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I consulted with our programmers, and they said it's called a "Tool Tip"...
I than looked it up in the handy-dandy Microsoft Manual of Style, and it said
(amongst other things) that most buttons are named in ToolTips. So, squeezing
all the meaning out of that scant definition that we can, I'd say that those
little pop-up rectangles are called ToolTips.
ToolTip, incidentally, is one word, with both Ts capitalized. It's not a
Microsoft trademark...
--
Lisamarie Babik
lmbabik -at- winspc -dot- com
Documentation Specialist
DataNet Quality Systems
24567 Northwestern Highway
Fourth Floor
Southfield, MI 48075
(248)357-2200
-----Original Message-----
From: Beth Kane [SMTP:bethkane -at- tcisolutions -dot- com]
Sent: Monday, December 20, 1999 12:12 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Terminology help needed!
Hello,
I posted this question to the list a couple weeks ago and received only two
responses -- maybe because I posted it on a Friday afternoon. So I figured
I'd try again.
I'd like to make sure we're using the correct term to refer to a feature in
our interface.
Our applications have lots of "hover help," wherein holding your cursor over
something causes a line of text to appear in a rectangular box, explaining
that item. This help text disappears within about 3 seconds.
The previous writer of the docs I'm working on referred to it as "fly-over
hints." I've heard others casually refer to it as "hover help." I've also
heard this term: "Help hints." What is the proper term?
It can't be ToolTips, because it doesn't just describe toolbar buttons.
"ScreenTips"
was suggested by the MS manual of style. Using the word "screen" kind of
bothers
me, though, because that word went out with DOS (unless, of course, you're
referring to the monitor's entire screen). MS says you shouldn't say
"hover."
Thanks in advance,
Beth Kane, Tucson
bethkane -at- tcisolutions -dot- com
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