How To Add Alternative Text To A Chart In Excel

Introduction

Alternative text (alt text) is essential for making charts accessible to users with visual impairments. In Excel, adding alt text to charts requires navigating through multiple menus and formatting options.

This guide will provide step-by-step instructions on how to add alt text to your Excel charts. For a faster solution, we'll explore how Sourcetable's AI chatbot can help you create, analyze, and visualize data through natural conversation - including automatically generating accessible charts with alt text. Try Sourcetable today to answer any spreadsheet question with AI.

Adding Alt Text to Excel Charts

Understanding Alt Text in Excel

Alt text is critical for making Excel charts accessible to users who rely on screen readers. It describes charts and graphs, allowing users with visual impairments to understand the conveyed information. Every chart in Excel must have alt text for full accessibility compliance.

Step-by-Step Guide to Add Alt Text

To add alternative text to a chart in Excel, select the chart and right-click to open the context menu. Choose 'Format Chart Area' and then navigate to the 'Size & Properties' tab. Look for the 'Alt Text' option and enter a concise description of the chart in the provided text box. Ensure the description is clear, descriptive, and conveys the chart's purpose and content.

Best Practices for Excel Chart Accessibility

When adding alt text to charts, use descriptive titles and labels that are easy to read. Employ light-colored text on dark backgrounds or dark text on light backgrounds to enhance contrast. Opt for sans-serif fonts and avoid italicizing text to maintain legibility for all users.

Automating Alt Text Retrieval

For users familiar with AppleScript, the script "tell application "Microsoft Excel" set myShapes to shapes of active sheet" can retrieve the alt text of a chart. Use "set altText to alternative text of (item 1 of myShapes)" to return the alt text of the first chart in the sheet. This can streamline the process for multiple charts.

Fixing Accessibility Errors

If you encounter accessibility errors when adding alt text due to embedded charts in Word documents, avoid using the Reading Order tool. This tool converts only the chart area to a figure and may not capture all chart elements. Instead, directly input alt text in Excel before embedding the chart into Word documents to ensure all elements are accurately described.

Excel vs. Sourcetable: The Modern Spreadsheet Revolution

Excel has long been the go-to spreadsheet solution, but Sourcetable represents a paradigm shift in data analysis. While Excel relies on manual functions and formulas, Sourcetable is an AI-powered spreadsheet that lets you create, analyze, and visualize data through simple conversations with its built-in AI chatbot. Try Sourcetable at app.sourcetable.com to answer any spreadsheet question instantly.

Traditional vs. AI-Powered Analysis

Excel requires users to know specific functions and formulas for data analysis. Sourcetable eliminates this learning curve by allowing users to simply describe what they want to achieve in natural language to its AI chatbot.

Data Processing Capabilities

While Excel has size limitations and can slow down with large datasets, Sourcetable handles files of any size and connects directly to databases. Users can upload CSV, XLSX files or connect their databases for immediate analysis.

Visualization and Reporting

Excel's chart creation requires manual configuration and formatting. Sourcetable's AI can instantly transform data into stunning visualizations based on simple text commands, making data presentation effortless.

Workflow Efficiency

Sourcetable eliminates the tedious, time-consuming aspects of spreadsheet work. Instead of manually creating formulas and charts, users can generate complete analyses, sample data, and reports through natural conversation with the AI.

Conclusion

Adding alternative text to Excel charts is essential for accessibility and document comprehension. Clear alt text ensures your data visualizations remain useful for users relying on screen readers.

While Excel offers built-in features for adding alt text, modern tools streamline this process. Sourcetable helps you handle all your spreadsheet tasks, including alt text creation, through its intuitive AI chatbot interface.