Tooltips are tiny but they do real work: they disambiguate icons, reassure users about form fields, and confirm where a navigation item leads. Good tooltip copy is short, specific, and free of punctuation clutter. This generator returns three length options for each of the four common element types.
How it works
You pick the element type — action button, icon-only control, form field, or navigation item — and enter a subject (a verb, an icon name, a field label, or a destination). The tool then produces three tooltip variants ordered from shortest to most descriptive:
1. minimal — just the label or verb
2. actionful — adds a verb like "Open" or "Go to"
3. context — adds a short reassurance or detailFor buttons it capitalises the verb; for fields it lowercases the label so it reads naturally inside a sentence like “We’ll never share your email address”. This mirrors how experienced UX writers tier tooltip copy to fit different amounts of space.
Tips and notes
Tooltips vanish on touch screens and only appear on hover or keyboard focus, so never put essential instructions in them. For an icon-only settings button, the generator offers “Settings”, “Open settings”, and “Settings — manage your preferences”; choose the shortest one that still removes ambiguity.
Keep the final copy under roughly fifty characters, drop trailing periods, and make sure the tooltip matches the control’s accessible name so screen-reader and sighted users get the same meaning.
The four element types: what each tooltip should do
Action buttons. If the button has a visible text label (“Save”), it does not need a tooltip at all — the label already tells the user what it does. Tooltips on labeled buttons should only add context that the label cannot, such as a keyboard shortcut: “Save (Ctrl+S)” is a useful tooltip; “Save your work” next to a button labeled “Save” is redundant.
Icon-only controls. This is where tooltips do the most work. Icons are inherently ambiguous — a gear icon might mean Settings, Build configuration, or Preferences depending on the product. An icon-only button with no accessible name is also an accessibility failure. The generator’s three tiers — “Settings”, “Open settings”, “Settings — manage your preferences” — let you pick the shortest label that removes ambiguity for your specific icon.
Form fields. Field tooltips are best used for format hints or reassurance, not for repeating the label. “Use the format DD/MM/YYYY” is a genuinely useful tooltip on a date field. “Enter your email” next to a field already labeled “Email” adds no value. Privacy reassurances like “We never share this” work well here because they address a concern the user already has.
Navigation items. Navigation tooltips are most valuable when the destination name is abbreviated or icon-only, common in collapsed sidebars. “Go to Reports” clarifies a chart icon; “Dashboard” is already clear and probably does not need a tooltip unless the icon is non-standard.
Accessibility: tooltips and screen readers
Tooltip text that matches the accessible name (the aria-label or visible text) of a control is read by screen readers when the element receives focus. If your tooltip says “Delete permanently” but the button’s aria-label says “Delete”, a screen-reader user gets less information than a sighted user hovering over the button — which defeats the purpose of the tooltip. Use the generator’s output as the accessible name, not just the hover text, so all users get the same meaning.
What tooltips should never carry
Do not put error messages, required-field notices, or step-by-step instructions in tooltips. These will be invisible to touch users, to keyboard users who move too quickly, and to any user who does not think to hover. If the information is critical to completing a task, put it inline — below the field, next to the control, or in the UI itself.