Create Hover (Hidden) Messages in Word

Create Hover (Hidden) Messages in Word

What

Instructions to create hover (hidden) messages for a word or words in a Word document that will display only when the pointer is held over the word or words.

Why

Hover messages are a way to supply additional information (such as a definition of a term) to those readers that need that information while not hindering the reading of those that don't need that additional information. This makes your writings beneficial to a larger group of readers.

How

Step 1 ? Turn Tooltips On

o By default, tooltips is turned on; however you should test to make sure it is on. Hold the mouse pointer over any of the icons in the ribbon above for a count of five. If a message box opens tooltips are on and proceed to Step 2. If a message box does not open, follow the instructions below to turn tooltips on.

o Press and hold down the Alt key and press the F key and release both keys and then press the T key (Alt + F, T ) to open Word's Options screen. Be patient as Word may takes a few seconds to run the commands and display the Options screen.

o In the left pane of the Options screen select Display. o Place a checkmark in the box next to Show document tooltips on hover under the Page display

options. o Click OK to close the Options screen.

Step 2 ? Create the Hover Message

o In the Word document place the cursor at the point where you want the word or words that will have the hover message.

o Press Ctrl + F9 keys at the same time to create a field which will be a pair of brackets highlighted with the cursor flashing between the brackets, like this

o Right click and select Edit Field which will open the Field windows as shown below

o Make sure (All) is selected under Categories:. Select AutoTextList which will change the options in this Field window as shown below.

o In the New value: box enter the word or words that will appear in the document. o Leave the Format: as (none). o Click the box next to Tooltip: and enter the hover message in the box to the right of Tooltip:

as shown above. The message is limited to 250 characters (a space is counted as a character) which is many lines of text even with spaces and punctuation. o When finished entering the hover message press the OK button. o The Field window will close and in the Field brackets will be the field coding which looks like this { AUTOTEXTLIST \t "you hover message is here" \*MERGEFORMAT} o Highlight the Field and press the Shift and F9 keys at the same time. This will change the Field to show the word or words you entered as the New value and the Field will still be highlighted. Click anywhere else in the document to unselect the filed which now appears a regular text. o Hold the mouse pointer/cursor over the word or words and the message you enter will pop up as shown in the image below. Move the pointer away from word(s) and the message disappears.

Comments

o The word or words will appear just like the other text that doesn't have hover messages. Change the font color for those words so the readers will be able to tell which word(s) have further information.

o These fields can be copied and pasted and still retain their hover message. o See Create a Floating Message in Word to see a different method of popup message using Alt

Text of a Bookmark hyperlink which changes the color of the word(s) and underlines it. The word(s) with these messages will stick out more in the document. o Saving the document in other formats such as pdf loses these Field functions and the messages will not appear.

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