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Inspiring
March 11, 2025
Question

(rectangle) added to alt tags from Word - Accessibility Error

  • March 11, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 712 views

 

Hello, I have an unusual issue. Our training team uses MS Word to create job aids for our staff.

 

They set an inline image in Word, typically a screenshot of a UI component, and add a border to the screenshot. This is so that the image is more distinct from the page background for sighted users.

 

They properly alt-tag this image and correctly PDF the document from Word. However, Acrobat adds (rectangle) to the end of the alt-tags for each image.

 

It does not matter if they use the fixup "mark all non-structure elements as artifact."

 

It doesn't matter if they artifact the rectangle border in the content panel, either.

 

Every image where they have added a border has (rectangle) automatically added to the alt-text.

 

Thus, users hear "[image description] rectangle" and because this is confusing, our training team is manually having to edit each alt tag to remove (rectangle).

 

Is there a fix for this?

 

I suggested doing the image prep work and adding a border in Photoshop instead but this is something they are unable to do.

3 replies

Participant
March 24, 2025

I experienced the exact same issue today. My Word document includes images with picture borders (added in Word). The alt text used in Word carried over to the PDF; however, the word "(Rectange)" was added to the end of the alt text for every image that had a picture border added in Word. 

From within the PDF, I opened the Accessibility menu then opened the Set Alternate Text menu. From there, I deleted the word "(Rectangle)" from each image's alt text. 

S_S
Community Manager
Community Manager
May 5, 2025

Hi @melissa_7334,

 

Hope you are doing well. Sorry for the trouble with Acrobat.

 

I have collected all the details and shared with the development team.

Please allow me some time to get this investigated and get back to everyone here with the insights.


Regards,
Souvik.

Adobe Employee
March 14, 2025

Hi Bren,

 

Thank you for writing to us.

To investigate this issue further, could you let us know the following details-

1. OS on which the issue was observed

2. App version on which issue was reported

3. Sample document to replicate the issue at our end

 

Thanks again for your time.

 

Regards,

Ayush Jain

Participant
March 20, 2025

Hello, here is an example doc of the issue 

Participant
March 20, 2025

Mac OS Sequoia 15.3.2 (24D81)
Architecture: arm64 Processor: Apple M2 Max Build: 25.1.20438.0 AGM: 7.1.10 CoolType: 10.0.0 JP2K: 4.0.2.54782

bren87Author
Inspiring
March 12, 2025

This is the workaround we found:

To have a border for pictures: Picture Format > Picture Effects > Glow
4th Gray down, Size: 2pt, transparency 0%
You must set one picture. Click on original picture with correct glow > Home > Format painter > Click new image. Repeat as needed.

However, it's convoluted and we would like Acrobat to not add things to the alt-tags.