[kde-guidelines] Styleguide: Tool-tips

[Heiko Tietze]

User Assistance > User-driven information
* Provide Tool-tips for user driven information

http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/Usability/HIG/Tooltip

Purpose
A ''tool-tip'' is a small pop-up window that labels the unlabeled control 
being pointed to, such as toolbar controls without caption or command buttons. 
When providing more descriptive text the control is called ''info-tip''. Tips 
are a form of progressive disclosure, eliminating the need always to have 
descriptive text on the screen. This time-delay mechanism makes tips very 
convenient, but it also reduces their discoverability. When tips are used 
consistently they support user’s expectation and foster predictability. 

Guidelines
* Use tips to label unlabeled controls and to provide additional information. 
* Don’t use tips for warnings.
* Use user defined default timeouts for initialization, reshow, and removal. 
Don't disable auto hide feature.
* Keep tips brief, typically five words or less for tool-tips; whenever 
appropriate, provide keyboard shortcuts and default values. 
* Format info-tips to make their content easier to read and scan by grouping 
and aligning the content. The information should be:
** concise: large, unformatted blocks of text are difficult to read and 
overwhelming
** helpful: it shouldn't be obvious or just repeat what is already on the 
screen) 
** supplemental: important information should be communicated using self-
explanatory control labels or in-place supplemental text)
** static: tips should not change from one instance to the next)
* Consider to add small info buttons for use tips with a touch screen. 

Question: Can we made the distinction between tool- and info-tip?