In web page design, what do you call the little window that pops up when you put your cursor over something?

Posted by admin on November 29th, 2009 and filed under web page design | 3 Comments »

I am only asking the name of this concept….I know it’s complicated to actually create. I’m trying to design a web page and I want to add the little windows that pop up to give you more info about something on the page…like on netflix.com, where you put your browser over a movie title and it’s full summary pops up in a little window, but it’s not flash and it doesn’t actually open a pop-up or anything. Any help would be greatly appreciated….I only need to know the name of this concept so that I can learn more. Thanks so much!!!!

It’s often called a "tooltip." While there are more complex implementations using CSS, there’s actually a very simple way to accomplish it that works in most browsers. Just add a "title" property to your tag. You can do this for a link, a button, or an image, among others. Here’s an example for a link:

<a href="http://somewebpage.com" title="Here’s where the tooltip text goes">Some text</a>

This will render as "Some text" with a link to somwebpage.com. When the user hovers over the link, a tooltip will pop up that says "Here’s where the tooltip text goes."

I hope this helps.

3 Responses

  1. Steve D Says:

    It’s often called a "tooltip." While there are more complex implementations using CSS, there’s actually a very simple way to accomplish it that works in most browsers. Just add a "title" property to your tag. You can do this for a link, a button, or an image, among others. Here’s an example for a link:

    <a href="http://somewebpage.com" title="Here’s where the tooltip text goes">Some text</a>

    This will render as "Some text" with a link to somwebpage.com. When the user hovers over the link, a tooltip will pop up that says "Here’s where the tooltip text goes."

    I hope this helps.
    References :

  2. AnalProgrammer Says:

    Whilst it is not a full window that you are talking about it is still a pop-up.

    I would call it a
    pop-up text layer
    because it will probably be created using a div tag.
    References :

  3. Sweet Samara Says:

    You must add the "title" tag to a text link and if it’s an image you add the "alt" tag. So within your text link you would put:

    <a href="YOURLINK" title="DESCRIPTION">

    With an image you’d use the following:

    <a href="IMAGEURL" alt="DESCRIPTION" />

    For more web design help, visit my website at http://strawberry.sweetvanillasugar.com

    I hope this helps.
    References :

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