How do I properly create links?

August 30, 2006 3:54 AM

MeFi link filter: I'm a self-proclaimed newbie and have unsuccessfully tried to answer my question by skimming the FAQs and searching the site.

How do I compose links so that a mouseover displays the title of the link and the related URL, as it does in the following posting?

http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/54372
posted by NYCinephile to MetaFilter-Related at 3:54 AM (12 comments total)

<a href="http://example.com" title="Example mouseover text">Example</a>
posted by jack_mo at 3:56 AM on August 30, 2006 [3 favorites]

Oh, and the related URL thing is done magically by the site (though not all users have the option to display titles that way switched on).
posted by jack_mo at 4:00 AM on August 30, 2006

Thanks for the quick response, jack. I'm also learning about html as I go...can I assume that the command you posted works on other sites, as well?
posted by NYCinephile at 4:16 AM on August 30, 2006

The title attribute is, yes, standard HTML. Metafilter does some magic stuff to it when it's in a post, though. On other sites, you'll get something like this. (Hover over it for a moment and you should get a small "tooltip".)
posted by Plutor at 4:26 AM on August 30, 2006

(Unless, of course, the "other site" filters out some or all HTML from comments or posts. YMMV.)
posted by Plutor at 4:27 AM on August 30, 2006

Matt uses some ancient javascript (nicetitles) to accomplish the effect. These days qTips and Sweet Titles are the cat's testicles for this stuff, in my humble.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:30 AM on August 30, 2006 [1 favorite]

Ooh, qTips are pretty, thanks stav.

NYCinephile - my Googling is failing me just now, but there was a recent MetaTalk thread about some other tags that use the title attribute handily:

<abbr title="HyperText Markup Language">HTML</abbr> gives you HTML

<acronym title="Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome">AIDS</acronym> erm, gives you AIDS

In some browsers text inside those tags has a dotted underline, or is in italics so folk know to hover over them, but some browsers don't add any style, so you maybe shouldn't use them in a post for vital information, as some people won't see it.
posted by jack_mo at 5:01 AM on August 30, 2006 [1 favorite]

The title attribute is, yes, standard HTML. Metafilter does some magic stuff to it when it's in a post, though. On other sites, you'll get something like this. (Hover over it for a moment and you should get a small "tooltip".)

Huh, I don't notice any diffrence...
posted by delmoi at 8:58 AM on August 30, 2006

delmoi, you need to have "show dhtml titles" set to "Yes" on your preferences page in order to see the difference.
posted by jonson at 9:52 AM on August 30, 2006

The fancy version doesn't work in Safari, sadly.
posted by Mwongozi at 1:53 PM on August 30, 2006

Previously.
posted by Rhomboid at 3:38 PM on August 30, 2006

Metafilter's dhtml titles, when turned on in your profile, do work in Safari.
posted by blasdelf at 4:58 AM on August 31, 2006