Why are balloon texts (tooltips) not relative to the cursor?

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Why are balloon texts (tooltips) not relative to the cursor?

marcel.taeumel (old)
...but pinned to the object/morph they explain? Sure, the objects want to "explain themserlves". :D That's why, I suppose, there is a speech bubble.

However, imagine a bigger morph, where the cursor enters one corner and the user waits for explanation. The user has to look for the tooltip but is currently focused on the cursor.

I argue that tooltips should always appear at the users current locus of attention, which is directly after a hovering action the mouse cursor.

Comments? :)

Best,
Marcel
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Re: Why are balloon texts (tooltips) not relative to the cursor?

Chris Muller-3
You make a good case for when a balloon is being used for the purpose of "baloon help", e.g., getting an explanation of what is being pointed at.  However there are other use-cases for balloons where they need to be able to point to a particular morph other than the Hand.

So, I think BalloonMorph needs to remain flexible, but select callers could maybe direct the target at the Hand instead..



On Wed, Aug 13, 2014 at 4:04 AM, Marcel Taeumel <[hidden email]> wrote:
...but pinned to the object/morph they explain? Sure, the objects want to
"explain themserlves". :D That's why, I suppose, there is a speech bubble.

However, imagine a bigger morph, where the cursor enters one corner and the
user waits for explanation. The user has to look for the tooltip but is
currently focused on the cursor.

I argue that tooltips should always appear at the users current locus of
attention, which is directly after a hovering action the mouse cursor.

Comments? :)

Best,
Marcel



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Re: Why are balloon texts (tooltips) not relative to the cursor?

marcel.taeumel (old)
I think that users may have difficulties to detect the actual morph's borders if the balloon appears somewhere on a crowded screen.

What are those other use cases? Ah, maybe you can just trigger one or multiple balloon tips without using the hand? Makes sense. Is that feature implemented? Like: "Explain to me everything on screen." I would like that! :)

However, maybe we can distinguish those cases. I will look into the code base a little bit more. Your point to the balloon's target may help.

Best,
Marcel