Jquery ShortText plugin
Uses ellipsis when text is too long and sets a title
HTML
<div id="first"></div>
<div id="second"></div>
JavaScript
$.fn.shortText = function(str,length){
var item = $(this);
var toset = str;
if(str.length > length)
toset = str.substring(0,length) +'..';
item.text(toset).attr('title',str);
}
$('#first').shortText('Some very long string',5);
$('#second').shortText('Some very long string',99);