Human Interface Guidelines/Tooltips
Guideline status
Needs approval
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Tooltips
Tooltips are little popups that give more information about the element under the mouse cursor.
General rules
Follow the general writing style guidelines.
What tooltips should contain:
- The name of the item, not followed by a period.
- A description of the item (see below).
- A "disabled hint" for disabled buttons: If a button is disabled, this text will explain why. (TODO document how to set this!).
- The shortcut, if any.
- The library path, if any.
- Additional useful information (expressions for drivers, BPY path, etc. - These fields may be automatically generated and may be disabled through a Preference option).
The Item Description
Tooltips should first and foremost be helpful. If more than a short sentence is needed to achieve that, by all means, use more than one. Yet, try to keep it short. In other words: Short and to the point.
- It is recommended to start descriptions with verbs. Using the imperative conjugation generally works best.
Don't: "The factor determines how the geometry end factor is mapped to a spline"
Do: "Determine how the geometry end factor is mapped to a spline" - Do not use more than a couple of lines, try to stick with two or three.
- Use full sentences (periods and commas are allowed).
- It's fine to mention examples of situations where you might use the tool.
- Do not document default values; these can change and are hard to keep updated.
- Do not use the described term to explained itself.
- Limit Surface
Don't: "Put vertices at the limit surface"
Do: "Place vertices at the surface that would be produced with infinite levels of subdivision (smoothest possible object)". - Proportional Editing
Don't: "Enable Proportional Editing"
Do: "Transform the neighbouring elements in a falloff from the selection"
- Limit Surface
- Explanations of how the result is affected by different values are fine.
"Higher values reduce render time, lower values render with more detail." - Only describe the positive state of a toggle, not the negative
Don't: "Hide in Viewport"
Do: "Show in Viewport" - Do not use redundant words such as "enables", "activates" etc.
Don't: "Enables snapping during transform"
Do: "Snap during transform"