Opened 11 months ago
Closed 6 months ago
#21176 closed defect (bug) (fixed)
"Alernate Text" should be "Alt" or "Alternative"
| Reported by: |
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Owned by: |
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| Priority: | normal | Milestone: | 3.5 |
| Component: | Media | Version: | 3.4.1 |
| Severity: | minor | Keywords: | easy-fix has-patch commit |
| Cc: |
Description
The media uploader provides an "Alternate Text" field which populates the image's "alt" attribute.
The word "alternate" means "to occur in turn repeatedly". This is incorrect usage of this word.
"alt" is abbreviated from the word "alternative", so this field's label should read "Alt Text" or "Alternative Text".
Attachments (3)
Change History (17)
comment:1
SergeyBiryukov — 11 months ago
- Keywords needs-patch easy-fix added
Agreed, as long as "Alternative Text" fits in the space nicely :)
Shall I create a fork on GitHub or just leave this case to be resolved by one of you guys?
The WordPress repo on github is just a mirror. Development happens here, so you can upload a patch, if you want.
comment:4
RyanJKoehler — 10 months ago
- Keywords has-patch added; needs-patch removed
comment:5
SergeyBiryukov — 10 months ago
- Milestone changed from Awaiting Review to 3.5
It also means "A person who acts as a deputy or substitute" which is obviously the meaning intended when the specs used to say "alternate text" everywhere.
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/objects.html#h-13.8
These days the specs like to say "text alternatives". Of course this is UI, not a spec, so we don't have to use the same language. So, yeah.
I believe that usage of the word "alternate" is American-English specific and therefore not appropriately universal. Perhaps that's why they no longer use it that way in the spec.
comment:10
nacin — 8 months ago
- Owner set to nacin
- Resolution set to fixed
- Status changed from new to closed
In [21917]:
SergeyBiryukov — 6 months ago
comment:11
SergeyBiryukov — 6 months ago
- Resolution fixed deleted
- Status changed from closed to reopened
Missed the string in wp-langs-en.js.
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/inconsistent-alt-text-field-label
mikehansenme — 6 months ago
comment:12
mikehansenme — 6 months ago
My bad just realized there was an updated patch... ignore mine.
comment:13
nacin — 6 months ago
Ah yes, we fixed this in wp-langs.php for non-English, but not wp-langs-en.js.
comment:14
nacin — 6 months ago
- Resolution set to fixed
- Status changed from reopened to closed
In 22996:

We already have "Alt Text" in the help text under the input, so I guess it should be "Alternative Text".