Alt text pane missing in Word, Excel or PowerPoint

The Alt Text pane is where Word, Excel and PowerPoint store a picture's alt text, the short description a screen reader reads aloud, and its Mark as decorative setting. If you can't find it, the usual reasons are that your version labels the command differently, you've selected something that can't take alt text, or editing is turned off. Here's where the pane is in each version, and how to get it to open.

What this means

Microsoft has renamed and moved the alt text command more than once. Where to find it:

The decorative checkbox is called Mark as decorative in Microsoft 365 and Decorative in Office 2019 to 2024. Office 2016 uses the older Format pane, with separate Title and Description boxes. For a chart in Excel 2016, for example, right-click the chart, choose Format Chart Area, then Alt Text. Microsoft's advice for those versions is to always fill in Description and use Title only for a long, detailed explanation.

When the command seems to be missing, check these first:

• You selected part of an object. For a chart or SmartArt graphic, click its outer border, not a bar or a single shape, so the whole object is selected.
• You selected something that can't take alt text, such as text or a worksheet cell. Alt text belongs to pictures, charts, shapes, SmartArt and similar objects.
• Several objects are selected. Select one object, or one group, at a time.
• The window is narrow. The ribbon hides buttons in a narrow window. Use the right-click command instead.
• Editing is turned off. In Protected View or a read-only file, select Enable Editing. Files in older formats (.doc, .ppt, .xls) open in Compatibility Mode, where some features aren't available, so save them in the current format.
• The picture is in a header or footer in Word. Double-click the header or footer area first, then select the picture.

Why it matters

Alt text written in Office is the cheapest alt text you'll ever add. It goes with the picture into every copy of the file, and into every PDF exported with tags, the hidden structure that tells screen readers what each part of a PDF is. Missing alt text is an error in Microsoft's own Accessibility Checker, and it means people who use screen readers, including many blind and low-vision people, miss whatever the picture shows. This is WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1, Non-text Content.

How to fix it in Word, PowerPoint and Excel

Good alt text is short and specific. Skip "image of" or "picture of", include any words that appear in the image, and for a chart, state the main point rather than every number. Our guide on how to write alt text has examples.

Fix it in the source file

The Office file is the source, so the steps above are the source fix. To carry the alt text into a PDF from Word for Windows, choose File > Save a Copy (or Save As), pick PDF, and under Options keep Document structure tags for accessibility turned on. In PowerPoint for Windows, use File > Export > Create PDF/XPS Document. Microsoft documents that current versions of Word export pictures with their alt text as Figure tags, and export decorative pictures as artifacts that screen readers skip. A picture with no alt text is still exported as a figure with empty alt text, which PDF checkers flag as Figures alternate text – Failed.

Fix it automatically with Includoc

Upload a Word or PowerPoint file and Includoc finds the pictures, charts and shapes that have no alt text. Our AI writes a description for each one, using the image and the text around it, and suggests marking decorative ones. You approve or edit each description, and we write them into the file. You get back the fixed file and a tagged PDF export.

Standards

Related errors

• Accessibility: Investigate: what the status bar message means and how to clear it.
• Figures alternate text – Failed: the same problem, found after export to PDF.

For app-specific steps, see the Excel accessibility checker and PowerPoint accessibility checker guides, or check a file free.