Instead of icons, there could also be a pull down menu with options for every page (maybe only accessible when you hover the mouse over it, although this is again hiding-behavior). In the pull down-menu there's probably enough space to put a description. On the settings page you set an option to enable this (if it wouldn't be a plugin).
It could also be combined with checkboxes on every page.
It could also be combined with checkboxes on every page.