explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Title text

2025-09-15T13:46:03Z

2A02:A459:101D:0:34C7:DB52:8D4E:381B: /* How to access */

<noinclude>{{xkcd.com}}[[File:xkcd_comic.png|thumb|right|250px|The [[Design of xkcd.com#Comic section|Comic section]] is one of the [[Design of xkcd.com|four main sections]] of the [https://xkcd.com xkcd.com] website.]]{{TOC}}[[File:tt.png|right|thumb|The title text for [[2760: Paleontology Museum]]]]
{{incomplete|
*Explain that Randall previously ''erroneously'' called it "alt text" (like in [[45]]) and mouseover text, but he more recently calls it "title text", like in [[442]]. (Give a bit of history.) Add more comics/examples of Randall calling it "alt text", "mouseover text", and "title" text.

* Explain that in the book [[xkcd: volume 0]], comics sometimes include a different title text.

* Better explain '''[[:Category:No title text]]''' and especially '''[[:Category:Multiple title texts]]'''.

* Explain the use of title texts in the images of his ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'' articles (explained [[what if? (blog)|here]]) and how the use changed from describing the image to adding jokes.}}
The '''title text''', also known as {{w|mouseover|mouseover text}} or {{w|tooltip}}, is an {{w|HTML attribute}} [[Randall Munroe|Randall]] puts on [[:Category:No title text|almost every xkcd comic]] to add something tangentially relevant to the topic of the comic. In some of the early comics, the title text was also used to comment on how they were drawn (see [[24: Godel, Escher, Kurt Halsey]]) and explain the joke (see [[5: Blown apart]]). In [[:Category:No title text|a few comics]], the title text is missing. The comic with the longest title text is [[1363: xkcd Phone]] (816 characters), while [[1311: 2014]] has the title text with the highest word count (134 words).

==How to access==
{{Quote|[T]o my knowledge none of the comics were ever missing a tooltip. It's all in a database (overbuilt, I know) and I think I would have noticed an empty field. More likely someone was just confused by their browser's erratic tooltip display behavior. Sometimes you have to do little incantations (or mouse over a link and then back onto the picture) to get them to appear.|[[Randall Munroe]]|{{w|Talk:Xkcd/Archive_1#All but one...|Source}}}}

Then title text can be accessed in many ways:
* By hovering the mouse pointer over the image on the main site;
* By clicking the "<sup>(alt-text)</sup>" button next to the comic title on the [https://m.xkcd.com mobile site];
* By viewing the [[Transcript|official transcript]] of the comics;
* By installing a [[Browser helpers|browser helper]];
* By opening the info.0.json file, for example [http://xkcd.com/info.0.json http://xkcd.com/info.0.json] or [http://xkcd.com/412/info.0.json http://xkcd.com/412/info.0.json]

==History==
Randall didn't add title texts to his comics before [https://xkcd.com xkcd.com], but most of the comics posted on [[LiveJournal]] had an original caption beneath the image, and many had comments by LiveJournal users. All the comics transferred to the new site had a title text, which was often along the same lines, but was almost never the same as the caption on LiveJournal. Learn more at [[LiveJournal]].

Randall uses the "title" attribute rather than the {{w|Alternative text for images|"alt" attribute}} in the HTML sources. In the [https://xkcd.com/rss.xml comics feed] and [https://xkcd.com/info.0.json API data] the "alt text" is labelled "alt". Randall has, at times, refer to "alt text", with one early comic example being the title text of [[45: Schrodinger]], though that can equally be read as refering to the accompanying "alt=" parameter given to the image, "Schrodinger", as far as the implied joke goes.

==Firefox bug==
{{w|Firefox 2}} used to have a long-standing bug where only the initial part of the title text was shown as a tooltip. Firefox didn't show you the rest of the text unless you right-clicked show-property, and you would be able to see a sideways scrollable field of the title-text in the properties for the image. This bug was referenced in the title text of [[491: Twitter]] ("If long tooltips / cut off for you / then upgrade from / Firefox 2 / Burma Shave") and is still mentioned in [https://xkcd.com/about xkcd.com's About page]:

{{Quote|<big>'''Why can't I read the whole comic mouseover text in Firefox?'''</big>

''They can be read with extensions like [https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1715/ Long Titles], or by right-clicking on the images and going to 'properties', then clicking and dragging to read the whole thing. This is a bug in [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id{{=}}45375 Firefox, Mozilla Bug #45375]. It has been outstanding for many years now.

''Note: It looks like it's been fixed in Firefox 3.0. Now, as an added tweak, to keep the tooltips from expiring while you're reading, you can use [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/11233 this].|[[Randall Munroe]]|[https://xkcd.com/about About xkcd]}}

[[Category:Design of xkcd.com]]{{xkcdmeta}}

Title text

2025-09-15T13:43:53Z

2A02:A459:101D:0:34C7:DB52:8D4E:381B: /* How to access */

<noinclude>{{xkcd.com}}[[File:xkcd_comic.png|thumb|right|250px|The [[Design of xkcd.com#Comic section|Comic section]] is one of the [[Design of xkcd.com|four main sections]] of the [https://xkcd.com xkcd.com] website.]]{{TOC}}[[File:tt.png|right|thumb|The title text for [[2760: Paleontology Museum]]]]
{{incomplete|
*Explain that Randall previously ''erroneously'' called it "alt text" (like in [[45]]) and mouseover text, but he more recently calls it "title text", like in [[442]]. (Give a bit of history.) Add more comics/examples of Randall calling it "alt text", "mouseover text", and "title" text.

* Explain that in the book [[xkcd: volume 0]], comics sometimes include a different title text.

* Better explain '''[[:Category:No title text]]''' and especially '''[[:Category:Multiple title texts]]'''.

* Explain the use of title texts in the images of his ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'' articles (explained [[what if? (blog)|here]]) and how the use changed from describing the image to adding jokes.}}
The '''title text''', also known as {{w|mouseover|mouseover text}} or {{w|tooltip}}, is an {{w|HTML attribute}} [[Randall Munroe|Randall]] puts on [[:Category:No title text|almost every xkcd comic]] to add something tangentially relevant to the topic of the comic. In some of the early comics, the title text was also used to comment on how they were drawn (see [[24: Godel, Escher, Kurt Halsey]]) and explain the joke (see [[5: Blown apart]]). In [[:Category:No title text|a few comics]], the title text is missing. The comic with the longest title text is [[1363: xkcd Phone]] (816 characters), while [[1311: 2014]] has the title text with the highest word count (134 words).

==How to access==
{{Quote|[T]o my knowledge none of the comics were ever missing a tooltip. It's all in a database (overbuilt, I know) and I think I would have noticed an empty field. More likely someone was just confused by their browser's erratic tooltip display behavior. Sometimes you have to do little incantations (or mouse over a link and then back onto the picture) to get them to appear.|[[Randall Munroe]]|{{w|Talk:Xkcd/Archive_1#All but one...|Source}}}}

Then title text can be accessed in many ways:
* By hovering the mouse pointer over the image on the main site;
* By clicking the "<sup>(alt-text)</sup>" button next to the comic title on the [https://m.xkcd.com mobile site];
* By viewing the [[Transcript|official transcript]] of the comics;
* By installing a [[Browser helpers|browser helper]];
* By opening the info.0.json file, for example [http://xkcd.com/info.0.json] or [http://xkcd.com/412/info.0.json]

==History==
Randall didn't add title texts to his comics before [https://xkcd.com xkcd.com], but most of the comics posted on [[LiveJournal]] had an original caption beneath the image, and many had comments by LiveJournal users. All the comics transferred to the new site had a title text, which was often along the same lines, but was almost never the same as the caption on LiveJournal. Learn more at [[LiveJournal]].

Randall uses the "title" attribute rather than the {{w|Alternative text for images|"alt" attribute}} in the HTML sources. In the [https://xkcd.com/rss.xml comics feed] and [https://xkcd.com/info.0.json API data] the "alt text" is labelled "alt". Randall has, at times, refer to "alt text", with one early comic example being the title text of [[45: Schrodinger]], though that can equally be read as refering to the accompanying "alt=" parameter given to the image, "Schrodinger", as far as the implied joke goes.

==Firefox bug==
{{w|Firefox 2}} used to have a long-standing bug where only the initial part of the title text was shown as a tooltip. Firefox didn't show you the rest of the text unless you right-clicked show-property, and you would be able to see a sideways scrollable field of the title-text in the properties for the image. This bug was referenced in the title text of [[491: Twitter]] ("If long tooltips / cut off for you / then upgrade from / Firefox 2 / Burma Shave") and is still mentioned in [https://xkcd.com/about xkcd.com's About page]:

{{Quote|<big>'''Why can't I read the whole comic mouseover text in Firefox?'''</big>

''They can be read with extensions like [https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1715/ Long Titles], or by right-clicking on the images and going to 'properties', then clicking and dragging to read the whole thing. This is a bug in [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id{{=}}45375 Firefox, Mozilla Bug #45375]. It has been outstanding for many years now.

''Note: It looks like it's been fixed in Firefox 3.0. Now, as an added tweak, to keep the tooltips from expiring while you're reading, you can use [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/11233 this].|[[Randall Munroe]]|[https://xkcd.com/about About xkcd]}}

[[Category:Design of xkcd.com]]{{xkcdmeta}}