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Asked: 2026-05-10T18:26:53+00:00

Is it possible to set the cursor to ‘wait’ on the entire html page

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Is it possible to set the cursor to ‘wait’ on the entire html page in a simple way? The idea is to show the user that something is going on while an ajax call is being completed. The code below shows a simplified version of what I tried and also demonstrate the problems I run into:

  1. if an element (#id1) has a cursor style set it will ignore the one set on body (obviously)
  2. some elements have a default cursor style (a) and will not show the wait cursor on hover
  3. the body element has a certain height depending on the content and if the page is short, the cursor will not show below the footer

The test:

<html>     <head>         <style type='text/css'>             #id1 {                 background-color: #06f;                 cursor: pointer;             }              #id2 {                 background-color: #f60;             }         </style>     </head>     <body>         <div id='id1'>cursor: pointer</div>         <div id='id2'>no cursor</div>         <a href='#' onclick='document.body.style.cursor = 'wait'; return false'>Do something</a>     </body> </html>

Later edit…
It worked in firefox and IE with: 

div#mask { display: none; cursor: wait; z-index: 9999;  position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; height: 100%;  width: 100%; background-color: #fff; opacity: 0; filter: alpha(opacity = 0);}  <a href='#' onclick='document.getElementById('mask').style.display = 'block'; return false'> Do something</a>

The problem with (or feature of) this solution is that it will prevent clicks because of the overlapping div (thanks Kibbee)

Later later edit…
A simpler solution from Dorward:

.wait, .wait * { cursor: wait !important; }

and then 

<a href='#' onclick='document.body.className = 'wait'; return false'>Do something</a>

This solution only shows the wait cursor but allows clicks.

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1 Answer

  1. I understand you may not have control over this, but you might instead go for a ‘masking’ div that covers the entire body with a z-index higher than 1. The center part of the div could contain a loading message if you like.

    Then, you can set the cursor to wait on the div and don’t have to worry about links as they are ‘under’ your masking div. Here’s some example CSS for the ‘masking div’:

     body { height: 100%; } div#mask { cursor: wait; z-index: 999; height: 100%; width: 100%; }
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