Re: can someone shed some light on this?

> Hmm? I thought the title  attribute was for tool tips, and Alt was for a 
> text alternative.

I was being sarcastic.  That's why I stressed the quotes.  Most web
designers think they know that alt is for tooltips, even though the
handful of the people in the world who understand HTML know that that
is not the intended purpose.

> 
> I believe Internet Explorer incorrectly uses Alt to display tool tips, 

I don't think you can say it is actually incorrect, as, in general,
HTML doesn't say how things should be displayed only what they mean.
(It hints at sensible ways in places.)

> when it should use title for this purpose, like current version of Netscape.

Some designers who want a tooltip presentational feature in HTML still
target NS4.

> 
> What is the real intended use for Alt and Title ala the HTML specification?

alt is for replacement text when an image cannot be displayed.

title is for additional information.  Non-normatively, it mentions tooltips
as one way that information might be displayed, but there is no requirement
to do so; there is currently no way in HTML/CSS to explicitly request the
generation of tooltips, but there is a big demand to be able to do so.

> 
> greg
> 
> 
> 
> >I assume that 
> >the author wanted a tooltip and generalised the populuar understanding of
> >the purpose of the alt attribute to use it on an element that doesn't
> >actually allow it.
> >
> >If that is right, they should have used title, which is not required
> >to produce a tool tip, but does have rather closer semantics to those
> >intended.
> >
> >
> >  
> >
>

Received on Saturday, 4 October 2003 08:13:43 UTC