A tooltip may refer to any of the following:

  1. Alternatively known as a balloon, help balloon, flyover help, or ScreenTip, a Tooltip is a text description near an object. The tooltip is displayed when the user hovers the mouse cursor over the object. Tooltips are helpful for new users because they enable the user to learn about each icon or object by hovering their mouse over them. The picture shows an example of a tooltip in Microsoft Word describing the formatting marks button as showing marks or hiding the marks. Placing your mouse over this picture also give you a tooltip in your browser.

Another example of a balloon is the balloon on the Start button in early versions of Microsoft Windows that shows “Click here to begin”.

  1. Balloons and tooltips are also found in Internet browsers as alt text or title text. For example, when hovering your mouse over any of the pictures on this page, you’ll see a description.

With a touch screen, you cannot hover your finger over an object, which means tooltips are not available.

Alt, AutoText, Cursor, Hover, , Notification, Operating system terms

  • How to create a text description for an image in HTML.
  • Why an HTML image alt text doesn’t show on hover.