Provide alternate text and images for the Web - Word

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Provide alternate text and images for the Web

Applies to: Microsoft Office Word 2003

Some people who browse Web pages turn off the display of movies and graphics so that they can browse the Web (World Wide Web (WWW): The multimedia branch of the Internet that presents not only text, but also graphics, sound, and video. On the Web, users can easily jump from item to item, page to page, or site to site by using hyperlinks.) more quickly.

You can specify alternate text (alternative text: Used by Web browsers to display text during image downloads for users who have graphics turned off and for users who rely on screen-reading software to convert graphics on the screen to spoken words.) to appear instead of graphics. You can specify text and an image to appear for a movie. In some browsers (browser: Software that interprets HTML files, formats them into Web pages, and displays them. A Web browser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, can follow hyperlinks, transfer files, and play sound or video files that are embedded in Web pages.), if the display of images and movies is turned on, alternate text might appear as the movie or graphic is downloading.

Show Specify alternate text and image for a movie

On the Web Tools toolbar (toolbar: A bar with buttons and options that you use to carry out commands. To display a toolbar, press ALT and then SHIFT+F10.), click Movie .
If you have not already specified the movie, type the path or Web address of the movie file you want in the Movie box, or click Browse to locate the file.
In the Alternate image box, type the path or Web address of the graphics file that you want to designate as a substitute when the user's browser doesn't support movies or when the user turns off the display of movies, or click Browse to locate the file.
In the Alternate text box, type the alternate text that you want to appear in place of the movie or alternate image.

Show Specify alternate text for graphics

Click the picture (picture: A file (such as a metafile) that you can ungroup and manipulate as two or more objects or a file that stays as a single object (such as bitmaps).) or shape (AutoShapes: A group of ready-made shapes that includes basic shapes, such as rectangles and circles, plus a variety of lines and connectors, block arrows, flowchart symbols, stars and banners, and callouts.).
On the Format menu, click AutoShape or Picture and then click the Web tab.
In the Alternative text box, type the text you want. The text can be as long as you want, but some Web browsers might be able to display only a limited number of the characters.