Mousepos�, Superb Virtual Pointer

excellent
key review info
application features
  • Talkthrough
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I've seen and tried all kind of presentation aid software over time, and I've seen both good and bad. However, I have just had to reevaluate my opinion of all those programs and chuck them into the 'acceptable' bin, because, no matter how good some of them were, none of the stands up to Mousepos? 2 in any way. This program is so good it simply blows all the others out of the water.

What it does

Mousepos? 2 is a visual aid helper for those who have to make presentations. Like the stick of old that then got replaced by the laser pointer, the laser pointer is now on the verge of extinction, as it is no longer adequate for pointing things out in today's presentation.

Mousepos? 2 will let you focus the attention of the audience in a way that no laser pointer ever could, and it even lets you show advanced things that would not be possible otherwise, such as clicks and double clicks.

Working with it

Working with Mousepos? 2 is so easy you become a master at it after 1 minute. Basically there are two things the program does: highlight the pointer, and highlight mouse clicks. Both of these things are customizable and can be made to match whatever presentation you might be making both in look and feel.

Mouse highlighting works on a simple principle: the attention is drawn to the area around the mouse by keeping that area as it is and dimming everything else around it in a radius. In effect this looks like a haze is applied over the presentation, except for the area around the mouse that acts as a peep hole which you can move around.

Mouse clicks are something that is usually impossible to convey to the audience during a presentation in a visual manner, but Mousepos? makes it easy. Every time you click, a circle appears underneath the mouse cursor and remains there for as long as you hold the mouse down. If you double click, the normal click circle will be surrounded by a ring, in what looks like a bull's-eye.

Toggling of these two functions can be done easily through shortcuts, and there are even additional options that let you customize almost every aspect of both how they look and behave.

All in the options

While the mouse highlighting and click highlighting are great, it is the additional options that really set them apart.

Mouse highlighting can be set to deactivate automatically after a certain time has elapse since activation. This is great because it cuts down the bother of having to continually switch it both on and off.

The way the mouse highlight circle itself looks can also be changed to suit your needs. It can be as big or small as you need it, and the size can even be changed using shortcuts. These shortcuts are great because you can change the size of the highlight circle in-between highlights so that it is always the size you need it to be without having to show your audience how you resize it.

Also, the look of the highlight can be customized by setting how blurry the highlight circle is around the edges and what the color and opacity of the haze that covers the screen should be. This can let you match your highlight to any presentation you are making.

The click highlighting can also be toggled using keyboard shortcuts, but here, other than the color and opacity of the circles used, there are no additional options.

There are also two 'Miscellaneous' options that let you set whether the program should be started up on login, and whether to show the program in the dock and in the menubar or both. Unfortunately, there is no option to not show it in the dock and menu and keep it entirely invisible, which is a bit of a pain if you need to make a presentation in which you need to show both the menu and dock and don't want the Mousepos? icon showing there.

The Good

Works great and looks great, so easy to use you know everything you need in a minute after watching the introduction tutorial.

The Bad

It would be nice to make the program totally invisible to the audience but as it is you cannot hide it from both the dock and the menubar.

The Truth

A great program that puts other similar ones to shame. It's not only the functionality but the elegance and good looks that make it a winner. After all, a presentation is supposed to look good, and Mousepos? if anything, will make it look even better.

Here are some screenshots, click to enlarge:

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user interface 5
features 4
ease of use 5
pricing / value 5


final rating 5
Editor's review
excellent
 
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