Alt text not displayed when mousing over an image

This is perhaps a bit off topic for this group, but I am using Internet
Explorer 6 and I have noticed recently that when I hold the mouse over an
image the Alt text is not displayed like it used to be.

Does anyone know why this is and how I can fix it so that the Alt text is
displayed?

Thanks,
Stephen

re: Alt text not displayed when mousing over an image

Stevio wrote:[color=blue]
> This is perhaps a bit off topic for this group, but I am using
> Internet Explorer 6 and I have noticed recently that when I hold the
> mouse over an image the Alt text is not displayed like it used to be.
>
> Does anyone know why this is and how I can fix it so that the Alt
> text is displayed?
>[/color]

the attribute you need is title.

--
William Tasso - http://WilliamTasso.com

re: Alt text not displayed when mousing over an image

Stevio wrote:
[color=blue]
> This is perhaps a bit off topic for this group, but I am using Internet
> Explorer 6 and I have noticed recently that when I hold the mouse over an
> image the Alt text is not displayed like it used to be.[/color]

The alt attribute is intended to be alternative content for when the image
is not available. It is not meant to be supplementary information. That's
what the title attribute is for.

I don't know why Internet Explorer has stopped working in this (arguably
broken) way, but if you want to provide supplementary information, use the
title attribute. Internet Explorer will use tooltips to display the title
in favour of any alt attribute, and so will most other browsers.

--
Jim Dabell

re: Alt text not displayed when mousing over an image

Stevio wrote:
[color=blue]
> This is perhaps a bit off topic for this group, but I am using Internet
> Explorer 6 and I have noticed recently that when I hold the mouse over an
> image the Alt text is not displayed like it used to be.
>
> Does anyone know why this is and how I can fix it so that the Alt text is
> displayed?[/color]

That is not what the alt attribute is for. The alt attribute is for text
intended to replace the image when it is not present, not for "tooltip
text"; you would need to use the title attribute instead for "tooltip
text".

--
Shawn K. Quinn

re: Alt text not displayed when mousing over an image

Stevio wrote:[color=blue]
> Thanks for the help Shawn and the others. Just to confirm I'm not crazy,
> Internet Explorer did used to display the alt text for images when you held
> the mouse over them? Any ideas why and when they stopped?[/color]

Maybe they're attempting to imitate the superior browser, Mozilla?

--
== Dan ==
Dan's Mail Format Site: http://mailformat.dan.info/
Dan's Web Tips: http://webtips.dan.info/
Dan's Domain Site: http://domains.dan.info/

re: Alt text not displayed when mousing over an image

> This is perhaps a bit off topic for this group, but I am using Internet[color=blue]
> Explorer 6 and I have noticed recently that when I hold the mouse over an
> image the Alt text is not displayed like it used to be.[/color]

Regardless of discussions about 'alt' and 'title', IE 6 still happily
displays the alt text for me. Have you tried repairing your IE installation
just in case it has got itself confused? Bit of a longshot but worth doing
just to eliminate as a possibility.

Now to go off and look if my authoring software actually allows me to
specify the 'title' for images... ;-)

re: Alt text not displayed when mousing over an image

On Wed, Aug 20, Stevio posted upside-down:
[color=blue]
> Internet Explorer did used to display the alt text for images when you held
> the mouse over them? Any ideas why and when they stopped?[/color]

That's a browser question, and might be raised on the group where
brow^W operating system components are on-topic.

The HTML authoring issues are the same as we've been saying all along.
[color=blue]
> Why weren't we told? :-)[/color]

Why weren't some people listening?

re: Alt text not displayed when mousing over an image

In article <hxr0b.67$lg7.12@newsfep3-gui.server.ntli.net>, one of infinite monkeys
at the keyboard of "Stevio" <redeagle@freeuk.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
> Does anyone know why this is[/color]

Yes. That's one bug they fixed.


--
Nick Kew

In urgent need of paying work - see http://www.webthing.com/~nick/cv.html

re: Alt text not displayed when mousing over an image

"Graham J" wrote[color=blue]
> Regardless of discussions about 'alt' and 'title', IE 6 still happily
> displays the alt text for me.Have you tried repairing your IE installation
> just in case it has got itself confused?[/color]

Ok this is interesting now. I set the title tag for an image and IE6 did not
display it when I moused over. Opera and Netscape did however. So maybe you
are right - I will try reinstalling IE6.
[color=blue]
> Now to go off and look if my authoring software actually allows me to
> specify the 'title' for images... ;-)[/color]

Dreamweaver allows you to, but not within the Properties box which is
usually there. You have to specifically edit the properties of the image.