Previously, I shared how to add alt text to images in LinkedIn and Bluesky. This week I’ll go a bit meta and show you how to add images to WordPress in a WordPress post.
- Open your Media library in WordPress and upload a new image.
- Select the image. The Attachment details window opens. The uploaded image is displayed to the left and details about the image are displayed to the right. Below the details are form fields where you can enter more information about the image. The fields include Alternative Text, Title, Caption, and Description.
- Enter the alt text for the image in the Alternative text field.
- Close (“x” out of) the Attachment details window.
- Open a WordPress post and insert the uploaded image.
Let’s say you forget to add alt text when you upload your image to your Media library. When you insert that image with no alt text into a post, you receive two indicators that you are missing alt text:
- The image has a red box around it.
- At the top of the image there is a highlighted box that reads “alt text missing.”
You can easily fix this.
- Select the image with the missing alt text.
- In the Block panel in WordPress, go to the Settings/Alternative Text field and add the appropriate alt text. Once you do that, your image is updated and the two error indicators disappear.
A note of caution…
We updated the previous image by adding alt text to it. However, the image in your Media library was not updated and still has no alt text attached to it. If you use the image again, you will again be notified that it contains no alt text.
The best approach is to add alt text to an image when you upload it to the Media library. This makes it a habit in your image upload process which in turn makes your posts more accessible.