Mousepath: Track your mouse cursor wherever it goes
October 18, 2011 19
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Update: Mousepath is now known as IOGraph. Please read the article on IOGraph for more information.
Have you ever wondered where your cursor goes? Mouthpath is a small Java application that helps you quench your curiosity: it makes a little image file that traces your mouse pointer. Here’s an example:
(Image by developer.)
The above screenshot is actually atypical of Mousepath; Mousepath does not allow you to layer your mouse-movements over an actual screenshot ( that is something you must do manually in a photo editor like Photoshop or GIMP). But, you can except to get something like this:
(The above picture was saved after approximately 5-10 minutes of usage.)
(The above image was created by the developer after 3 hours of working in Photoshop.)
The “lines” show the movement of your mouse and the “circles” should where you mouse has stopped.
Mousepath truly is a simple app. All you need to do is download it, and run it (no installation necessary). After you run it, you can minimize it (but it must be on) and go about doing whatever you are doing. As long as Mousepath is running, it will record your mouse movements. Whenever you want to save what you have, simple maximize Mousepath’s window and hit “S” on your keyboard – a TIF image is saved in the same folder as Mousepath. If you want to start a new record, you can hit “R” on your keyboard (while Mousepath’s window is maximized) and the recording will be cleared. Since the program only saves images in TIF format, you can use FormatFactory to convert it into a different image format if you wish. Or, you could be smart like I was and just open it in Paint and save it as a PNG.
There is one awkward bug to make note of, however. When you first run Mousepath, when you minimize the program window, it will restart automatically. After that first time minimizing the program window will not restart it. So, just make sure to cycle through the first minimization before you start your “real” recording or you may accidentally delete your mouse-movement recordings.
Here is one recording I did and then overlaid it onto a screenshot of me writing this article:
Pretty cool, huh? You may download Mousepath from the following links:
Version reviewed: unknown
Supported OS: All Windows and Mac OS X
Special requirements: You must have Java installed
Download size: 405 KB
About the author: Locutus View all posts by Locutus
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Heres another solution:
1.Press Start
2.Press Control Panel
3.Press Mouse
4.Press Pointer Options
5.Press Show location of pointer when I press CTRL Key
6.Press OK
I guess Locutus never heard about the six P.
@Someguy: That is a nice trick but that is completely different than what Locutus has posted about.
This is kind of like those artsy things where everything went chaotic but orderly.
I think I’ll put this into something good :d.
Thanks Locutus,
I’ll keep this for for those nights when I just can’t sleep or when I have w-a-a-a-y too much time on my hands. (Like that happens, lol)
Btw, after seeing your Photoshop image, I think I understand better why my hands cramp up!
@OldElmerFudd: And you know, that article didn’t take that long to write.
@Ashraf:
When I saw the title I thought it was something like that.
@Someguy: That trick you posted about has helped me quite often for years :D
@Locutus:
No kidding. When I’m in a workflow mode, I can’t afford that kind of time. On the other hand, I can’t count the hours the hours I spend tweaking something I’m playing with!
Those Photoshopped overlay images look like, er, um, well, like mouse droppings on a desktop.
My poor desktop…I never realized…
This seems to be a reasonably entertaining waste of time. My life is largely comprised of entertaining myself by wasting time with my most significant-of-all-others, my darling computer, so this has great appeal. My problem, however, lies not in wondering about the activities and whereabouts of my cursor, but misplacing the damn wireless mouse. What I need is a sort of mini lo-jack system, that could also coordinate things like keys and glasses.
I love wasting time while finding new ways to create random art, this is a keeper, thanks!
Very cool app!!
But I’m also very curious about the places I click. So it would be fun when the maps would show that as well…
Hey guys, great tool and lots of fun to show off and track your workflow on different kinds of software.
Would be cool if you guys added some sort of tracking system for the different types of mouse click too (left, right, middle) maybe like X’s or something like that
@Araf: Unfortunately we didn’t develop this… but I agree that would be cool :D
Hello everyone. We made the app kind of from scratch now. Now it’s called IOGraph and you can grab it from it’s new website.
http://iographica.com
@Mr. J: there is actually some program that I have seen before which like this tracks your mouse movements but adds colour to it as well – makes it very artsy!
Avira 12 has a full block on the official IOgraph download page. PITA.
If you’re interested in performing mouse tracking on your website visitors on a massive scale, I’d recommend that you try out Mouseflow.com (yes, I’m affiliated). There are free plans that let you watch videos of your users, analyze their behavior in aggregated heatmaps and much more.
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