Hover Help - Bad Practice!

You cannot rely on alt text for purposes of conveying information:

Please enter dates in the format dd/mm/yyyy

<img src="../images/info_i.gif"
alt="Please enter dates in the format dd/mm/yyyy"
width="16" height="16" />

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Better idea:

Please enter dates in the format dd/mm/yyyy

<img src="../images/info_i.gif"
alt="Please enter dates in the format dd/mm/yyyy"
title="Please enter dates in the format dd/mm/yyyy"
width="16" height="16" />

Better, but still useless if you can't 'hover' a mouse!

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Slightly better still:

Please enter dates in the format dd/mm/yyyy

<a href="more-info.html"><img src="../images/info_i.gif"
alt="Please enter dates in the format dd/mm/yyyy"
title="Please enter dates in the format dd/mm/yyyy"
width="16" height="16" /></a>

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Best idea:

Please enter dates in the format dd/mm/yyyy

Don't hide the crucial information!