Configure alternate text during image insertion

When you insert an image in a topic, you can also choose to have the CCMS automatically insert the image's title as alternative text.

What to know

The alternate text is the text that a user enters in the Title field when adding or importing an image. You can configure the IXIA CCMS so that when an image is inserted, the title

  • is included as alternate text in the <alt> element of the <image> element (preferred)
  • is included as alternate text in the @alt attribute of the <image> element
  • is not included as alternate text in the <image> element

For example, if you opt to use <alt>, and you insert an image whose title is Example of Search Results filter, the underlying XML looks like this: 

<image alt="Example of Search Results filter" keyref="lar1371584859805" id="image_hhn_qyj_4k"/>
Note: In DITA 1.0, the convention was to use the @alt attribute of the <alt> element for alternate text. This approach was deprecated in later versions of DITA in favor of <alt> but the @alt attribute is still valid. DITA 2.0 has removed the @alt altogether so if you are considering a move to DITA 2.0, you need to refactor all @alt attributes to <alt>.

Changes to the alternate text handling do not affect any images that have already been inserted in topics.

Important: Make configuration changes in a test environment and confirm they work before copying them to a production environment.

Steps

  1. In the TEXTML Administration perspective, connect to your server.
  2. Locate the mutliimage.xml file in the repository's /system/conf collection.
  3. Check out the file and open it for editing.
  4. Under the <multiimage> element, edit the @type attribute of the <alternateHandling> element to specify the appropriate value. 
    <!-- type is [element|attribute|none] -->
<alternateHandling type="none" />
  5. Save, close, and check in the file.
  6. (CCMS Desktop) Inform users of the changes.
    The changes are automatically applied once users close and then reopen their IXIA CCMS Desktop. Users can also apply the changes without restarting their CCMS Desktop by clicking IXIA CCMS > Synchronize Configuration.