Tooltip CSS cursor

Question

I am at a bit of a loss as to what cursor I should be using for tooltips that have no click through behaviour. I have a hover only tooltip are I currently use the CSS cursor:

cursor: pointer

However I am also using this cursor for buttons and links (things with a click behaviour) and the tooltip elements have no click functionality at all.

I was thinking of using:

cursor: help

Here is a list of available cursors in browsers: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Web/CSS/cursor

Is help confusing, or should I just stick to the pointer?

Answer 1

The cursor should change depending on the interaction the user can do with the element, not on the tooltip. A tooltip appears to explain what the element is or what it does.

For example when we hover over a link the pointer cursor reinforces that clicking the link with do some action. This link might also have a tooltip, but the cursor depends on the click action.

So the cursor tells the user how can (or can't) he utilize the element (click to perform some action, click drag to move element, click drag to select text, etc). In your case if the element is not going to respond to any action when clicked, dragged, etc. then don't use a cursor different than the default.