Stopping The Blinking Cursor (Caret) In NetBeans

UPDATE: (4.20.11) When using JVI 1.3 for NetBeans 7 there is a JVI preference to stop the blinking cursor. As with all JVI settings, it will override the IDE settings, so be sure yo make your change there, not in the preference file indicated by this post.

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I really hate blinking cursors, and my favorite IDE - NetBeans - seems to love it. But I've found a way to disable it and stop the strobing black block once and for all.

NetBeans keeps preference settings in XML files. There are many options that are not exposed in the UI, and the "Caret Blink Rate" is one of them. So to stop the blink - all you need to do is edit the following file (replace the NetBeans version in the path with your version if necessary):

~/.netbeans/6.9/config/Editors/Preferences/org-netbeans-modules-editor-settings-CustomPreferences.xml

Add the following entry in the XML:

 

<entry javaType="java.lang.Integer" name="caret-blink-rate" xml:space="preserve">
    <value><![CDATA[0]]></value>
</entry>

 

Start NetBeans... and PRESTO! The maddening menace is muted! (The cursor has stopped blinking). 

"How, oh how did you find this?" (you might ask).

Back in NetBeans 4 (or was it 5?) the Caret Blink Rate was exposed in the preference UI. When 5 (or was it 6?) came out - I was irritated to no end that it was removed. So I found the entry in version 4's (or was it 5's?) XML (which was in a different format back then), added it to version 5's (or was it 6's?) XML - and it worked! I've been able to "override" the default setting this way in all subsequent releases, but I'd really love the setting to once again be exposed in the UI.  Are you listening NetBeans Gods? :-)

~M

Comments

[brownman]

advice: to be seen on google searches change cursor to caret

[T]

Thanks Michael! I always disliked the blinking cursors in the newer Netbeans versions. It is solved, at least for now :)

[Stefan Sundin]

The value is the time between toggling the cursor visible and invisible. So the period is two times the value. A nice value is 500, which makes Netbeans blink in about the same speed as other applications.