The DHTML Toolkit
   -- for Performance-Centered Systems

PCS Attributes: #5 -- Integrate required knowledge as tightly as possible
#12 -- Maintain task context
#13 -- Provide layers
Browser: IE 4+
Demo Subjects: Show/Hide User Assistance
(In the style of Microsoft Money 99)
Tooltips

Show/Hide User Assistance

  1. Click the "Show Help" checkbox in the upper right corner.
     
  2. This demonstrates page-specific user assistance.
     
  3. Notice that the contents of this main part of the screen reformats in response to the opening and closing of the help panel. In particular, any <FORM> fields or other types of interactions will continue to work. This means your users can get support without having to bounce back and forth between overlapping windows.
     
  4. Click the checkbox again to hide the help panel.

Tooltips. Position your cursor over the words "Show Help" (or the checkbox) in the upper right corner. Tooltips are closely related to Attribute #5. They're often used to convey information about the software system itself and how it works. Tooltips are easily implemented (in IE4+) by including the TITLE attribute in a markup tag, as in: 

<P TITLE="The tooltip">Some text.</P>


Source:  Adapted from two articles at SiteExperts.com


Russ Rauhauser
russr@lucent.com
10/14/99

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