This option tells Vim what the mouse pointer should look like in different modes. The option is a comma-separated list of parts, much like used for 'guicursor'. Each part consist of a mode/location-list and an argument-list: mode-list:shape,mode-list:shape,.. The mode-list is a dash separated list of these modes/locations: In a normal window: n Normal mode v Visual mode ve Visual mode with 'selection' "exclusive" (same as 'v', if not specified) o Operator-pending mode i Insert mode r Replace mode

            Others:
    c       appending to the command-line
    ci      inserting in the command-line
    cr      replacing in the command-line
    m       at the 'Hit ENTER' or 'More' prompts
    ml      idem, but cursor in the last line
    e       any mode, pointer below last window
    s       any mode, pointer on a status line
    sd      any mode, while dragging a status line
    vs      any mode, pointer on a vertical separator line
    vd      any mode, while dragging a vertical separator line
    a       everywhere

The shape is one of the following: avail name looks like w x arrow Normal mouse pointer w x blank no pointer at all (use with care!) w x beam I-beam w x updown up-down sizing arrows w x leftright left-right sizing arrows w x busy The system's usual busy pointer w x no The system's usual 'no input' pointer x udsizing indicates up-down resizing x lrsizing indicates left-right resizing x crosshair like a big thin + x hand1 black hand x hand2 white hand x pencil what you write with x question big ? x rightup-arrow arrow pointing right-up w x up-arrow arrow pointing up x <number> any X11 pointer number (see X11/cursorfont.h)

The "avail" column contains a 'w' if the shape is available for Win32, x for X11. Any modes not specified or shapes not available use the normal mouse pointer.

Example:

:set mouseshape=s:udsizing,m:no

will make the mouse turn to a sizing arrow over the status lines and indicate no input when the hit-enter prompt is displayed (since clicking the mouse has no effect in this state.)

(default "i-r:beam,s:updown,sd:udsizing, vs:leftright,vd:lrsizing,m:no, ml:up-arrow,v:rightup-arrow")

only available when compiled with the +mouseshape feature