Exindium Alt Text Manager

FAQ

Will this plugin slow down my website’s frontend?

No. Exindium Alt Text Manager only loads its scripts and styles inside its WordPress admin dashboard.

It does not enqueue plugin assets on the public-facing frontend, so using the plugin does not add its JavaScript or CSS to visitor-facing pages.

Does it work with large media libraries?

The plugin is designed to avoid loading the entire media library into the dashboard at once. Image lists use paginated AJAX requests, while library statistics are cached for 24 hours to reduce repeated database queries.

You can manually sync these cached statistics at any time using the ‘Refresh Statistics’ button on the Overview tab. Bulk Tools also processes missing alt text in batches rather than attempting to process the entire library in a single request.

Actual performance can still depend on your hosting environment and the size of your media library.

What are Bulk Tools?

Bulk Tools provide a way to generate alt text from filenames for images that are currently missing alt text. The operation is processed in batches and can be paused and resumed. This makes it possible to work through larger sets of missing alt text without relying on a single long-running request.

When started, the tool queries the current number of images missing alt text directly rather than relying on the cached Overview statistics.

Will Bulk Tools overwrite existing alt text?

No. Bulk Tools are intended for images that are currently missing alt text.

If an image already has alt text, the existing value is preserved rather than overwritten by the filename-based bulk operation.

What happens if alt text changes while a bulk operation is paused?

When a saved bulk operation is resumed, the plugin reconciles the operation with the current media library state.

Images that no longer require alt text are not overwritten, and the operation continues with images that still need to be processed.

How does Automatic Alt Text work?

Automatic Alt Text is an optional setting for new image uploads.

When enabled, if a newly uploaded image does not already contain alt text, the plugin uses the image filename and formats it according to your selected cleanup style.

It does not replace existing alt text.

What filename cleanup options are available?

The plugin provides three filename cleanup styles:

• Keep Filename Formatting: Keeps the stored filename formatting while removing the file extension and WordPress-generated final -scaled suffix.
• Clean Spaces & Caps: Converts dots, underscores, and hyphens into spaces and capitalizes words.
• Clean & Strip Numbers: Applies the clean formatting above and also removes standalone numeric values while preserving numbers that are part of words, such as PS4, iPhone18, or similar filenames.

Does the ‘Auto-fill from Filename’ bulk action save immediately?

Yes. When you select multiple images and apply the ‘Auto-fill from Filename’ bulk action, the plugin instantly generates the cleaned alt text and saves it to the database in one click. If you prefer to review text before saving, use the inline ‘Copy Filename’ icon next to individual images instead.

Should I use filenames instead of writing descriptive alt text?

Filename-based alt text is intended as a practical fallback or starting point.

When an image conveys meaningful content, alt text written specifically for the image and its context will generally be more useful than text derived only from its filename.

The plugin keeps filename generation optional so you can choose the appropriate workflow for each image.

Can I review images that already have alt text?

Yes. Open the “Alt Text Present” tab to review and edit images that already have alt text assigned.

Can I preview the full image while writing alt text?

Yes. Image thumbnails can be opened in their full-size version in a new browser tab, providing additional visual context while reviewing or writing alt text.

Does it work with WPML or Polylang?

Yes. Exindium Alt Text Manager supports media libraries using WPML Media Translation and Polylang Media.

A multilingual plugin is not required to use Exindium Alt Text Manager. When multilingual media functionality is available, the plugin follows the selected admin language and allows alt text to be managed independently for translated media.

The Overview statistics also follow the selected language, including combined media library statistics when viewing all languages.