Bill,

On the topic of tool tips, I have been thinking from a 'usability'
perspective that they would be better off located next to the actual icon,
in a similar vein to the <img... alt..> element in HTML.

One thing I've always tried to avoid when building websites is to have
navigation information away from the actual hyperlink. Someone once coined
it "Mystery Meat" navigation... you'll never know what you are going to get.
If you have ever seen sites which use the browser window.status bar to
display nav information then you'll know what I mean.

Looking towards the application bar is not the usual reaction of a user when
looking for nav info.

As an example , Eudora uses tooltips over it's icons when the mouse rolls
over them.


best regards

James Ellis



Hi Lawrence,

The manual doesn't mention the toolbar because I added that after
Guide 7 started shipping. However, if you take a look at "Settings...
Toolbar", you should have no problem in turning buttons on or off and
in switching from the (default) small buttons to the larger buttons.

To get toolbar tips, you'll need to use the current software;
the tips will then automagically appear on the application title bar,
both for toolbar buttons and for legend items. That is, move the
cursor over the time shown in the legend, and the application title
bar will have a blurb telling you what clicking in that area will do.

For gory details, including how you can reset the actions that
result from clicking in the legend area:

http://www.projectpluto.com/update7.htm#toolbar_tips
http://www.projectpluto.com/update7.htm#legend_tz

-- Bill



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