Alt Text boxes

Any way to turn them off?

[too much information]

I know I can change my prefrences in my browser, but is there a way to turn them off using JavaScript or something?

I can block the right click, seems like I should be able to do this too. Any ideas?

tmi

[hakre]

just put an empty text in the alt-property and the tooltip is off ;)

-hakre

[universalis]

Images should ALWAYS have alt text specified. To turn off the tooltip, you should put an empty title tag, for example:

<img src="pic1.jpg" height="10" width="10" alt="Alt text here" title="">

[hakre]

universalis: nice tip ;).

nevertheless, i don't know since which browser version title is supported. maybe this will only work on specific browsers then.

and just a 2nd note: the alt attribute in my tip is supplied (even if it's empty then) and you shouldn't get any problems while checking the doc in the validator.

-hakre

[universalis]

and just a 2nd note: the alt attribute in my tip is supplied (even if it's empty then) and you shouldn't get any problems while checking the doc in the validator.

You're right is saying that using alt="" will be good enough for validation, but it is not sufficient in terms of accessibility. A blind person would have no idea what the image represents without the alt text. As for browser compatibility, title is supported in all modern browsers.

[gph]

I don't know if this is any use, I use it in an hta. The images are created dynamically and the alt attribute is populated with image data (file size etc.)

It allows for an easy way to associate the image data with the image so it can be displayed in a createPopup() rather than a conventional alt balloon.

function mouse_entered_image(el) {
if (el.alt!= '') {
window['temp_alt_str' + el.id] = el.alt
el.alt = ''
}
}
function mouse_exited_image(el) {
if (el.alt == '') {
el.alt = window['temp_alt_str' + el.id] 
}
}
<img id="img1" onmouseleave="mouse_exited_image(this)" onmouseover="mouse_entered_image(this)" alt="some text">

[gph]

Note:

I used those events in the img tag because mouse events fire like this in IE

onmouseover > onmouseenter > onmouseout > onmouseleave

I use the inner events for createPopup(). If you use this you could probably change it to just onmouseover and onmouseout.

[hakre]

universalis:

A blind person would have no idea what the image represents without the alt text

shure he/she won't. but take it simplier: in this post it's about hiding the tooltip, even for people who can see (and read), so this might not be applicable here at all. for blind people a description can be added to the picture as well in other ways, too. in terms of accessability it depends, there are not that straight rules like, every image should ever have and alt attribute with a descriptive text.

[takagi]

Recently there was a related thread: Can Screen Tip Font/Size be changed? - Screen tip size and font [webmasterworld.com]

Not sure if this can help.

[too much information]

Thanks everyone. I'll try everything and let you know what happens.

I really like the alt text in the images because of the added information on the page for the visitor and also for the SE benefits, but my client is not too keen on "those d#%n anoying yellow boxes of text" that pop up.

Oh well, please everyone all the time...

tmi