Re: lynx & title attribute

Thanks, This cannot be emphasized enough.  Alt answers the question
"what does the image convey" not "what does the image look like".  The
latter is why we have so much trouble with the lack of use of the alt
text or at least one of the reasons we have so much trouble with it.
for instance, If I am browsing with images on and In my browser I see a
spinning blue globe with the words spinning blue globe as a tool tip, I
wonder what that is for and so does a page designer.  On the other hand,
if I see the word earth as a tooltip for that same globe, it makes sense
and the designer can then realize more readily that if one were to
browse with images off they would still recieve the information that the
image is attempting to convey and or know what the image represents.
Even if the image has text in it, the alt may not be the text in the
image because looking at the image as a whole, the text within might not
convey the full impact of the image.  By all means though put the text
that resides within the image if it is important and appropriate to the
content of the page/site into the page somewhere.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jon Hanna" <jon@spinsol.com>
To: "Jonathan Chetwynd" <j.chetwynd@btinternet.com>; <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2001 6:02 AM
Subject: RE: lynx & title attribute


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

> lynx 2.8.3 in default mode appears to render alt rather than
> title content.
>
>
> I had understood that title was more appropriate for describing
> purpose of link, and alt description of image.
> thus this seems contrary to what I've understood.

title provides additional information about any element rendered
element (i.e. those elements that relate to something seen, heard, or
otherwise communicated to the user such as <body>, <p>, <em> but not
such as <head>, <meta>, etc.), which can be rendered in any way that
a browser chooses to aid a user. Not rendering title at all is a
valid choice.
alt provides an alternative to an image, not a description of it
(longdesc does that). Generally a description of the image is a poor
choice of alt text.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGPfreeware 6.5.3 for non-commercial use <http://www.pgp.com>

iQA/AwUBO6m+tYFpv9f1Mr0YEQLmJQCgj3lvbUqDPLac3OpjMIr/zJcmsgEAni0r
pmuRailAXcp96me38kdtxymp
=8Kjw
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Received on Thursday, 20 September 2001 07:28:53 UTC