Tool Tip Style Alt Tags Gone

When did this happen?

[ggrot]

I was just working on a really nice php file manager explorer interface thing with gif icons and the such. I was going to use some obvious icons (such as a trashcan for delete) accompanied with mouseover tool tips from alt text to give the user an easy idea of what to click. Well, after I had done the whole thing, I realized that IE no longer gives tool tips for alt tag images! I'm using IE 6.0. When did this happen, or was it just in netscape and my imagination in IE?

On another, even more important note, is there a CSS way to get these tooltips to work again?

[joshie76]

I haven't played with IE6 and I'm amazed if it's lost support for the img alt attribute! All those sites that have put time into creating an accessible website...

Anyhoo... you could always try the title attribute - this should work with all HTML elements giving you the attributes contents as a tooltip on mouse over. i.e:
<a href="blahblah" title="Click here to go to blahblah">blahblah</a>. It is part of the W3Cs recommendations and it's supported in IE5+, and NN6 as far as I know (probably Opera too at a guess).

Normally the title attribute doesn't work in <img> tags as you're supposed to use the alt attribute - you might want to try it though.

[Brett_Tabke]

Yep, Opera supports title attribute tool tips. There has been a huge running argument over Alt tags. Most users want alt attribute tooltips, but Opera won't add them per the w3c standard.

heres a title tool tip (mouse over link): a title tooltip [webmasterworld.com]

My ie6 shows alt tags. Must be a config setting?

[ggrot]

Hmm, maybe I shouldn't be programming at 2:30 am. The tooltips are working now. I think it was something about my alt parameter syntax or I just needed more sleep. False alarm. The title tag sounds good though - I really could use some tooltips for certain anchor text blocks.

[IanKelley]

It's better to use the title tag anyway... alt text on images is actually meant for disabled users.

If you want to get ambitious you can use DHTML for tooltips that look cooler.

[ggrot]

Would it hurt to use both to appease opera? One of the goals is to make this work for as many browsers as possible - dhtml is thus a bad idea.

[IanKelley]

Ahem... Would it hurt Opera to appease developers? ;-)

(I do use both by the way)

[guysmy]

Worry not...about 75% of people that visit my site are still using IE 5.5! Most people are going to see your tool tips.