Changing cursor to wait cusor while waiting for applet to load

I have an application where an HTML page first loads, then an applet with lots of data loads. It takes some time for the app开发者_StackOverflow社区let to load and while the applet is loading the customer would like an hour glass to be the shape of the wait cursor (even though the Sun Java display is doing its usual thing). I know the javascript command for changing a cursor to a wait cursor is document.body.style.cursor = "wait";

But how do you change the cursor to the wait cursor right before the applet starts to load and turn it off when it finishes loading.

You can put up a DIV that covers the entire screen, much like a lightbox. Set the cursor style to "wait" for that element. Since it covers the enture screen, the cursor will always be set, regardless of mouse location. Hide it after your applets are finished loading.