Create Alt-tags for imported PowerPoint with Captivate 9.

I user PowerPoint all the time, it's fun!

(And it drives the Cp 'purists' on this forum wild! So does quoting the user manual, because they're out of date the moment the application is released and they haven't really been revised in quite a few major releases.)

The Accessibility features in Captivate are still very minimal, but there are some features to consider.

Ensure that the Accessibility dialog box is not blank. Import slide notes or type appropriate instructions in the Accessibility dialog box.

First, 'enable' accessibility features in your project:

1 In an open project that you want to publish as 508-compliant, select Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Adobe Captivate > Preferences (Mac OS).

2 In the Category panel, expand Project, and select Publish Settings.

3 Select Enable Accessibility in the Project panel.

Each object has access to the Accessibility dialogue in the Properties panel.

Add accessibility text to slides:

In Adobe Captivate, you can write text describing each slide for screen readers to read aloud.

1 Open the slide to which you want to add accessible text.

2 In the Property Inspector, click Accessibility, the Accessibility dialogue will open.

3 Type the text that you want the screen reader to read aloud.

4 To use the slide notes (Text-to-speech and closed captioning included), click Import Slide Notes, and click OK.

Customize accessibility text for objects

You can add accessible text to individual objects on a slide. When the object appears in the movie, the screen reader reads that text aloud. If you do not specify accessible text for an object, the screen reader reads the default text. For example, if the object is an image, it reads Graphics Image. This default text is generally not sufficiently descriptive to help a visually impaired user. Also, objects other than text captions and text entry boxes do not contain any text. Accessible text for such objects can help users understand their purpose in the movie.

1 Select the object whose accessibility text you want to customize.

2 In the Property Inspector, click Accessibility.

3 Deselect Auto Label. When Auto Label is selected, the text in the object is read aloud by the screen reader.

4 In the Item Accessibility dialog box, do the following:

Accessibility Name Enter the accessibility name. For a text caption, you can enter “This text is in a caption,” for example.

Accessibility Description Add a description to clarify information for the person using the screen reader. For example, consider the text caption “Select File > Edit Image.” From the File menu, select the Edit Image command. This command is available only when an image is selected on the slide.”

HI there

As Lilybiri says, the process of bringing PowerPoint into Captivate does create a flash SWF for each PPT slide. It then configures the SWF as the background for the Captivate slide. That's what she means when she says  "each PPT-slide is converted into a movie slide."

One way to accomplish what you are trying to achieve would be to insert some transparent buttons over the areas where you want the alternative text to appear. Then configure the alternative text for the "invisible" object layered over the desired location.

Cheers... Rick

Do not use Captivate to convert a PPT, because each PPT-slide is converted into a movie slide. That means you do not have individual objects at all in CP. If you only goal is to convert PPT, use a plug-in like Adobe Presenter, iSpring or Articulate Presenter. The interactions in PPT will just play like in a movie, maybe asking for clicks if it was set up that way.

Alternative: create in Captivate from scratch, using the assets and eventually the backgrounds from PPT. You can create tags for each object in Captivate for compliancy.