[thelist] Netscape 7 and <alt>

Mark Gallagher mark at cyberfuddle.com
Sun Jun 9 20:43:02 CDT 2002


Laurel Nevans wrote:
>>Well, excuse me. I sense a slam there as you mention
>
> "designers." I went through months of Web Design school where I
> was taught to use ALT and not TITLE ... and I was taught using
> the NN4.x browser where ALT is also displayed as a "tool tip." My
> teachers then have misled a lot of students along the way if this
> is the case.
>
> I may be wrong here, but isn't TITLE a fairly NEW element?  I
> don't think it was around, or widely implemented by the browsers
> when the WAI guidelines were first written.  (Didn't the TITLE
> tag come out w/ HTML 4?  I don't remember seeing the TITLE tag in
> HTML 3.2 books...)

TITLE as a global attribute[0] is indeed new with HTML 4, so there's
nothing wrong with not having heard of it.

But TITLE is not a replacement for ALT's old behaviour.  ALT is as it
always was - and ALT is *not* TITLE.  AIUI, TITLE was actually created
as something that those who misused ALT could channel their energies
into :o)


[0] Meaning an attribute that can be used on *any* element

--
Mark Gallagher
http://cyberfuddle.com/infinitebabble/





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