag. Whatever is underneath the cursor, that is selected. So, for instance, let's bring up a Finder window here and you can see I can click on an image using the mouse or trackpad. The arrow cursor is what you use typically to move things around and get things done. This one is called the Pointer or arrow cursor. But there are different types of cursors. The visual representation of where you are on the screen, what you're going to act on, is this arrow here called the cursor. Of course most Macs have a trackpad now rather than a mouse. But the mouse is actually the physical device that you're using. Sometimes people refer to this as the mouse especially when I get emailed questions people want to know something about the mouse. The cursor is typically this little arrow that moves around on your screen. Video Transcript: If you're new to Mac one of the terms you may not be familiar with is the Cursor. Check out A Beginner’s Guide to the Mac Cursor at YouTube for closed captioning and more options.

What the line cursor called