Writing alt text for pictures in Publish by Zaweba

Not everyone who reads your newsletter sees the pictures. Some readers use a screen reader that speaks the page aloud, and for them a photo with no description is a silent gap. Alt text, short for alternative text, is a brief description that stands in for a picture when it cannot be seen.

Publish by Zaweba gives every picture an optional alt text property. You can see and edit it in the Properties panel with the picture selected. If you have set up the optional AI features with your own account, the Describe pictures action can fill it for you, as a starting point you then check.

Writing it by hand

Select a picture, find the alt text field in the Properties panel and type a description. The best alt text says what the picture shows and why it is there, in a sentence or so. "Members of the walking group on the summit of the hill, smiling in the sunshine" tells a reader far more than "photo" or "group".

Think about the job the picture does on the page. On a menu, a photo of a dish might be described simply by the dish. On a notice about a new car park, the alt text might mention where the entrance is, if the picture shows it. Leave out phrases like "image of" or "picture of"; a screen reader already announces that it is a picture.

Pictures that do not need a description

Some pictures are pure decoration: a pale pattern behind a heading, a border flourish, a background texture. Describing them adds noise without adding meaning. It is fine to leave their alt text empty and spend the effort on the pictures that carry information.

A logo is a middle case. If it is the only place the name of your club or business appears, give it alt text with the name. If the name is already in the text right beside it, the logo can be treated as decoration.

Using the AI Describe pictures action

Publish has optional AI features that work only with your own account with a provider you choose, or with a model running on your own PC. Nothing is built in and nothing is sent until you ask. With that set up, Describe pictures sends the selected pictures, or the page's pictures if none are selected, as small JPEGs to a model that can see, and Use as alt text stores one description per picture.

It is a good way to get through a newsletter with a dozen photos quickly. Treat the results as drafts, though. A model can describe what it sees, but it does not know that the woman in the centre is your new chair or that the building is the village hall. Read each description and add the names and context that only you know.

With no AI account set up, the AI actions are greyed out, and alt text is simply something you type yourself.

Why it is worth the minute

Alt text helps blind and partially sighted readers, which is reason enough. It also makes a publication easier to search and understand when it is reused or archived, since a description says what was in the picture even years later. For organisations that send newsletters to a wide membership, adding it is a simple way to make sure nobody is left out.

Make it part of your routine. Each time you place a picture you will keep, add a line of alt text before you move on. It takes far less time than going back through twenty pictures at the end, and Publish by Zaweba keeps the description with the picture from then on.