Setting a tooltip on a link
The optional title attribute of hyperlinks allows authors to “attach” a hidden piece of text to a link, generally containing a brief description of the link’s destination. Recent browsers display this text as a tooltip when a user holds the mouse pointer over the link for a few seconds.
Example of a tooltip for a hyperlink
To set a tooltip on a link
- Double-click the link to open the Hyperlink Properties dialog box.
- In the Tooltip box, enter the desired text of the tooltip.
Netscape 4.x and earlier do not support tooltips on links.
If you set a tooltip on a link made from an image, and the image has alt text, Internet Explorer does not display the link’s tooltip when the mouse pointer is held over the image. Instead, it shows the image’s alt text as a tooltip.
Other elements besides hyperlinks can have title attributes as well, and recent browsers will display those titles as tooltips, just as with links. To add a title attribute to any element, do this:
- Place the insertion point in the desired element.
- On the Tag Selector, right-click the element’s tag and then click View Source.
- Inside the element’s opening tag, insert title=”", adding the desired tooltip text inside the quotes. For example, <span title=”hello”>.
- Click the Edit tab to return to Edit mode.
Related topics
Adding alternative text to an image