Re: Strange alt text behavior

Hi Ken

----- Original Message -----
From: Ken Lanxner <klanxner(at)home.com>

> So when I use the alt "spacer" on my 1 x 1 gifs,
> it appears (at least in my browser) that there is no alt text. Is this
> also a Mac specific situation. Do browsers for PCs display *all* the alt
> text when images are turned off?

Not sure what the position is with older versions of IE, but IE5 has a
setting to specify that it should "Always expand ALT text for images".  If
that is switched off, the ALT text is truncated to fit the space that would
have been occupied by the image.  It it's switched on, the entire ALT text
will be displayed, stretching the image "box" to fit the text.  I *think*
NN behaves in a fashion similar to what you describe for Mac versions of IE
and NN.

> And will text readers be able to read
> the complete alt text, even if it is not displayed?

A text only browser ignores everything to do with images except for the ALT
text attached to them, so the size of the image in comparison to the amount
of ALT text isn't an issue.  Increasingly, speech browsers, which also
ignore images except for the ALT text, interpret the HTML code directly,
rather than simply trying to read what's on the screen, so again, it isn't
an issue.  I'm not sure quite how old screen readers handle images and ALT
text.

Just a quick note here - you refer to using the ALT text "spacer" for your
spacer gifs.  A general guideline that I have found useful when it comes to
creating appropriate ALT text is to focus on the function or information
content of the image, and look for the best way of reproducing that in text
form.  A spacer gif is generally relevant only in terms of graphical
layout, which has no significance to text readers, so you might consider
using ALT="" or, if an actual space would be useful to a text reader, ALT="
".  Similarly with images used as bullets - rather than using the word
"bullet" or whatever, you could use "* " or "- ", and for images used as
bars or dividers, you could consider using "-----" or something along those
lines (sorry - unintended pun).

Hope that helps...

Regards,
Donna
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