Re: QUESTION: image map alt tags

Just one small point .. using alt="" is something I consider an annoyance!
It gets the page past automated checks like Bobby but leaves the user
wondering what they are missing. If you use an alt= please put something in
between the "", even if it only says alt="space".
Marti

----- Original Message -----
From: Charles McCathieNevile <charles@w3.org>
To: Advanced HTML Discussion List <ADV-HTML@BAMA.UA.EDU>
Cc: WAI Interest Group <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 14, 1999 3:34 PM
Subject: Re: QUESTION: image map alt tags


> Sallow,
>
> you're not using what is usually called an imagemap, you are using a table
of
> individual images which may be links. In many cases there is no alt text,
> which is a pain.
>
> A number of browsers which should have known better have patchy support
for
> alt on real imagemaps. Your problem (apart from having lots of images with
no
> alt at all) is probably related to the way alt is rendered by some of
those
> browsers - typically it is only somtimes put into the space where an image
> would be, depending on the amount of space it has allocated. Other
browsers
> don't have any trouble. I'm afraid there is not a lot you can do in your
code
> except to leave sizes unspecified for your images - they should appear
> unspaced, and you can use basic CSS features such as line-height, together
> with presentational hacking such as VSPACE="0" HSPACE="0" to achieve the
same
> effect without a table, and to have more browsers render the alt text.
>
> (I suggest alt="" for the cases where you don't want "imagemap_r3_c1" to
be
> rendered everywhere...)
>
> Charles McCN
>
> On Sat, 14 Aug 1999, David Poehlman wrote:
>
>
>   Date:    Fri, 13 Aug 1999 13:00:26 -0500
>   From:    Sallow <sallow@twcny.rr.com>
>   Subject: QUESTION: image map ALT tagsthis again comes from advhtml but
>   since it concerns us here I thought I'd post it for the gentleman.
>
>
>   hey there-
>
>            I am having problems getting the ALT text to appear on my
>   image
>   maps.  The image map works as it is suppossed to (all links are good
>   and
>   functional) but the alt text will not appear.  I have always had this
>   problem and have simply assumed it is not possible.
>
>            I am an intermediate user, meaning i can write almost
>   anything
>   you could want in HTML but my scripting skills are only now being
>   learned.  The server I am running the page on is Apache (unix).  I
>   work
>   from a windows 95 OS or linux redhat (pico editor) depending on where
>   I
>   happen to be when I sit dow to write.
>
>            the URL to my home page is:
>
>   http://www.io.com/~god
>            the URL to the specific imagemap in question is:
>
>
>   http://www.io.com/~god/warhammer/warhammer.htm
>
>   any advise anyone could render would be greatly appreciated, thanks
>
>   Sallow
>   (Dave Brooks)
>
>
> --Charles McCathieNevile            mailto:charles@w3.org
> phone: +1 617 258 0992   http://www.w3.org/People/Charles
> W3C Web Accessibility Initiative    http://www.w3.org/WAI
> MIT/LCS  -  545 Technology sq., Cambridge MA, 02139,  USA
>
>

Received on Saturday, 14 August 1999 16:03:01 UTC