[Web4lib] Web technologies and public access

[Jonathan Bloy]

Michael Yunkin wrote:
> Firefox doesn't show alt text on mouseover by default, but the FANTASTIC
> Web Developers extension will show your alt tags  and lots, lots more (also
> includes various validators).
> https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60

Excellent tip.  I've been using the Web Developer extension for several years now, and if I could have only one tool for working with websites, it would be that.

Also a point of clarification:

Internet Explorer is the ONLY browser that will display ALT attributes on mouseover.  This is actually incorrect behavior.  ALT attributes are for alternate content, in case the visitor doesn't, or can't see the image.  All other modern browsers (FireFox, Safari, Opera, etc.) correctly do not display the ALT attributes on mouseover.

If designers want such behavior in all browsers, they should use the title attribute.  Excellent explanation here:
http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/200412/the_alt_and_title_attributes/


--
Jonathan Bloy
Web Services Librarian
Edgewood College
Madison, Wisconsin
http://library.edgewood.edu/