[thelist] Tweaking Dreamweaver code (was Homesite vs Dreamweaver)

[Mark Fletcher]

Scott wrote

> <tip type="Dreamweaver">
> Having Dreamweaver add an empty alt tag in images by default is a
preference you
> can set in DW (at least in DW2, since I have yet to upgrade to a newer
version).
> Go to the Configuration\Ojbects\Common\ subfolder of your Dreamweaver
folder.
> In there, you will find a file called "Image.htm", which is basically a
> javascript that tells DW how to insert an image. By default, I believe it
is
> this:
>
>      return '<img src="' + escape(browseForFileURL("select", "", true)) +
'">';
>
> If you change it to this:
>
>      return '<img src="' + escape(browseForFileURL("select", "", true)) +
'"
> alt="">';
>
> It should now add in the empty alt tag by default.
> </tip>

Yes that is one way around the problem, however personally I would avoid
doing this since it is too easy to forget to add a more descriptive text
label later.  The validator Bobby (www.cast.org/bobby) for example will
consider consider alt="" to be correct, but your visual impaired visitors
will not get a great deal from this. Therefore I would suggest using Find
and Replace technique suggested by Charles Roper.

Talking of Accessibility Validators for those of you who have DW 4.0 you
might be interested to know that you can download the Check Page for
Accessibility extension from the macromedia exchange.

Cheers
Mark