Can I apply Alt and title text to my images in Xara?

Alternative text (known as Alt text) is displayed by a web browser in place of an image when the browser fails to retrieve the image.  Internet Explorer displays the Alt text even when the image is sucessfully retrieved by the web browser when you hover your mouse pointer over the image.  This is true unless Ttitle text is also specified.

Title text is displayed by a web browser when mousing over an image and is supported by all common web browsers.

Web Designer allows you to apply both Alt and Title text to your images.

Applying Alt text

1. Select an object in Xara
2. Right-click on the object > Web Properties 
3. Click on the Image tab
4. Enter an image description in the "Image Caption (Alt Text)" field
5. Click on Apply or OK.

Applying Title text

1. Select an object in Xara
2. Right-click on the object > Web Animation 
3. Click on the Mouse-over tab
4. Enter your title in the "Show pop-up text (Title)" field

Click on Apply or OK.

The title attribute is always applied to the <img> tag.  If it is not specified within the program then it is applied to the <img> tag as title=""    This ensures that consistent behaviour is achieved across browsers.

Images that are created during the export process from objects that include text, now have that text set as ‘Alt’ text on the image. So for example a graphical heading that shows the text “My Website” will now have that text set as image Alt text. This means the text can be indexed by search engines even though it’s presented as an image on the page, and it will be picked up by ‘read aloud’ tools used by the visually impaired.

You can override the default alt text value from the image caption field of web properties > image tab.  

SEO

Adding good alt text improves your image search rankings. Alt text is considered more important than Title text when it comes to SEO.