Re: insensitive tooltips

[Derek Simkowiak <dereks kd-dev com>]

> why it's insensitive.  For example, "You must change some preferences
> before you can click Apply" or "You must select some text to cut."

	The purpose of tooltips is to "tip you off" as to what the icon
represents.  It's the answer to "What is this button?", since icons are
not always easy to recognize (and one-word labels are not always clear).

	Changing the tooltips to "Why this button is insensitive?" may
cause some inconsistent and confusing user interfaces.  Imagine a
(sensitive) print button next to an insensitive cut button on a button
bar.  Moving his mouse acrossed the button bar, the user will see:

"Print the current file"
...followed by...
"You must select some text to cut"

	The tooltips have moved from a descriptive label to an
explanatory phrase, where the explanation is *not* an explanation of what
the button does, but instead why it is insensitive.

	If we do have something like this, I would suggest *appending* the
explanation after the ever-present label, as in:

"Cut text to the clipboard."
...becomes (when insensitive):

"Cut text to the clipboard.
You must first select some text before you can cut it"

	

--Derek