# HTML question - how do i lose the interval on the alt name showing ?



## john1 (Nov 25, 2000)

Hi,

Hope this is the right place for an HTML question,
i'm just putting together a sketchy set of picture files, with html
mapping to move on to related parts of the diagrams.

There is a delay on the ALT showing, which i think is called 'Tooltip'
this delay can be annoying when i am going through looking for stuff,
how can i reduce or get rid of this delay please ?

I think it might be a setting on my PC, not in the mapping stuff.

Any help much appreciated, John


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## knight_47 (Mar 15, 2006)

Use _ttdelay='0'_

the number is in milliseconds

Hope that helps


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## john1 (Nov 25, 2000)

Hi Knight,

Thanks for that, but it made no difference.
Could be that i don't know where to put it, i tried it in the mapping,
and before the mapping, and after the mapping.

I also tried it with the same apostrophes as the rest ... '0' and "0" 

Or it could be that its already at minimum, but i don't think it is.

Maybe its a command for the browser and should go in the browser.
I dunno.

The cursor changes to a little hand straight-away, thats fine.
Then i have to wait for a short interval for the legend(?) to appear.
Its not very long, a few seconds, but it is annoying when i'm looking
for something, especially if theres a lot to go through.

I just thought ... i could try making it 50 or so, then if it gets a
longer period, i will know i'm doing it right, then i could put it at
zero .... be back soon ...

John


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## john1 (Nov 25, 2000)

milleseconds !! ... i better make it fifty thousand, not fifty ..... !

John


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## john1 (Nov 25, 2000)

No,
still no effect.

John


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## matt-h (Apr 30, 2006)

Show us a snippet of your html, how are you putting that tooltip code in?


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## john1 (Nov 25, 2000)

By all means ....

This is for personal use only and is a skeleton with no extras,
it is only used on my own PC.

*******************************

Small Wiring Guide












*******************************

its pretty minimal, but as it stands it works ok.

John


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## john1 (Nov 25, 2000)

I have tried inserting the TTDELAY="0" in various places.
Even with 50000 in it, cos its milliseconds

Doesnt seem to have any effect.

John


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## knight_47 (Mar 15, 2006)

Sorry for not being so specific, it should be like this:

text fragment

I think.. right??


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## john1 (Nov 25, 2000)

No problem,
i can do it like that.

John


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## john1 (Nov 25, 2000)

I copied and pasted that line into various places.
It gave me the words - text fragment - but did nothing else.

I am clearly missing something here, but i cannot see what.

John


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## john1 (Nov 25, 2000)

text fragment

Hi,

Ive tried this line in every position i can think of.
beginning, places in the middle, end.
and
just before the MAP tag, just after the MAP tag.

I have split it into two parts, cos it looks like it might be meant
to be used in two parts: ...

Ive tried these two bits in various places, throughout my little bit
of HTML.

I can't get any sense out of it at all.
***************************************************

I found this page:
http://www.vladdy.net/webdesign/Tooltips.html

Its supposed to tell the reader about 'Tooltips'

Well, i couldn't make much sense of most of it,
but i understood some of this bit:

QUOTE:
**
Defining tooltips

The tooltip attribute is used to define a tool tip that is associated
with an element, the same way title attribute does. Needless to say
that title attribute should not be used when tooltip attribute is present.
If there is a need to attach a tool tip to a text fragment, such fragment
can be put within a element that would have the tooltip attribute:
**
UNQUOTE

I will just read that again .....
"Needless to say that title attribute should not be used
when tooltip attribute is present."

Well the person who wrote that
may have considered it was NEEDLESS to say,
but i consider it ESSENTIAL to point this out.

Being as i have used the HTML title function,
APPARENTLY i should not have done....
I will try it again, after having REMOVED the title and /title bits.

Saving those few seconds is more important to me than having a title.
Especially as there may be hundreds of tooltip notations in any given
diagram.

I will try it now, but i really don't expect any sensible or realistic
results.
This whole episode of formalising my diagrams is turning into a very
involved task.

Be back soon,

John


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## john1 (Nov 25, 2000)

It made no difference to the tooltip
whether the html title was used, or not.

NEEDLESS to say, the writer of that piece must have
meant something else.

I did not think it would matter,
i can see no co-relation between the title and the tooltip.

Hopefully someone can set me right on this.

John


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## sarei (Dec 13, 2006)

Well, usually when I want something to show up right away like I am assuming you do, I use this:

http://walterzorn.com/tooltip/tooltip_e.htm

You can change the delay, and you can even show full descriptions and pictures in the roll over. You can also change the appearance of fonts, colors, positioning, etc.


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## namenotfound (Apr 30, 2005)

why are you using ALT for a tooltip anyway? It's only supposed to be used as a fallback for if an image fails to load.


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

The title attribute should be used for tooltips. I'm not sure if ttdelay actually works, but you could use JavaScript to create an instant, customizable tooltip.


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## john1 (Nov 25, 2000)

Hi Sarah,

Thank you for that extra tooltip program, "wz_tooltip.js 3.44"
I have downloaded it, it looks very interesting, and i will probably
include it in some form with the details that will go with my diagrams.
It may not be possible to include it with the floppies that i
originally intended to accompany my diagrams, but it would certainly
fit onto any CDs that i make to go with my diagrams.

It depend how much extra stuff has to be included .... i have very
little spare room on some of my floppies. 
I have even rendered some of the images into B&W-greyscale, as well as
making them as small as i can in an attempt to fit them all on 1.4Mb

Whether or not this program will enable me to reduce, or even remove
the un-wanted interval before tooltip text appears - I do not know.

My guess is that this interval cannot be reduced or removed.

Cheers, John


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## john1 (Nov 25, 2000)

Hi 'namenotfound',

Quote:_
why are you using ALT for a tooltip anyway? It's only supposed
to be used as a fallback for if an image fails to load. _

I thought i was doing it right.
How would you write the text in a tooltip box ?

I am using it to advise the user what a left-click should produce.
If that is not its intended purpose, then is there another way ?

I hope there is another way, maybe one that responds straightaway.

Cheers, John


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## john1 (Nov 25, 2000)

Hi Eriksrocks,

Thank you for your reply.


> The title attribute should be used for tooltips.


Not sure about that .... I'm using the TITLE ... /TITLE to put the
name of the relevant diagram, in most cases its also the filename
that i'm using. But not always the same, i find that spaces some
times cause problems, so often i omit the spaces in the filename,
but include them in the title because its neater.



> I'm not sure if ttdelay actually works


I have no idea why you should doubt the information on many web pages
about 'TTDELAY', but in my experience you are quite correct, it does
not work for me anyway.



> you could use JavaScript to create an instant, customizable tooltip.


Well i dunno, are you sure ?
Customisable yes, but instant ... ?
Its only about three, maybe four seconds, perhaps i shouldn't worry,
but its so annoying because i have to stop and wait on all those bits
that have a tooltip, till i find the one i want, this doesn't sound
like much of an annoyance, but it is. There could be many items over
a diagram, looking for a particular one can be such an aggravation
that i will often go to "View ... Source" and scan through the html,
rather than looking through the tooltip texts.
It should be quick and easy to put the mouse pointer on half a dozen
spots one after the other, and see the one that i am looking for,
instead of pausing on each place.

If it can be made instant, that would be just what i want.
Have you actually tried it ?

Cheers, John


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## knight_47 (Mar 15, 2006)

John, I'm sorry my method didn't work, I can't seem to figure it out either.

But why don't you try something like this:

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex16/showhint.htm

It's javascript.


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

john1 said:


> Hi Eriksrocks,
> 
> Thank you for your reply.
> Not sure about that .... I'm using the TITLE ... /TITLE to put the
> ...


No, not the tags, the title *attribute*, like this: 

```
[IMG]image.jpg[/IMG]
```
I'm just starting to learn JavaScript, but I'm 90% sure that you could customize the delay in a JS tooltip script so that the tooltip box would appear instantly when you roll over it. 

I haven't tried it but I know it can be done.


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## john1 (Nov 25, 2000)

Hi Eriksrocks,

You have obviously read over parts of this thread, and quoted bits of
it.
Thank you for you diligence and patience, cos i had all but given up.

***************










***************

As you can see from this snippet of my crudely written html, I have not
used the 'title attribute' in the first of the image mapping images.
Cos i was using only the bare necessities. The minimum that would work.
Thats why i got muddled cos i only had the TITLE ... /TITLE in it.

However, now that you have pointed this out, i can see that i've been
doing it wrong.

So, bearing in mind your instructions, i have been back to that page:
http://www.vladdy.net/webdesign/Tooltips.html
and i have read it through again with fresh eyes.

Near the top of the page in the introduction is a caution that the
behaviour and appearance of these tooltips is browser specific and can
not be altered in most browsers.
Then it goes on to say that browsers supporting document object model
will accept customised element (tooltip) attributes.
It also goes on to say that Microsoft has been 'dragging its feet' in
this regard, consequently using IE the attribute has to be attached to
each of the mouseover elements concerned.

However i am having difficulty implementing their instructions.

But i can now say with confidence that this can indeed be done.
I am in fact rather more sure of this than you are.
I am one hundred per cent certain that it can be done.

This is because that page has some examples near the bottom, and one
of them is the tooltip text coming up straight-away.
So you can check that if you want, and you will then lose that ten per
cent of doubt, when you see the tooltip text appear with no delay.

Unfortunately for me, my new found certainty is of no help in trying
to get it to work.
Ive put the ttdelay='0' in with the other bits, but i am now wondering
about those apostrophes, all the other attributes have double ones.
I may try it again with double ones.
I may try it in a few different places too, cos i am still confused as
to where it should go.

Thanks again, you have given me fresh hope that this can be done,
even though i have not done it yet.

Cheers, John


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## knight_47 (Mar 15, 2006)

Have you seen this?

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex16/showhint.htm


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## john1 (Nov 25, 2000)

Yes i have been to that page, i got the impression that it was done using a different method
and i dunno if it would be more universal or less universal.
So i thought i would stick to the minimum html method i am trying to use,
this other way seems to require almost a pagefull of text.

I feel sure that if i try every combination i can find for the TTDELAY then eventually i will
get it to work, and it only wants a line or so of text.

Did you try the small demonstration of immediate response tooltip which is
at the bottom of this page ?
http://www.vladdy.net/webdesign/Tooltips.html

I keep trying it - to reassure myself that i am not on a wild goose chase.
I have even tried to find the relevant bits in the source(html) for that page,
but i am not very good at sorting through the html, its in there somewhere.

Still trying, John


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## john1 (Nov 25, 2000)

15:23 20/01/07
I'm making these notes to keep track of my attempt to extricate the
html 'Instant Tooltip' procedure, which i have so far been unable to
reproduce.

I was shown a page - ttp://www.vladdy.net/webdesign/Tooltips.html
which has the tooltip action that i am looking for at the bottom.

I have tried unsuccessfully to replicate the action based on the
instructions on the page, but i have been unable to do so. After
having tried many times, i have decided to try to 'extract' the
necessary html from the page source html. 

So i am going to copy its source html, and see if it will run 'stand-
alone', sometimes things don't run the same after you've copied them
from the internet.
Back soon.
******************

15:56 20/01/07
Well it won't run from its own source code.
The original page is there too, that still runs ok even though i am
disconnected from the internet for the time being.
It is strange that it wont run from the source code.
******************

16:10 20/01/07
So i copied the temporary internet files into the same folder as my
source code html.
That didnt work either.
I wonder if the original page will refuse to work without the temp'ry
files ... ? it will work ok if i just disconnect, but does it rely on
the temp files i wonder.
I might try that next.
******************

John


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## john1 (Nov 25, 2000)

I am going to try to save this page in favourites,
as 'available off line'
if it saves and works, then maybe i can track down what it needs.

John


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## john1 (Nov 25, 2000)

Hi,

No it won't save as 'Available on line'
It claims to be sychronised, but it wont run.

Yet if i disconnect when its up and working,
it will continue to work.
But it wont save as a working page.
Or even as a not working page.

I will try again to comprehend what this person is trying to convey.
His communication skills are sadly lacking.
If anyone else can explain his instructions i would be grateful.
Surprised, but gratetful.
http://www.vladdy.net/webdesign/Tooltips.html
I have read it through many times, and i still have not managed to
do the action illustrated at the bottom of the page by the small
demonstration called: ttdelay='0'

It shows the tooltip instantly.

I am most peeved by this, since it is clearly possible, and yet it
eludes me.

John


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

The reason why it's not working is that you need to put the code that they show you in a JavaScript file with an extension of .js (let's say tooltips.js) and then in the header of your HTML page put this line of code:

```

```
If you don't know how to do this just open up a new NotePad document, paste the code in, then save it as tooltips.js and put it in the same folder as your HTML page. 

It should work then.


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

Here is the script that they use on the page:
http://www.vladdy.net/webdesign/Scripts/ToolTips.js

I suppose you could just download that and then also download DOM_Fixes.js, which it requires, here:

http://www.vladdy.net/webdesign/Scripts/DOM_Fixes.js

Just place them all in the same folder.


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## john1 (Nov 25, 2000)

Hi,

I tried that stuff, copying that in, changing to js, and copying the
tooltips.js, and putting it into the file. But i couldnt get it to
work.

But i did find this,
http://ejohn.org/apps/jselect/event.html
Which although i have no idea how it does what it does,
it will do it from a copy of the source, from View > source.

That means that i can copy it as html,
and it will run.

And it will do it just the same from my copy,
as it does on the live page.

It responds instantly to the tooltip.

So ive copied that code, and ive tried chopping bits off it, in an
attempt to get to the minimum bit that would still do an instant
response. But i didnt get very far. Ive got it down to 2.7k trouble
is, i dont know what i'm doing.

But it does show how the js is arranged on the html page.
And i can sort of see where comments are inserted into the js script.

But i am really not very good at it, else i would have it down to just
a few lines by now.

I shall keep trying, John


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## john1 (Nov 25, 2000)

After a lot of trimming i got it down to a reasonable amount,
but now i realise that the code from that page:
http://ejohn.org/apps/jselect/event.html
does not show a tooltip. Although it is instant, its the tooltip
i am interested in. This code actually alters the displayed page,
which is not what i want.

So i will have to have another think.
I will try again to get some working effect from the instructions
that people have posted here for me to follow.

I must have missed something previously.
This can not be that hard.

John


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