Testing alternate anchor text

Its possible to associate additional information with anchors and images (and other things) by using 'alt' and/or 'title' attributes, and/or JavaScript fragments setting window.status. Different browsers do different things with this information, including ignoring some or all of it, displaying it on the status line (commonly at the bottom of the screen), or displaying it in a 'tool-tip' popup. This document contains a 'torture test' that provides examples of most possible combinations and the results for common browsers.

Conclusions

Setting window.status in JavaScript provides an alternative that works for many browsers, including many that don't support the title attribute. In fact a combination of a title attribute and a onmouseover handler setting window.status will provide additional information one way or an other on all tested browsers except Mac Netscape 2.02, which doesn't seem to have any way to do this at all.

You should be sure that the JavaScript handler you use to set window.status returns 'true', otherwise some browsers will ignore your text. Browsers differ in what they do to the status line when the pointer leaves the area. Some set it to blank (or other, browser-dependent, default), others leave the user defined status text in place until it is replaced by other means. Therefore if you don't want your text to continue to be displayed you should set window.status to blank with an onmouseout handler. If on the other hand you do want text to continue to be displayed you will not be able to do this reliably since some browsers unconditionally reset the status line You might be able to use window.defaultstatus to get around this, but I haven't tested this.

Results

• For graphical browsers, there are two places additional information appears: the status bar (S:), and in tool-tip popups (P:). For text-mode browsers we are more interested in what is displayed on the screen (D:) or shown in any popup menus that replace imagemap functionality (M:).
• There are six items of text that may appear: the url of the link or image (url), the filename of an image (name), the text provided by an 'alt' attribute (alt), that provided by a 'title' attribute (title), that set into window.status by an onmouseover handler (over), and that set by a onmouseout handler (out).
• While popups always go away when the pointer leaves the area, text can be left on the status bar. The S: entry therefore shows both what appears while the pointer is in the area and what appears when it leaves, separated by /

Examples:

S:url/

Status bar displays the url of the link while the pointer is over the area, and nothing (or browser default) once it leaves.

P:title, S:over/out

A popup appears containing the text set by the title attribute, and the status bar displays the text set by the onmouseover handler while the pointer is in the area. The status bar displays the onmouseout handler text when the pointer leaves the area.

Graphical Browsers

		Unix			Mac				Windows
		NS 4.76	Konqueror 2.1.1 [1]	Opera 5.0	NS 2.02	NS 3.04/4.06/4.7	NS 6	IE 4.01/4.5/5.0	NS 4.7	IE 5.0/5.5
Plain anchors
no alternative text		S:url/	S:url/	S:url/	S:url/	S:url/	S:url/	S:url/	S:url/	S:url/
title		S:url/	S:url/	S:title/	S:url/	S:url/	P:title, S:url/	P:title, S:url/	S:url/	P:title, S:url/
mouseover		S:over/	S:over/	S:url/over	S:over/	S:over/	S:over/	S:over/over	S:over/over	S:over/over
mouseover mouseout		S:over/	S:over/	S:url/out	S:over/	S:over/ [2]	S:over/	S:over/out	S:over/out	S:over/out
title mouseover		S:over/	S:over/	S:title/over	S:over/	S:over/	P:title, S:over/	P:title, S:over/over	S:over/over	P:title, S:over/over
with title mouseover mouseout		S:over/	S:over/	S:title/out	S:over/	S:over/ [2]	P:title, S:over/	P:title, S:over/out	S:over/out	P:title, S:over/out
Images
no alternative text:		nothing	nothing	S:url/	nothing	nothing	nothing	nothing	nothing	nothing
alt:		P:alt	nothing	S:url/	nothing	nothing	nothing	nothing	P:alt	P:alt
title:		nothing	P:title	S:title/	nothing	nothing	P:title	P:title	nothing	P:title
mouseover:		nothing	S:over/over	S:over/over	nothing	nothing	S:over/over	S:over/over	nothing	S:over/over
mouseover mouseout:		nothing	S:over/out	S:over/out	nothing	nothing	S:over/out	S:over/out	nothing	S:over/out
alt title:		P:alt	P:title	S:title/	nothing	nothing	P:title	P:title	P:alt	P:title
alt tag mouseover:		P:alt	S:over/over	S:over/over	nothing	nothing	S:over/over	S:over/	P:alt	P:alt, S:over/over
alt mouseover mouseout:		P:alt	S:over/out	S:over/out	nothing	nothing	S:over/out	S:over/out	P:alt	P:alt, S:over/out
title mouseover:		nothing	P:title, S:over/over	S:title/over	nothing	nothing	P:title, S:over/over	P:title, S:over/over	nothing	P:title, S:over/over
title mouseover mouseout:		nothing	P:title, S:over/out	S:title/out	nothing	nothing	P:title, S:over/out	P:title, S:over/out	nothing	P:title, S:over/out
alt title mouseover:		P:alt	P:title, S:over/over	S:title/over	nothing	nothing	P:title, S:over/over	P:title, S:over/over	P:alt	P:title, S:over/over
alt title mouseover mouseout:		P:alt	P:title, S:over/out	S:title/out	nothing	nothing	P:title, S:over/out	P:title, S:over/out	P:alt	P:title, S:over/out
Images as link:		P:img alt, S:url/	S:a url/	S:img title	S:a url/	S:a url/	P:img title, S:url/	P:img title, S:url/	P:img alt, S:url/	P:img title, S:url
Imagemaps
no alternative text:		S:url/	S:url/	S:url/	S:url/	S:url/	S:url/	S:url/	S:url/	S:url/
alt:		S:alt/	S:url/	S:url/	S:url/	S:url/	S:url/	S:url/	nothing	P:alt, S:url/
title:		S:url/	S:url/	S:title/	S:url/	S:url/	P:title, S:url/	P:title, S:url/	nothing	P:title, S:url/
mouseover:		S:over/	S:over/	S:url/over	S:url/	S:over/	S:over/	S:over/over	S:over/over	S:url/
mouseover mouseout:		S:over/	S:over/	S:url/out	S:url/	S:over/ [2]	S:over/	S:over/out	S:over/out	S:url/
alt title:		S:alt/	S:url/	S:title/	S:url/	S:url/	P:title	S:url, P:title	S:url/	P:title, S:url/ [3]
alt mouseover:		S:over/	S:over/	S:url/over	S:url/	S:over/	S:over/	S:over/over	S:over/over	P:alt, S:url/
alt mouseover mouseout:		S:over/	S:over/	S:url/out	S:url/	S:over/ [2]	S:over/	S:over/out	S:over/out	P:alt, S:url/
title mouseover:		S:over/	S:over/	S:title/over	S:url/	S:over/	P:title, S:over/	P:title, S:over/over	S:over/over	P:title, S:url/
title mouseover mouseout:		S:over/	S:over/	S:title/out	S:url/	S:over/ [2]	P:title, S:over/	P:title, S:over/out	S:over/out	P:title, S:url/
alt title mouseover:		S:over/	S:over/	S:title/over	S:url/	S:over/	P:title, S:over/	P:title, S:over/over	S:over/over	P:title, S:url/ [3]
alt title mouseover mouseout:		S:over/	S:over/	S:title/out	S:url/	S:over/ [2]	P:title, S:over/	P:title, S:over/out	S:over/out	P:title, S:url/ [3]

Text mode browsers

		w3m 0.2.1	lynx 2.8.4dev.7	Emacs W3 4.0
Plain anchors
no alternative text		nothing	nothing	S:url
title		nothing	nothing	S:title
Images
no alternative text:		D:name	D:name	[4]
alt:		D:alt	D:alt	[4]
title:		D:name	D:title	[4]
alt title:		D:alt	D:alt	[4]
Images as link:		D:img alt	D:img alt	[4]
Imagemaps
no alternative text:		D:name, M:url	D:name, M:url	[4]
alt:		D:name, M:alt	D:name, M:alt	[4]
title:		D:name, M:url	D:name, M:title	[4]
alt title:		D:name, M:alt	D:name, M:alt	[4]

Notes:

[1] Konqueror will occasionally display the 'mouseout' text from a previously tested link the first time the pointer passes over a different link that does not itself have a mouseover handler. This is assumed to be a bug

[2] Mac Netscape 4.06 displays the mouseout text on the status line when the pointer is on the very edge of the active area on the way out, before clearing it.

[3] Despite otherwise appearing to be identical to IE 5.0, IE 5.5 for Windows displays the 'alt' text in a popup if both 'alt' and 'title' are defined.

[4] Display bugs make it difficult to see what is going on here, except that the image itself is displayed.