432600 - Lengthen tooltip duration, at least for long title attributes

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 395668

(Firefox :: General, enhancement)

Description

[Dave Jakeman]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-GB; rv:1.8.1.12) Gecko/20080207 Ubuntu/7.10 (gutsy) Firefox/2.0.0.12
Build Identifier: Not a bug: general improvement suggestion

Suggested Improvement to Title Text Display Model
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In Firefox 3, hyperlink title text (title="description") is no longer truncated, bringing Firefox into line with Internet Explorer.  This is a most welcome addition -- thanks guys!

The trouble is, Firefox now suffers the same problem that IE does: if the page author puts a large amount of text in a title string, the user doesn't have time to read it.  This is not necessarily the author's oversight and could be improved in Firefox.

The current title text display model works something like this:

1.  User moves mouse pointer over object and then holds still;

2.  After something less than one second of zero pointer motion, the title text is displayed, wrapping if necessary;

3.  A display timer is started;

4.  Providing the pointer remains static, the title text displays for a maximum of five seconds;

5.  The displayed text disappears and redisplay is disabled;

6.  When the pointer next moves, title text redisplay is enabled, subject 2 above.


From the end-user perspective, this translates as:

1.  Move pointer over object, hold still, wait for title text to appear;

2.  Read frantically as much as you can before the five-second timer cuts in;

3.  If you finished reading it, you're done!

4.  If you didn't, move pointer slightly, hold still, wait for title text to reappear;

5.  Quickly find where you left off reading previously and repeat as many times as needed from step 2, trying to understand the partial sentence you just read and remembering everything you read before.  (For added complexity, try concurrently balancing a live eel on your nose.)

This can be a frustrating experience, so I'd like to suggest two possible display models by way of improvement.  The first would be very simple to do, but still only an approximation of what should occur; the second is the proper way to do it:


Alternative 1
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Instead of displaying the title text for a fixed time period of five seconds, display it for four seconds (say) plus some function of the title text length.  Through experimentation, the display time could roughly match the time for a slow-to-average reader to read the title, given no distractions.  For different languages, this would be an approximation.

From the end-user perspective, this would translate exactly as above, but with greater likelihood of reading it all first time through.


Alternative 2
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With the existing model, title text display is triggered by zero pointer motion for a fixed time period.  Maintain that, but also use pointer motion as the event trigger to vanish the text, disabling redisplay until the pointer moves off the object completely (moving back over the object would re-enable display).  Ditch the display timer.

From the end-user perspective, this would translate as:

1.  Move pointer over object, hold still, wait for title text to appear;

2.  Read as much of the title text as you want to at your own pace (ah!);

3.  Read something else, or if the title text is obscuring something, move the pointer slightly to make it disappear.  It will disappear when you next move your mouse anyway.

The advantage of the latter model is it puts the user back in control of his browsing experience -- just as it should be -- instead of the browser making arbitrary decisions on his behalf.  It would make lengthy title text helpful, instead of a challenge for the user to read.  Another advantage is that often, after reading the title text, you don't actually want it to reappear.  This solves that also.  From the user perspective, it would be much simpler and rather intuitive too.

Of the two models suggested, I would greatly prefer and recommend the latter, but either would be an improvement over the current model and IE.

Hope you can take this one up.

Dave Jakeman

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Put in HTML: <a href="http://www.example.com/" title="(lengthy title)">Link</a>
2.Render the HTML
3.Hover mouse pointer over link noting how difficult it is to read lengthy title
Actual Results:  
It's difficult for the user to read lengthy title text.

Expected Results:  
It should be easy for the user to read lengthy title text.

Here is an example link with a real-world legal document title:

<a href="http://www.example.com/" title="[PDF:306K] Certification of Counsel Regarding the (A) Order Authorizing the Debtors to (I) Pay Severance and Accrued Benefits to Terminated Employees and (II) Continue Severance Policy; and (B) Order Granting Debtors' Motion to File Under Seal Documents and Data Subject of Debtors' Motion for Authorization to (I) Continue Prepetition Severance Policy Applicable to All Employees and (II) Pay Severance and Accrued Benefits to Employees Terminated Postpetition">Link</a>

The titles of some legal documents are considerably longer than this!

Comment 1

[Xavier Robin]

An example can be seen at http://www.qwantz.com/archive/001240.html
Hover the comic image : even a good reader in english has barely enough time to read it .