Feature suggestion: Hide image title attributes on mouse-over

[Bobthearch]

When scrolling the cursor over an image a box pops up with the alt image title, which is inane by default, simply the file number assigned by the camera.
I’d love to have an option built into the Weaver theme for hiding these site-wide.  I realize there are ways to deal with this ‘problem’ like giving every image a real title, manually editing each image one-by-by, or adding custom code somewhere.  A check box in the theme options sure would simplify the issue.
At least I find these pop-up image titles quite annoying, useless, and unnecessary.  Is there a good reason why not to hide these?  Do they perform some SEO function or do some viewers like them?

[Gillian]

The alt tag is predominantly used for accessibility.  See this wikipedia article for more information:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alt_attribute

[Bobthearch]

I’m not sure how “DSC_3056” is helpful for accessibility.  😉

I’ve been browsing random photography and travel websites across the web tonight, and notice that none have alt tags popups.  Major websites like Facebook, CNN, and BBC don’t use them either.  Even the WordPress.org website doesn’t have alt tags.

I’d really just like them gone.  🙂

[Weaver]

The popup info is from the title tag, I believe.

It is also considered important for SEO.

[scrambler]

A small web search returned that page that has your answer

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5871239/turn-off-alt-tags-on-links-with-css

They are impossible to turn off just with CSS. They are browser dependant and are not part of any CSS spec i.e. you can’t style them, hide them, anything.

Though you can get rid of them by JavaScript:

[Bobthearch]

If they are so important, I wonder why other websites don’t use them?  And they’re unavoidable in WordPress, it’s odd that the WordPress.org website doesn’t have them.

Thanks Weaver for the info.  The popup text is indeed the contents of “Image Title Attribute,” as shown when editing the photos within WordPress “Image Details” screen.

It is possible to remove the tags by manually editing each photo.  But to go through the entire website and delete every tag one-by-one would take some time; there are hundreds of photos already.  And tags would still be automatically created for every new image that’s uploaded in the future.

[Gillian]

@scrambler – alt tags on links are a separate issue, and it is possible to turn them off in both Weaver II Pro and in Weaver Xtreme (at my request in both themes 🙂 ) – uses JavaScript.

Weaver II (Pro option): Main Options > Links > Hide Menu/Link Tool Tips

Weaver Xtreme (Plus option): Main Options > Fonts & Custom > Hide Menu/Link Tool Tips

The confusion arose for you and me because Bobthearch used the term “alt”, and only Weaver realised he actually meant the title tag not the alt tag :-).

[scrambler]

Actually my answer and the solution it pointed to was about the title tag 🙂

[Gillian]

Ah, yes, the real confusion arises when these tag names are used interchangeably 🙂

[Author]

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