Case of the Disappearing Photoshop Cursor
This article is related the the Customizing Cursors in Photoshop article. I thought of mentioning it in that article, but I get so many calls about this problem that I felt it was best to discuss the issue on its own.
Has this ever happened to you: You’re merrily working away in Photoshop when your normal cursor suddenly changes to the precise, crosshair-only style of cursor display. No matter what changes you make to the cursor preferences, the display won’t change back to the way it was before unless you reboot your system. I know it really threw me the first time it happened to me.
The reason this happens is because of an obscure Photoshop keyboard shortcut. When you press the Caps Lock key it causes your cursors to switch to the precise display. Pressing the key a second time returns them to their normal state. I imagine that this could be useful for people who use the Standard cursor display, but if you read the Customizing Cursors in Photoshop article, then you know why I don’t prefer this setup.
I’ve met people who worked for several days - even weeks - not understanding what happened to their cursors. When they finally got around to asking me about it, they were amazed that the problem had been caused by inadvertently pressing the Caps Lock key. Now when this happens to you, you’ll know how to fix it right away.
