Bulk Generate Page

The Bulk Generate page in AltTexty is your go-to tool for generating alt text for many images in your Media Library at once using AI.

You are able to select a group of images based on different criteria and then process them in a batch.

Typical Workflow for Bulk Generation: #

1. Go to the AltTexty Bulk Generate page.
2. In “1. Select Images to Process”:
   • Choose your main Scan Type (e.g., “Process images missing alt text”).
   • Select any desired Additional Filters (e.g., “Only include images attached…”).
   • Click the “Update Scan Results” button.
3. Review the “Scan complete. Found X images…” message.
4. In “2. Generation Settings”:
   • Verify the “Ready to process X images…” count.
   • Understand the implicit overwrite rule based on your Scan Type selection.
   • Click the “Start Bulk Generation for X Images” button.
5. Monitor the “Progress” section. Keep the page open until it completes or you choose to stop it.

Now, here’s how to use the bulk generate feature, broken down by section:

Current Status #

• What it shows: At the top of the page, you’ll see a quick summary of how many images in your Media Library are currently missing alt text.
• Why it’s there: This gives you an immediate idea of how many images might need attention. This count is based on when the page is loaded. If you’ve uploaded new images or manually changed alt text elsewhere, you’ll want to use the scanning options below to get the latest numbers.

1. Select Images to Process #

This is where you tell AltTexty which group of images you want to focus on for this bulk generation task.

• “Choose which set of images…”
  • Process images missing alt text:
    • What it does: This option targets images that currently have no alt text or have an empty alt text field.
    • Important: The count shown initially is from when the page loaded. To get the most up-to-date count of images missing alt text (especially if you’ve just uploaded new images or made changes), always click the “Update Scan Results” button below these options.
  • Process all images in the library:
    • What it does: This option targets every image in your Media Library (that matches the “Allowed File Extensions” setting on the main Settings page).
    • Use Case: This is useful if you want to regenerate alt text for all your images, perhaps after changing global settings like Brand Voice, or if you want to apply AltTexty to images that already have some alt text.
    • Note: When you choose this, the system will always overwrite existing alt text for the images it processes in this batch.
• Additional Filters:
  These checkboxes let you further refine the group of images selected by the radio buttons above.
  • Only include images attached to a post or page:
    • What it does: If checked, the scan will only consider images that WordPress recognizes as being “attached” to a specific post or page (meaning their post_parent is set). Images uploaded directly to the Media Library without being assigned to a post will be excluded.
  • Skip images with existing AltTexty generation history:
    • What it does: If checked, the scan will exclude any image for which AltTexty has previously successfully generated and saved alt text. This is useful if you’ve run a bulk process before and only want to target images AltTexty hasn’t touched yet.
• “Update Scan Results” Button:
  • What it does: After you’ve selected your main scan type (radio button) and any additional filters (checkboxes), click this button. AltTexty will then scan your Media Library based on your choices and show you how many images match your criteria in the “Scan complete. Found X images…” message below the button.
  • Why it’s important: This ensures the number of images you’re about to process (shown on the “Start Bulk Generation” button) is accurate based on your latest selections.
• Scan Results Area:
  • Displays a message like “Scan complete. Found X images matching criteria.” after you click the “Update Scan Results” button.

2. Generation Settings #

Once you’ve scanned and are happy with the number of images selected, this section prepares you to start the actual generation.

• Ready to process X images…: This line confirms the number of images that will be processed if you click the “Start” button. This number updates based on your scan results from Section 1.
• Overwrite Rule (Text Display / Implicit Setting):
  • When “Process images missing alt text” is selected in Section 1, this area will be hidden or indicate that overwriting is not applicable (since there’s no existing text to overwrite).
  • When “Process all images in the library” is selected in Section 1, this area will indicate that “Always overwrite existing alt text” is the active rule. This means any image processed in this batch will have its current alt text replaced by the new AI-generated text.
  • (Note: The actual overwrite behaviour for specific scenarios like “auto-upload” or single image generation buttons is controlled by the global “Overwrite Existing Alt Text” setting on the main AltTexty Settings page. The rule here is specific to this bulk operation when “Process all images” is chosen).
• “Start Bulk Generation for X Images” Button:
  • What it does: Clicking this button begins the process of sending your selected images (one by one, in batches) to the AI to generate alt text.
  • Important: This process happens on the page. You need to keep this page open in your browser until it completes. Closing the page will stop the bulk generation.
  • The button will be disabled if the scan finds 0 images matching your criteria.
• “Stop Generation” Button:
  • What it does: This button appears once you start the bulk generation. Clicking it will attempt to gracefully stop the current batch and prevent further images from being processed.

Progress #

This section appears and updates once you click the “Start Bulk Generation” button.

• Status: Shows the current state of the process (e.g., “Processing image X of Y…”, “Bulk generation complete!”, “Stopping…”).
• Progress Bar: A visual indicator of how many images have been processed out of the total selected.
• Counts:
  • Processed: Shows the number of images attempted so far out of the total.
  • Errors: Shows how many images encountered an error during generation (e.g., API issue, invalid image).
• Recent Activity Log: Displays a live log of actions, including which images were successfully processed, skipped (e.g., if existing alt text was found and the overwrite rule prevented processing), or encountered errors. This provides more detailed insight into the ongoing process.

Thank you.