Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Enabling alt-text pop ups

  • 4 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 330 views
  • Last reply by DenisT

more options

While I generally use Firefox, one of the features I find useful in Internet Explorer 8 is that "alt text" appears as a small popup on mouse-over. I've searched Firefox and Firefox Help to see if there was a feature that could be enabled for this, but have not found any references at all to alt-text. Can Firefox show "alt text"? If not, is there an add-on? If not, please submit this as a suggested feature to add in future releases.

While I generally use Firefox, one of the features I find useful in Internet Explorer 8 is that "alt text" appears as a small popup on mouse-over. I've searched Firefox and Firefox Help to see if there was a feature that could be enabled for this, but have not found any references at all to alt-text. Can Firefox show "alt text"? If not, is there an add-on? If not, please submit this as a suggested feature to add in future releases.

Chosen solution

title= was introduced later for images, and Firefox being the stickler for standards will show the title but not the alt="descriptive text"

The alt= is what shows if the image does not appear (no found, for instance),, it was/became a requirement because it supposedly would help blind people read the pictures -- that was dropped (there are better methods) and so was the requirement that alt= be always used. The two are not the same thing.

If you want to show Alt= in addition to titles there is an extension, it is messy and I believe one I tried placed a tooltip that couldn't be dismissed once you moused over it -- I'm sure it improved or others have done better. Anyone writing code now should certainly be using title.

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (4)

more options

Chosen Solution

title= was introduced later for images, and Firefox being the stickler for standards will show the title but not the alt="descriptive text"

The alt= is what shows if the image does not appear (no found, for instance),, it was/became a requirement because it supposedly would help blind people read the pictures -- that was dropped (there are better methods) and so was the requirement that alt= be always used. The two are not the same thing.

If you want to show Alt= in addition to titles there is an extension, it is messy and I believe one I tried placed a tooltip that couldn't be dismissed once you moused over it -- I'm sure it improved or others have done better. Anyone writing code now should certainly be using title.

more options

Thanks for the info! I wasn't familiar with the alt= vs title= history. Not only did I find a plugin for the alt= at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/popup-alt-attribute/ but I have edited my own website using title= instead of alt= for my image-mapped labels. Very useful!

more options

You're welcome, I don't make global changes to my site that fast.

more options

It was one page that was giving me issues. The rest of my site will take a while longer. ;)