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Settings Page

The AltTexty Settings page is your central hub for configuring how the plugin generates alt text, integrates with your site and manages performance.

It’s found under the main “AltTexty” menu in your WordPress admin dashboard.

The page is organized into three tabs and several key sections.

Let’s start with Tab 1 – Configuration:

1. Generation Defaults #

These settings define the default parameters AltTexty will use when generating alt text. These can often be overridden for specific tasks (like in the Playground or during some bulk operations if options are presented).

  • Brand Voice:
    • Purpose: Control the tone and style of the generated alt text to match your website’s personality.
    • Options:
      • Neutral (None): A straightforward, objective description.
      • Friendly: A more approachable and conversational tone.
      • Professional: A formal and precise tone.
      • Detailed (Descriptive): Aims for more elaborate descriptions.
      • Concise (Minimalist ): Focuses on brevity and key elements.
      • Technical: Uses precise, technical language suitable for specialized subjects.
      • Journalistic: Factual, objective, news-style descriptions.
      • Custom…: Provide your own detailed description of the desired brand voice in a text area that appears.
    • How it’s used: Informs the AI’s style of writing.
  • Focus Mode:
    • Purpose: Guides the AI on what aspects of the image to emphasize in the description.
    • Options:
      • Balanced (Default): A general approach, describing the main subject and important elements in context.
      • Overall Context: Emphasizes the broader scene, interactions, and the main subject’s setting.
      • Detailed Elements: Focuses on describing key objects, people, and distinct visual components clearly.
    • How it’s used: Modifies the instructions sent to the AI to direct its attention.
  • Generation Language:
    • Purpose: Select the target language for the generated alt text.
    • Options:
      • Site Language (Default): Uses the primary language set for your WordPress installation. The actual language used will be displayed in parentheses (e.g., “Site Language (English)”).
      • Specific Languages: A dropdown list of various languages (e.g., Spanish, French, German, etc.).
        Is your language not on the list? Please reach out to us.
    • How it’s used: It instructs the AI to produce alt text in the chosen language. The AI’s proficiency in the selected language will affect the quality.
  • Custom Instructions:
    • Purpose: Provide specific, default guidelines to the AI for every generation (unless overridden, e.g., in the Playground).
    • Example: “Always mention the primary colour. Avoid describing text unless it’s a logo. Focus on the main action.”
    • How it’s used: These instructions are appended to the AI prompt to further refine the generation process. Keep them concise and clear.
  • Alt Text Prefix:
    • Purpose: Text that will be automatically added to the beginning of every generated alt text.
    • Example: If you set “Photo: “, the generated text might become “Photo: a cat sitting on a mat.”
    • Note: Use with caution. Standard accessibility guidelines often advise against starting alt text with “Image of” or “Photo of” as screen readers already announce it as an image. Include a trailing space if needed.
  • Alt Text Suffix:
    • Purpose: Text that will be automatically added to the end of every generated alt text.
    • Example: If you set ” – CompanyName”, the generated text might become “A cat sitting on a mat – CompanyName.”
    • Note: Include a leading space if needed and the Alt Text Suffix is not recommended.

2. Behaviour #

These settings control how AltTexty interacts with your media library and post saving processes.

  • Auto-generate on Upload:
    • Purpose: If checked, AltTexty will automatically attempt to generate alt text for new images as soon as they are uploaded to the Media Library.
    • Note: This uses your API credits for every eligible image upload. It respects the global “Overwrite Existing Alt Text” setting.
  • Overwrite Existing Alt Text:
    • Purpose: This is the global default rule for what AltTexty should do if an image already has alt text when generation is triggered (e.g., by “Auto-generate on Upload” or single “Generate” buttons).
    • Options:
      • Never overwrite: If alt text exists, AltTexty will skip generation for that image.
      • Only if alt text is empty (Default): AltTexty will only generate if the alt text field is currently blank.
      • Always overwrite existing alt text: AltTexty will generate new text and replace any existing alt text.
    • Note: This global setting can be overridden by specific controls on the Bulk Generate page.
  • Sync Context for Embedded Images on Save:
    • Purpose: If checked, when a post is saved, AltTexty will trigger a background task to parse that post’s content. For any unattached images found embedded in the content, it will attempt to update their WordPress post_parent to the current post and sync their AltTexty context (title, SEO keyphrases) from the saved post.
    • Note: This function helps associate unattached images with the posts they are used in for better contextual alt text. Disable if you notice performance issues after saving posts or prefer manual attachment management.
  • Allowed File Extensions:
    • Purpose: Specify which image file types AltTexty should process.
    • Format: Enter extensions separated by commas (e.g., jpg, jpeg, png, webp).
    • Behaviour: If left blank, AltTexty will attempt to process any file that WordPress recognizes as an image.
    • Example default shown in placeholder: jpg, jpeg, png, webp, gif, avif, svg, bmp.
  • Sync to Title:
    • Purpose: If checked, when AltTexty generates and saves alt text for an image, it will also update that image’s “Title” field in the Media Library with the same text.
    • Warning: This will overwrite existing image titles.
  • Sync to Caption:
    • Purpose: If checked, AltTexty will also update the image’s “Caption” field with the generated alt text.
    • Warning: This will overwrite existing image captions.
  • Sync to Description:
    • Purpose: If checked, AltTexty will also update the image’s “Description” field with the generated alt text.
    • Warning: This will overwrite existing image descriptions.

3. SEO & Post Context Integration #

This section configures how AltTexty uses contextual information from the post an image is associated with, to help improve the relevance of generated alt texts.

  • Context Source:
    • Purpose: Choose what data from the parent post should be used to provide context to the AI.
    • Options:
      • Don’t Use Post Context (Default): No contextual information from the parent post is sent to the AI.
      • Use Parent Post Title: The title of the post the image is associated with will be sent to the AI.
      • Use Parent Post SEO Keyphrases: The SEO focus keyphrases from the image’s associated parent post will be sent to the AI. Requires selecting your SEO plugin below.
  • Select SEO Plugin:
    • Purpose: If “Context Source” is set to “Use Parent Post SEO Keyphrases,” select your primary installed and active SEO plugin from this list (e.g., Yoast SEO, Rank Math, All in One SEO, SEOPress).
    • Note: AltTexty will attempt to read the focus keyphrases for the selected plugin.
  • Apply Context To:
    • Purpose: Determines for which images the selected “Context Source” will be considered during AI generation.
    • Options:
      • Featured Images only: Context data will only be passed to the AI for featured images.
      • All attached images: Context data will be passed to the AI for any image associated with the post.
  • Prompt Influence Method:
    • Purpose: Choose how the selected context (Title or Keyphrases) should be presented to the AI within the prompt.
    • Options:
      • Add Context as Hint (Recommended): The title or keyphrase(s) is added as a suggestive phrase for the AI to work with.
      • Append Context to Instructions: (Only works for keyphrases) The context is added more directly as part of the AI’s instructions. In this case, the AI will try to use one or more of the keyphrases in the generated alt text, provided they are relevant to the image.

4. Bulk Processing Performance #

Adjust settings related to the speed and resource usage of the various background processing features in AltTexty.

  • Bulk Batch Size (for Generation):
    • Purpose: Number of images processed in each step by the Bulk Generate tool (on the “Bulk Generate” page).
    • Note: Higher numbers might finish the overall job faster but use more server resources per batch. Lower numbers are gentler on the server but might take longer overall.
  • Context Rescan Batch Size:
    • Purpose: Number of images processed in each background batch during the manual Context Rescan (triggered from the Settings page).
    • Note: Similar to the “Bulk Batch Size,” this controls resource usage for the background rescan of image contexts.

5. Context Rescan Tool #

This section contains the “Context Rescan Tool” function.

  • Context Rescan Tool:
    • Purpose: Gives the ability to trigger a full rescan of your Media Library manually. For every image, AltTexty will re-check its WordPress post_parent, fetch the current title and SEO keyphrases from that parent, and update the image’s context meta fields if they have changed.
    • When to Use:
      • If you’ve significantly updated post titles or SEO keyphrases across your site.
      • If images have been re-attached to different posts.
      • If you suspect the initial context scan missed items or needs refreshing.
    • Process: This tool runs in the background using WordPress’ cron system. The Settings page will provide status updates via AJAX polling while it’s active.

Account and Licensing #

Within the AltTexty Settings page are the “Account” and “Licensing” tabs. They provide important information about your AltTexty plan, credit usage, and license status, to help you manage your subscription effectively.

The Account Tab #

This tab provides an overview of your current AltTexty subscription plan, your credit allowance, and how your credits are being used. This information is typically synced from your main account on the AltTexty website.

Key Information & Actions:

  • Current Plan: Displays the name of your active AltTexty subscription plan (e.g., “You are on the Growth plan”).
  • Refresh/Sync Icon: Clicking this icon refreshes your account information from the AltTexty servers. Useful if you’ve just made changes on our website and want to see them reflected here immediately.
  • Top Up: You can purchase additional generation credits if you’re running low before your next allowance.
  • Your Allowance: This section breaks down your generation credits:
    • Credits allocated for plan term: The total number of credits included with your current subscription plan for the billing period.
    • Credit top-up: Any additional credits you may have purchased separately.
    • Credit balance: The total number of credits you currently have available to use (e.g., 7320).
    • Credits roll over on: This indicates when your unused credit allowance will next roll over provided your subscription is active.
  • How you used your credit:
    • Alt texts generated: To help you track your usage, this shows how many credits have been consumed by generating alt text.
  •  How your credit use is calculated:
    • Provides a simple explanation of the credit system: You use one credit every time you generate an image alt text.

 

The Licensing Tab #

This tab is where you manage the AltTexty license key associated with your account. Your license key is essential for activating the plugin’s AI generation features and ensuring you receive updates.

Key Information & Actions:

  • License Key:
    • Display: Your license key is shown here, typically masked for security reasons.
    • Purpose: This key connects your website to your AltTexty subscription, enabling the AI alt text generation. You would have entered this key after installing the plugin, as outlined in our Installation & Activation Guide.
  • Status:
    • “Active” (Green Indicator): This means your license key is valid, and recognized, and your AltTexty plugin is fully functional for generating alt text according to your plan’s limits.
    • Other Statuses (e.g., “Inactive,” “Expired”): If you see a different status, it might mean your subscription has ended, the key is incorrect, or there’s an issue connecting to our licensing server. Please check your subscription details on our website or contact support.
  • Expires:
    • This shows the date when your current license or subscription term is set to expire or renew. For example, “Expires: 2nd June 2025.”
  • “Deactivate” Button:
    • Purpose: Clicking this button will deactivate the license key on this specific WordPress installation.
    • When to use it:
      • If you are moving your website to a new domain or server and want to use your license on the new site (deactivate on the old site first).
      • If you no longer wish to use AltTexty on this particular website but want to keep your subscription active for other sites (if your plan allows multiple sites).
      • For troubleshooting purposes, as directed by support.
    • Effect: Once deactivated, AltTexty will no longer be able to generate new alt text on this site until a valid license is reactivated.
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