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However, if you're using it for some kind of sneaky link, you may wish to first enclose it in <jedi></jedi> tags, and use alt="These are not the links you're looking for."
;)
seriously though it does depend on what the gif is for. If it is a spacer you could always say alt="domainname spacer".
I can't think of any non-essential ALT text so well-worded that I would want to hear or see it dozens or hundreds of times per page. Since we are talking clear .gifs, it makes sense (to me, anyway) to keep them transparent in other ways, too.
alt=" " works fine for these tags.
Alts get spoken aloud in screen readers or devices that read pages outloud...
It also won't validate for another reason. All tags and attributes must be in lower case.
However alt="" will validate OK in HTML 4.01 files.
Bad idea. The alt attributes are used by non-visual browsers, such as Braille, and talking browsers for the blind. Do you really want to inflict mis-spellings on them?
This attribute is also used in normal browsers for the text when an image fails to load, or when images are turned off. I sometimes browse this forum using an XDA PDA with a GPRS connection. Since the bill is for the amount of data transferred, not the actual time spent online (and images are most of the stuff on a page), then I browse with all images turned off. If it weren't for the alt text on each one, then I would never know which button was which. I really wouldn't want lots of boxes with mis-spellings in them all over the page when images are turned off.
Bad idea. The alt attributes are used by non-visual browsers, such as Braille, and talking browsers for the blind. Do you really want to inflict mis-spellings on them?
Bad idea? Maybe... if your primary markets are non-visual browsers, such as Braille, and talking browsers for the blind - I would tend to believe that your web site would comply to them as close to 100% as you possibly can.
Business is about "channel conflict" which in an ideal world, there wouldn't be any conflicts. However, you generally can't please everyone with one single page (It's difficult enough just pleasing visual browsers in the way you want your site to be observed.
Ideally (since we are not in a ideal world) develop your site to accommodate different markets is preferred much like accommodated: another language.
This attribute is also used in normal browsers for the text when an image fails to load, or when images are turned off. I sometimes browse this forum using an XDA PDA with a GPRS connection. Since the bill is for the amount of data transferred, not the actual time spent online (and images are most of the stuff on a page), then I browse with all images turned off. If it weren't for the alt text on each one, then I would never know which button was which. I really wouldn't want lots of boxes with mis-spellings in them all over the page when images are turned off.
Obviously clickable buttons are not what I am refering to, and with defined sizes of 1x1 the alt="mis-spelled" word would be defined in the same area.
Common sense prevails though - but "attracting" mis-spelled queries is certainly not a bad idea.
I have alot of Shockwave content that superbly demonstrations ideas to the viewing community... but garbage to a text based browser.
When we can get rid of the keyword for "everyone" then it would be a bad idea.
That's fine, don't spam the user buttons or useful images. Thanks for clarifying that the "mis-spelt" keywords would in fact best be placed in constrained 1x1 pixel elements. That is fine. To clarify that, the tag would therefore contain:
<img src="image.png" height="1" width="1" alt="your keyword list here">
This would not affect the page layout when image loading is turned off, or when images fail to load, which was my initial concern.
Thread Title: clear1x1.gif and Alt Text?
Sorry g1smd - sometimes I skip over important stuff as well. ;)
Yeah, but it is still important to note that the images need to be constrained if they are not to break the layout in browsers where images have failed to load, or have been switched off.
That is, the code:
<img src="image.png" alt="your keyword list here">
would result in big keyword filled boxes of text all over the page, whereas:
<img src="image.png" height="1" width="1" alt="your keyword list here">
would layout and position about the same, whether or not images were being loaded or not.
However, the point remains that for users of non-visual browsers, your keyword filled alt tags will appear as blatent and annoying spam.
Personally, I don't want to force my visitors to see that, just so that my code will validate.
Maybe I need to post a disclaimer? "Sorry about all those 'alt=' you see popping up everywhere people, but you'll be happy to know that this site has valid code!"
Seriously though, anyone know how to stop that display, without asking the visitor to change their browser settings?
Adding an empty title attribute to your image tag (title="") will eliminate alt-tooltip-in-IE misery.
While alternate text may be very helpful, it must be handled with care. Authors should observe the following guidelines:
- Do not specify irrelevant alternate text when including images intended to format a page, for instance, alt="red ball" would be inappropriate for an image that adds a red ball for decorating a heading or paragraph. In such cases, the alternate text should be the empty string (""). Authors are in any case advised to avoid using images to format pages; style sheets should be used instead.
- Do not specify meaningless alternate text (e.g., "dummy text"). Not only will this frustrate users, it will slow down user agents that must convert text to speech or braille output.
[w3.org ]
Andreas
