Now You Can Generate Richer Alt Text in Word and PowerPoint for Mac

Microsoft is updating how Word and PowerPoint for Mac handle image descriptions. The company is replacing its older image recognition system with a new generative AI model designed to produce detailed and highly accurate alt text. This feature is now available in over 80 languages.

The previous system relied on the Azure Vision model. While functional, it often returned basic descriptions. For example, a complex chart might simply be labeled as a bar chart of revenue. The new generative AI model can actually read the contents of the image.

Instead of a generic label, it can identify specific data points, read equations, and provide a contextual summary of what the visual represents. This update brings the Mac versions of Word and PowerPoint to parity with their Windows counterparts, which received the same upgrade late last year.

This is how the new functionality works

You can test the new system by inserting an image into a Word document or a PowerPoint slide. Select the image, navigate to Picture Format, and choose Alt Text. You can also access this through the Review tab by selecting Check Accessibility and then finding Missing Alt Text.

From there, click the option to generate alt text, and the system will analyze the image to provide a description. The new richer text features have arrived soon after Microsoft added faster file search to PowerPoint and related Microsoft 365 apps.

Availability and versions

This feature is currently rolling out to Mac users with an active Microsoft 365 subscription. You need to be running Version 16.107 or a newer build to see the changes. If you use a perpetual license version of Office, the old automatic alt text generation is now turned off by default. You can manually re-enable it in your accessibility settings if needed.

Microsoft plans to bring the new generative AI experience to future public releases, allowing those users to also access the richer descriptions on demand.