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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-27T08:19:31+00:00

Is it possible to customize blinking text cursor in a contenteditable=true div tag? Something

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Is it possible to customize blinking text cursor in a contenteditable="true" div tag?

Something like getting cursor position and putting a custom cursor on it, or any other trick?

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  1. Editorial Team

    I agree with Tim, I wouldn’t recommend it either.

    ( unless you have one of Google’s javascript ninjas to help you :p )

    However, here is a sample page with a custom caret used in a <textarea>.. Just to give you an idea of how you can achieve this.

    I beleive this is the most basic implementation of a custom caret.

    <!doctype html>
<html>
    <head>
        <script type="text/javascript">

            var cursor,
                $ = function (id){
                    return document.getElementById(id);
                },
                nl2br = function(txt){
                    return txt.replace(/\n/g, "<br />");
                },
                writeit = function(from, e){
                    e = e || window.event;
                    var w = $("writer");
                    var tw = from.value;
                    w.innerHTML = nl2br(tw);
                },
                moveIt = function (count, e){
                    e = e || window.event;
                    var keycode = e.keyCode || e.which;
                    if(keycode == 37 && parseInt(cursor.style.left) >= (0-((count-1)*10))){
                        cursor.style.left = parseInt(cursor.style.left) - 10 + "px";
                    } else if(keycode == 39 && (parseInt(cursor.style.left) + 10) <= 0){
                        cursor.style.left = parseInt(cursor.style.left) + 10 + "px";
                    }

                };

            window.onload = function (){
                cursor = $("cursor");               
                cursor.style.left = "0px";
            };

        </script>

        <style type="text/css">
            body{margin: 0px;padding: 0px;height: 99%;}
            textarea#setter{left: -1000px;position: absolute;}
            .cursor{font-size: 12px;background-color: red;color: red;position: relative;opacity: 0.5;}
            #terminal{margin: 8px;cursor: text;height: 500px;overflow: auto;}
            #writer{font-family: cursor, courier;font-weight: bold;}
            #getter{margin: 5px;}
        </style>
    </head>
    <body>
    <div id="terminal" onclick="$('setter').focus();">
        <textarea type="text" id="setter" onkeydown="writeit(this, event);moveIt(this.value.length, event)" onkeyup="writeit(this, event)" onkeypress="writeit(this, event);"></textarea>
        <div id="getter">
            <span id="writer"></span><b class="cursor" id="cursor">B</b>
        </div>
    </div>
    </body>
</html>

    Good luck implementing this in a contenteditable.. And I certainly hope this won’t be your next question (:p) !

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