WD97: HTML Alternate Text Displayed with Object

Last reviewed: September 17, 1997
Article ID: Q167694

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Word 97 for Windows

SYMPTOMS

When you open an HTML document in Word 97, if the document contains a picture with alternate text, the HTML tag for the alternate text may not be displayed correctly.

For example, the following HTML tag

    <IMG SRC="jack.gif" ALT= "<Hi>" WIDTH=75 HEIGHT=75>

will display the graphic at its default size and the words "WIDTH=75 HEIGHT=75" will be displayed after the graphic.

The expected behavior of this tag is that the picture is displayed with a size of 75 x 7, and the alternate text of "<Hi>" should be displayed if the browser has been customized to hide graphics.

NOTE: The Graphic and alternate text may appear fine in your browser.

CAUSE

This problem occurs if the alternate text is enclosed in angle brackets or greater than (>) or less than (<) symbols.

WORKAROUND

Use the following syntax to place the enclose the alternate text in angle brackets:

   <IMG SRC="jack.gif" ALT= "&lt;Hi&gt;" WIDTH=75 HEIGHT=75>

MORE INFORMATION

Certain characters have special meaning and are considered reserved in HTML documents. The following table lists each of the supported characters specified in the numeric and special graphic entity set, along with its name, syntax, and description.

This list is derived from ISO Standard 8879;1986/ENTITIES Numeric and Special Graphic//EN; however, HTML does not provide support for the entire entity set. Only the entities listed are supported.

   Glyph    Name    Syntax    Description
   --------------------------------------

   <        lt      &lt;      Less than sign
   >        gt      &gt;      Greater than sign
   &        amp     &amp;     Ampersand
   "        quot    &quot     Double quote sign

NOTE: The entity names are used in HTML, are always prefixed by ampersand (&), and are always followed by a semicolon (;). They represent particular graphic characters that have special meanings in places in the mark-up language, or may not be part of the character set available to you.

REFERENCES

"The HTML Reference Library for Windows 95," version 3.0, "Special Characters"

Keywords          : winword word8 word97 kbwdinternet kbusage
Version           : 97
Platform          : WINDOWS
Issue type        : kbhowto

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Last reviewed: September 17, 1997
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