title attribute behaviour

[matthewdean]

Generally the title attribute can be used to display tool-tip messages. The alt attribute on the other hand is good for the name of the image (for example) for the purposes of meeting W3C standards.

When used with the <img> tag, the title attribute works fine and displays the tool-tip text. However, when used with the <area> tag, the title attribute fails to perform this role. At least that's how it works on my website.

Anyone else had these issues before?

Matt

[sijpie]

Yes,

in particular with images I'm never sure if the alt or the title will be displayed, so I usually make them the same.

Just tested, and on a map imgage, outside the areas, the title will display, inside the areas the alt will display. (IE5.5)

[matthewdean]

Thanks sijpie, there is indeed a mismatch in the ways the two major browsers handle the alt attribute. I found some free javascript code on the internet and used it in my area elements. By itself it worked find but as soon as you add the alt attribute again, the alt attribute's text takes over the tooltip again.

The javascript code I found is located at http://www.devguru.com/features/know...e/a100216.html but the gurus in kentucky charge $65.00 per hour to fix problems.

Cheers,
Matt

[paulhiles]

Hi Matt,

I've done pretty much the same as sijpie in the past... used both ALT and TITLE attributes, and made them the same value. I know that is breaking some of the accessibility guidelines, but that's what worked for me. If you'd like to see an example, have a look at this map I made for a shark conservation site a couple of years back.

If you need any further help, you could always a post a URL of the page, and we could be more specific.

Good luck,

Paul

[matthewdean]

Thanks for the information. In fact, my current solution is to do exactly what you and sijpie suggest: use the same text in both the alt and title attributes.

But what I want is to have one text component being available for those surfers who might be visually challenged -- the equipment they use takes the text from the alt attribute and sends it out through a speaker -- and another text component appearing at the tooltip.

IE makes this very difficult. NN lets me do this without any problems. In IE, the alt text obliterates the title text. And, if I use javascript to produce tooltip text, it competes with the alt text for possession of the tooltip, even though the alt text disappears after about 5 seconds.

Maybe there's a properties setting for this...

Cheers,
Matt