Participant

Question

Adding alt text to PDF images and having that copy be part of the searchable document text?

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
February 4, 2021
2 replies
1729 views

Is this a thing that is possible? Adding alt text for an image I know can be done with tags, but is there a way to make that text then part of the searchable language when using the Finder?

This topic has been closed for replies.

hammer0909

Community Expert

As Bevi pointed out, the alt text is not searchable. You could however hide text behind the figure which wouldn't be seen visually but would still be searchable in the document. I don't fully understand the context behind why you want/need this but this technique would work although it would highlight the text behind the image.

B

Big4_ISD

Known Participant

Thanks everyone for contributing to this post. I have the same question. Here's my context:

We have a set of pdf documents stored together. Users can search to find appropriate documents
We want to add alt text to the images in the documents so those documents show up when users search the term(s) included in the .pdf

If we use alt text images using Adobe Acrobat for creating .pdf's, will this work?

Thanks,

PJL

hammer0909

Community Expert

I feel like people are asking the same question hoping to get a different answer. The reality is that alt text is not included when searching content within Adobe Acrobat. Period. I'm struggling to understand why you'd want to hide content in alt text, why not just include it in the body copy of the document if it's so important?

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com

Legend

Question: when you say "the Finder," do you mean when using the Apple OS Finder?

Or do you mean the search box/function in Acrobat?

Alt-text is part of the graphic's metadata, and I don't believe Acrobat can search it.

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |

S

Serene5EFCAuthor

Participant

The search function within Acrobat...I wonder if there is another way to include that description as searchable. Thanks!

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com

Legend

Possibly, but Adobe's engineers would have to do that.

This forum is only a user-to-user help forum and Adobe employees rarely chime in.

Why not post this suggestion as a feature in Adobe's www.Acrobat.UserVoice.com forum? That's where Adobe honchos listen to the customers.

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |

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