[WEB4LIB] HTML ?

[Thomas Dowling]

> Can anyone spare me some hours of reading/searching?  Is there an HTML
tag -
> similar to the ALT tag - which would show popup text when the cursor is
> placed over it?  (Don't know if I'm explaining this right, but I know what
I
> mean ;) ).  What I see in my mind is that if I have a link on my home page
> for Databases, I'd like to have a popup that would say "Medline, CINAHL,
MD
> Consult, etc." as a navigation aid to users.
>

HTML 4.x provides, and IE4+ and Mozilla both support, a TITLE attribute for
almost every element.  Both browsers treat this as a tooltip that pops up if
you hold the mouse over that element.  So:

  <h3>Databases</h3>
  <ul>
  <li
    title="The National Library of Medicine's database of journal
citations">
    MEDLINE</li>
  <li
    title="The primary database for literature in the field of nursing and
allied health">
    CINAHL</li>...

Bill Drew offered an example of an A element with a title attribute.  It's
worth noting that Netscape 4.x will display that, but as a substitute for
the URL in the status bar, not as a tooltip.

Thomas Dowling
Ohio Library and Information Network
tdowling at ohiolink.edu