title attribute not working in IE6?

[archigamer]

I see all over the place that IE5+ supports the title attribute, however on my computer (IE6 XP Pro SP1) the title tag does nothing. here is a sample link on my page

 <a href='Interest.aspx?CPath=4' title="Go into this category">
 		    		    			<img alt="Go into this category" src="Buttons/folder.gif"> Wildlife
 		    		    		</a>

Can anyone explain why the title tag doesnt show a tool tip?

[archigamer]

Well if anyone in the future has this problem, make sure SmartBarXP isnt running. Once I shut that down, the tool tips started to appear in IE

[CatsEyeDesigns]

Also, another thing to consider, in case you didn't know, is that when you have
a link, with a clickable image in it, pointing to the image makes the alt text
appear, instead of the title of the link. Since alt tags are a "usabilty neccessity"
you should probably put the text you want to show up in the tooltip in the alt
property of the image. ie: <a href="..."><img src="..." alt="tooltip text"></a>

[redemption]

Actually, Ryan, the alt tag is not meant to be a tooltip. That is an "error" on IE6's part. On the other hand, having the title tag show up as a tooltip is expected and accepted in browser implementations.

Vinnie explains it best in the 2nd post here -> http://sitepointforums.com/showthread.php?t=131733 and in this bit:

The alt attribute only shows a tooltip in IE/Windows, which according to the W3C specs it is NOT supposed to do. ALT is for a replacement of information when the image is not available; title is meant for supplemental information that the browser should show. It's not the same thing, nor should you really populate the alt and title with the same content in an image/image map.

here

[blufive]

<a href="..."><img src="..." alt="tooltip text"></a>

To expand on what redemption said, I'd re-do that code with BOTH alt and title on the image:

<a href="..."><img src="..." title="tooltip text" alt="alt text"></a>