From the Department of Redundancy Department
One of the few things I like about Microsoft Word is its commenting feature. I like the way it expands the width of the page to add a column for the comments so that they can be directly across from the text they refer to. I like the color-coded boxes that contain the comments and the dashed lines that connect them to the content. It is a well-implemented feature, and dare I say it, very Mac-like.
However, nothing is ever perfect. When the cursor hovers over a comment, a tooltip is displayed. At first, you may think this is standard behavior and to be expected, but there are two problems.
The tooltip covers up the comment that it belongs to. When you need to insert the cursor in a comment to edit it, the pesky tooltip pops up and precludes you from clicking in the comment. You must move your cursor away and try again, often to be foiled a second time.
Secondly, as you can see, the tooltip doesn’t provide any information that isn’t already displayed in the comment itself, but takes up a lot more space to do it.
This example illustrates two best practices in user interface design:
- Try not to cover up anything important when providing additional information in a floating pop-up, and never block access to interactive content or functions without very good reason.
- If you have nothing of importance to say, don’t say anything.
