Difference between onMouseOver and onMouseEnter

Question

I'm trying to have a simple html table, that highlights a row as a user mouses over it. Unfortunately the css hover item doesn't work for IE. That leaves me to simulate it in javascript. I can use either onmouseenter or onmouseover.

What is the difference between them, and which one should I use?

Answer 1

Short answer: mouseenter more useful.

Explanation here: Mouse events.

Answer 2

First of all, onmouseenter is IE-specific. Doesn't work in other browsers unless you use jQuery which can simulate this event.

Secondly, both onmouseenter and onmouseover fire when the mouse enters the boundary of an element. However, onmouseenter doesn't fire again (does not bubble) if the mouse enters a child element within this first element.

Answer 3

Unlike the onmouseover event, the onmouseenter event does not bubble. In other words, the onmouseenter event does not fire when the user moves the mouse pointer over elements contained by the object, whereas onmouseover does fire.

I always use onmouseover. I use onmouseover in the same purpose (highlights a row).

Answer 4

You might spare yourself some coding by just adding :hover support for all elements in IE too:
try csshover.htc