alt attribute for input tag

11-28-2003

Hi all,

Why would the browser not produce a nice tooltip saying "hello" if I move
the cursor over the checkbox?

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>Untitled Document</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
</head>

<body>
<input name="test" type="checkbox" value="1" alt="hello"/>
</body>
</html>

The code is valid XHTML...

Regards,
Marcel

11-28-2003

in post <news:3fc743b4$0$242$ t>
Marcel Stör said:

> Why would the browser not produce a nice tooltip saying "hello" if I move
> the cursor over the checkbox?

because its not supposed to. use title="blah"

--
brucie

11-28-2003

"brucie" <> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:bq7gqk$1vbtg1$...
> in post <news:3fc743b4$0$242$ t>
> Marcel Stör said:
>
> > Why would the browser not produce a nice tooltip saying "hello" if I
move
> > the cursor over the checkbox?
>
> because its not supposed to. use title="blah"

Hhmm, according the XHTML DTD there is an "alt" attribute for an "input"
tag. However, the spec doesn't talk about titles for input elements...

Regards,
Marcel

11-28-2003

Marcel Stör <marcel at frightanic dot com> writes:
> "brucie" <> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
> news:bq7gqk$1vbtg1$...
> > in post <news:3fc743b4$0$242$ t>
> > Marcel Stör said:
> >
> > > Why would the browser not produce a nice tooltip saying "hello" if I
> move
> > > the cursor over the checkbox?
> >
> > because its not supposed to. use title="blah"
>
> Hhmm, according the XHTML DTD there is an "alt" attribute for an "input"
> tag. However, the spec doesn't talk about titles for input elements...

title is a 'common' attribute. If you follow the DTD around a bit
it's there.

<input alt="..."> is only used by (some) browsers on <input
type="image"> as far as I know.

Anyway, 'alt' means alternative, so it only gets displayed when the
"primary" isn't. A checkbox can always be displayed by a browser in
the "primary" sense. Exactly what it looks like may vary, obviously.

'title' is for supplementary information, and a lot of popular
graphical browsers do display it on hover.

--
Chris

11-28-2003

Marcel Stör <marcel at frightanic dot com> wrote:

>Why would the browser not produce a nice tooltip saying "hello" if I move
>the cursor over the checkbox?

The purpose of alt attributes is not to create tooltips. The fact that
some browsers do should not be taken as an indication that it will
always happen.

><input name="test" type="checkbox" value="1" alt="hello"/>
>
>The code is valid XHTML...

The alt attribute exists on input for the purpose of providing an
alternative to the input when the input can not be displayed.
In practice this almost always means as an alternative to the image in
<input type="image"> when images can not be displayed.

But there may be circumstances when a browser can't display your
checkbox and would display the alt attribute instead.

title is also a valid attribute of input (and most other elements) and
is intended for additional but unimportant information.
This may be displayed as a tooltip browser or may be made available to
the user in some other way.

If the information is important then you should include it in the page
itself and not rely on browsers that may or may not display a tooltip
under some circumstances.

Steve

--
"My theories appal you, my heresies outrage you,
I never answer letters and you don't like my tie." - The Doctor

Steve Pugh <> <http://steve.pugh.net/>

11-28-2003

brucie wrote:

Brucie! You're back?

11-28-2003

in post <news:M8Ixb.195315$jy.166158@clgrps13>
Owen Jacobson said:

> Brucie! You're back?

no, you're imagining things. go back to sleep and stop taking all the
blankets.

--
brucie

11-28-2003

brucie wrote:
> in post <news:3fc743b4$0$242$ t>
> Marcel Stör said:
>
>> Why would the browser not produce a nice tooltip saying "hello" if I
>> move the cursor over the checkbox?
>
> because its not supposed to. use title="blah"

Hi, brucie - good to hear from you.

--
PeterMcC
If you feel that any of the above is incorrect,
inappropriate or offensive in any way,
please ignore it and accept my apologies.

11-28-2003

Marcel Stör <marcel at frightanic dot com> wrote:

> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />

Unnecessary in HTML
<http://www.w3.org/International/O-HTTP-charset.html>
<http://ppewww.ph.gla.ac.uk/~flavell/charset/ns-burp.html>
and pointless in XHTML
<http://ppewww.ph.gla.ac.uk/~flavell/charset/checklist.html#xhtml>

Specify the encoding ("charset") via the HTTP header.

11-28-2003

Marcel Stör wrote:
> Hhmm, according the XHTML DTD there is an "alt" attribute for an "input"
> tag. However, the spec doesn't talk about titles for input elements...

http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/interact/forms.html#h-17.4 Look under
"Attributes defined elsewhere".

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