How can I add a hint or tooltip to a label in C# Winforms?

It seems that the Label has no Hint or ToolTip or Hovertext property. So what is the preferred method to show a hint, tooltip, or hover text when the Label is approached by the mouse?

You have to add a ToolTip control to your form first. Then you can set the text it should display for other controls.

Here's a screenshot showing the designer after adding a ToolTip control which is named toolTip1:

yourToolTip = new ToolTip();
//The below are optional, of course,

yourToolTip.ToolTipIcon = ToolTipIcon.Info;
yourToolTip.IsBalloon = true;
yourToolTip.ShowAlways = true;

yourToolTip.SetToolTip(lblYourLabel,"Oooh, you put your mouse over me.");

System.Windows.Forms.ToolTip ToolTip1 = new System.Windows.Forms.ToolTip();
ToolTip1.SetToolTip( Label1, "Label for Label1");

just another way to do it.

Label lbl = new Label();
new ToolTip().SetToolTip(lbl, "tooltip text here");

Just to share my idea...

I created a custom class to inherit the Label class. I added a private variable assigned as a Tooltip class and a public property, TooltipText. Then, gave it a MouseEnter delegate method. This is an easy way to work with multiple Label controls and not have to worry about assigning your Tooltip control for each Label control.

    public partial class ucLabel : Label
    {
        private ToolTip _tt = new ToolTip();

        public string TooltipText { get; set; }

        public ucLabel() : base() {
            _tt.AutoPopDelay = 1500;
            _tt.InitialDelay = 400;
//            _tt.IsBalloon = true;
            _tt.UseAnimation = true;
            _tt.UseFading = true;
            _tt.Active = true;
            this.MouseEnter += new EventHandler(this.ucLabel_MouseEnter);
        }

        private void ucLabel_MouseEnter(object sender, EventArgs ea)
        {
            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(this.TooltipText))
            {
                _tt.SetToolTip(this, this.TooltipText);
                _tt.Show(this.TooltipText, this.Parent);
            }
        }
    }

In the form or user control's InitializeComponent method (the Designer code), reassign your Label control to the custom class:

this.lblMyLabel = new ucLabel();

Also, change the private variable reference in the Designer code:

private ucLabel lblMyLabel;

I made a helper to make life easier.

public static class ControlUtilities1
{
    public static Control AddToolTip(this Control control, string title, string text)
    {
        var toolTip = new ToolTip
        {
            ToolTipIcon = ToolTipIcon.None,
            IsBalloon = true,
            ShowAlways = true,
            ToolTipTitle = title,
        };
        toolTip.SetToolTip(control, text);
        return control;
    }
}

Call it after controls are ready:

        InitializeComponent();
        ...
        linkLabelChiValues.AddToolTip(title, text);

It's an way to keep consistent tool tip styles.