Howdy do,

http://www.the-web-seeker.com/

I have looked at the alt function as used with images.

Is there a way to do the same for a link Flyover?

Thank you,

Seeker

It's not clear why you would want to do that. The purpose of the alt attribute is to tell the browser what text to display when images are turned off, or provide alternate content for a text browser or a screen reader where images are ignored.

In the case of your page, your links are still readable even if images are turned off, so you wouldn't gain anything from alt attributes except maybe link names being repeated unnecessarily.

IE 6 (and maybe 7) incorrectly shows alt text when the pointer is held over images with alt attributes. This shouldn't happen, and it doesn't in other browsers. If this sort of behavior is desired then you should use the title attribute instead. It's basically used to provide information in addition to what's already present, and it can be used with links.

You might end up with something like this:

<a href="contact.html" title="If you have questions">Contact Us</a>

Gary,

For example, when you do a flyover on my menu's have the
ALT text appear...

Reasoning is this... Blind folks are running programs that
speak text as they fly over parts of the screen...

I'd like to be able to accomodate this...

I will work with your suggestion in a little while.

Thank you very much,

Seeker

You won't need to do this because your menu links are already readable text links.

Cary,

OK...Didnt know that....

Thank you,

Seeker

Cary,

http://www.the-web-seeker.com/

I went ahead and took your first advice...
Its only on my entry menu...

Even tho the voice readers work, I like the
idea of having Expanded information on the
flyover...

Dont want to over complicate things, but
want my visitors happy..

Thanks for you advice,

Seeker

I just realized tonight, that IE8 has continued this erroneous trend. I really wish MS would get with the program and FOLLOW STANDARDS!!! Why do they always think they are too good for such?

What IE 8 does depends on its rendering mode. In IE 8 Standards mode, the alt text isn't seen, but in quirks mode it behaves more like IE 6. In compatibility mode it behaves more like IE 7.

Visit your site's main page and then select the menu item Tools>Developer Tools.

The top bar has

Browser Mode: IE8 and Document Mode: Quirks

The reason it renders in quirks mode and not standards mode is your doctype.



The doctype is incomplete, so that sends both IE and FF into quirks mode. Even if you fix the doctype, the blank line above the doctype will still keep IE in quirks mode.

Here's what your doctype should look like so it's both valid and complete:

I wasn't in "quirks mode", nor at my site... This was noted at another site on the web, and it's actually in both normal and quirks mode that I've seen it now.