[porrid]

Although I've bee using Macs since 1984, I doubt I'll ever learn how to express questions in the Mac help window !
When one mouses over files and folders, a yellow box appears over the items. Although this feature can be helpful at times, its now beginning to really annoy me.

Is there a system preference somewhere that I can enable or disable it ?

[fisherKing]

check sys prefs, Universal Access; make sure voiceover is not on...

[tooki]

This has nothing to do with VoiceOver. You're thinking of the black boxes that follow every mouse click, tab, etc. The OP said yellow.

The yellow boxes are the tooltip-like full file names that appear ONLY over items whose names are being shown truncated because it's too long to fit in the normal space. To my knowledge, there's no way to disable it. Not that I can see how it's a problem, since the tooltips take so long to appear (if anything, too long!).

[turtle777]

tooki is right.

Since it takes 3 seconds of the mouse not moving, I don't see how this is a problem...

-t

[Chuckit]

Not only do they take forever to appear, but they vanish if you click anywhere or move the mouse off. What problems are they causing?

[aehaas]

Maybe the preference under Keyboard & Mouse or the Trackpad is useful. There are "key rate" and "delay until repeat" options than can be made slow, fast or even off, as well as other options that may be effective here.

aehaas

[fisherKing]

Originally Posted by fisherKing 

check sys prefs, Universal Access; make sure voiceover is not on...

oops! someone must have broken in here, used my mac to post the above...

[angelmb]

I had read that the following command makes tooltips take 10 seconds to appear in all cocoa applications, open Terminal app (inside Utilities Folder) and type:

defaults write -g NSInitialToolTipDelay -int 10000

You could use the line below to return to the normal behaviour,

defaults delete -g NSInitialToolTipDelay

I can't remember it working for me though.

[JKT]

You can make tooltips appear instantly in the Finder if you hold down a modifier (option key, I think).

[porrid]

Ok I were guessing it were like most things Mac, simple and easy to use, but hey, how lame an idea is that ?
It seems if it ain't easy then its too difficult !
I like many other genuine Mac helpers in here get asked questions by the people I help and support. I was quite wrong to assume it were in System Preferences and I had a mental block when it came to naming the device. Tool Tip hey, thats it.
So can angelmb's suggestion be verified by anybody else in here ?
I like many users who have become accustomed to knowing that breaking something in the Mac system can lead to a disaster.
I'm glad to hear its a cocoa application mechanism, always wondered why it never seemed to occur in Firefox, whereas its a real pain in Camino, especially when your trying to organize your bookmarks in there !
In my system the Tool tip thing pops up within less than half a second. I find it just as annoying as those I'm trying to assist. The device does have its uses though like when one hovers over a file with a long name.

Thank you all for having a go at this one but I while wait for confirming verification on angelmb's suggestion.

[AKcrab]

angelmb gave you the way to turn it on, and turn it off.

Just give it a shot.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by porrid 

Ok I were guessing it were like most things Mac, simple and easy to use, but hey, how lame an idea is that ?
It seems if it ain't easy then its too difficult !

Dude, I don't get what issues you have with this.

I have been a OS X user since 2001, and until this thread, I wasn't even aware that this feature existed. How the heck can this be so annoying for you, especially since it takes 3 seconds to appear.

How slow are you moving your mouse anyways ?

-t

[Big Mac]

I thought the OP wanted to disable Cocoa applications.

[Salty]

Haha yah I was actually thinking the same thing.