Alt Tags Disappearing

Report · May 18, 2021

I have an Acrobat Pro DC user who just alt-tagged a document with nearly 500 images - 3 times, using the Action Wizard Make Accessible Tool. Every time she's saved it, the alt tags disappear.

I've seen a solution about manually tagging everything, but to me, the solution seems to be for Adobe to repair this functionality.

Report · May 18, 2021

I haven't seen this happen. Is there a way you can confirm that the user is performing the operations correctly? I might suggest performing a Save as... just to see if there's a different result. If there any further details you can provide about the process used, it may help someone troubleshoot the issue.

My best,

Dave

Report · May 18, 2021

Thanks. That was one of the first things I tried. I thought maybe it was a file formatting issue. I've also sat down with her and made sure she tagged everything appropriately.

It works OK on my copy, but I'm really trying to get our people to do their own accessibility work, so getting her copy to work is critical.

Report · May 18, 2021

Although I generally don't use the Action for accessibility work, I just ran a PDf through it as a test. For me, on this document, Acrobat recorded and saved the alt tags I provided. Closing and reopening the file worked perfectly, and the Alt tags remain as I set them.

My best,

Dave

Report · May 18, 2021

I haven't seen this, either.

Can you check to make sure your version of Acrobat DC Pro is up to date? Check your version here, or under the Help menu: https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/ReleaseNotesDC/index.html

And can you give us the list of steps she's taking to add Alt-text to the graphics? It could help us diagnose where the problem lies.

Also, can you check one of the <Figure> tags in the document, right-click to Properties, and verify that the Alt-text is populating the Alt-text field?

Just to clarify for anyone reading this thread:

Alt-text is applied to the <Figure> tag, not the image container inside the tag.

It's an attribute on the tag, not a full-blown tag itself.

Select <Figure> tag, right-click and select Properties.Fill in the Alternate Text field, max of 100-200 characters is recommended.

Report · May 19, 2021

I've encountered something similar where if you don't tab out of the field after entering the alt text, it never gets recorded. Not knowing how the user is performing the task, I can't say this is the issue for usre, but it's something to consider.