Thanks a bunch mkmanning, your brief answer had loads of meaning for me: a) we may look in the jQuery source file to see what a jQuery function does -- jQuery is after all simply JavaScript
b) we can name any JavaScript object by using a colon after a name (http://www.codingforums.com/showthread.php?t=65948), which is how the hover function gets its name c) $ (dollar sign) has no particular meaning in JavaScript (question raised by looking at the beginning of the jQuery source file). Thus jQuery is free to give $_ a special meaning. Looking at the definition of the hover function then, the answer to my original question then appears to be, the hover function won't return until the mouseleave event is triggered. I still don't quite understand the details though. If you could indulge me with further explanation then my questions are: I can see that the hover function takes two parameters, a function to be called on mouseenter and a function to be called on mouseout. What's the difference between mouseenter and mouseover; and mouseleave and mouseout? Mouseover and mouseout are JavaScript event handlers, right? But mouseleave and mouseout appear to be more than aliases, looking at the jQuery source. Also I'm lost as to what the chain of mouseenter and mouseleave could mean: this.mouseenter(fnOver).mouseleave(fnOut); Thanks again, Carol
