ALT Attribute | alt Property

Sets or retrieves a text alternative to the graphic.

What's New for Microsoft® Internet Explorer 6

This property now applies to the object object.

Syntax

HTML <ELEMENT ALT = sTxt... >
Scripting object.alt [ = sTxt ]

Possible Values

sTxt String that specifies or receives the text to display as an alternative to the graphic.
The property is read/write. The property has no default value.
Expressions can be used in place of the preceding value(s), as of Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5. For more information, see About Dynamic Properties.

Remarks

The text is used to replace the graphic for text-only browsers and to display in the window before the graphic has loaded. The text also acts as a ToolTip if the TITLE attribute is not set when the user hovers the mouse over the graphic.
Alternate text should be provided whenever the graphic is not rendered. Alternate text is mandatory for Level 0 documents.

Example

This example uses the ALT attribute to indicate that the icon displayed denotes a read/write property.
<IMG SRC="http://example.microsoft.com/rw.gif" ALT="Read/Write Property">

Standards Information

This property is defined in HTML 3.2 and is defined in World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1 .

Applies To

OBJECT, APPLET, AREA, INPUT, INPUT type=image, IMG