Doctoral Guide to Finalizing Your Dissertation

Alt text (alternate text) exists to help individuals who use a screen reader because of difficulties seeing a screen understand the visual content in your dissertation. Alt text should be a sentence or two explaining what the image does or shows (i.e. the purpose of the image in the dissertation). Imagine you are reading the dissertation out load to someone: how would you describe the image to them?

Alt text should not just be the title of the image. If the image is a graph or chart, the alt text should not just say "this is a chart of my research's values", but should indicate the important values or the concept you want readers to take from seeing the chart. Alt text should be your explanation of the purpose/meaning of the image in your dissertation. Do not auto-generate the alt text in your dissertation.

To add alt text in Word,

1. right click on the figure or image;
2. select "edit alt text";
3. enter one or two sentences of alternate text which describes the figure or image, but is not just repeating the text around the image, or saying "an image of" X;
4. after entering the alt text, click on the x at the top of the alt text box and save your document.

For more information about creating alt text, on this guide:

• the "How to" video and screenshots tabs in this box show the steps for adding alternate text.
• the "Alt Text Examples" tab of this box contains examples of alt text for different types of images.

You can also see the following external information about creating alt text:

The PDF document properties include the title, author, keywords, and subject. These items are all entered in the document properties in Word:

1. Select “file” from the top menu bar, then look at the “info” tab;
2. On the top of the right column is a dropdown menu for properties. Click on the arrow next to properties to bring up an option for "advanced properties";
3. Click on advanced properties. Select the "summary" tab to input the document properties, as discussed below;
   • Title: Copy the title of your paper from the title page.
   • Subject: The “subject” is the subject of the degree you are receiving – just the subject, not the whole thing. For example, if you are receiving a “Doctor of Education in Organizational Leadership”, the subject is just “Organizational Leadership.” See the table below for subjects.

     Degree	Subject
     Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.)	Business Administration
     Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Instructional Design Leadership	Instructional Design Leadership
     Doctorate of Education (Ed.D.) in Organizational Leadership	Organizational Leadership
     Doctor of Healthcare Administration (D.H.A.)	Healthcare Administration
     Doctor of Professional Studies (D.P.S.) in Instructional Design Leadership	Instructional Design Leadership

   • Author: Your name should appear as the author.
   • Keywords: Enter your keywords separated by comma. Use the same keywords for your document properties and your submission of keywords in the OhioLINK ETD submission.
4. After updating the properties, click on OK, then click on the arrow in the upper left to return to your document.
5. Save the document.

The dissertation formatting page discusses how headings must be formatted. The digital accessibility standards also require that at least the first heading level of the dissertation must be formatted using Word styles.

Only heading level 1 is required to be applied with Word styles, but additional heading levels may be applied using word styles. Additionally, headings must be unique. Do not repeat headings, because that will make navigation of your document more difficult.

Use document styles from the "home" tab to apply your headings. First, format the heading to meet the formatting requirements for your dissertation. Then, with the cursor in the line of your heading (example: Chapter 1: Introduction), right click on "heading 1" and select "update heading 1 to match selection."

After you have formatted heading 1, go to the next item you want to mark as heading 1 (such as "Chapter 2: Literature Review.") Click so the cursor is in the line of that heading, and then click on "heading 1" from the styles menu in the home tab to apply heading 1.

For more information, see

Manually review your document for uses of color and make sure that you have not used color alone to convey information. While use of color is permitted to enhance your document, it cannot be the sole means of providing information. If you see that your dissertation uses color alone to convey information, provide a textual alternative.

Use of color must include sufficient contrast. Run the accessibility checker in Word by going to “review” from the menu bar. Click on the “check accessibility” icon. If you get a “hard to read text contrast” error, change the text contrast and run the report again to make sure that the new color chosen resolved the error.

If your dissertation uses color alone to convey information, here are some suggestions on how to fix the issue:

If you are using Word for Windows: When you are ready to create a PDF of your Word file to upload to the OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertation Center, select “file” from the top menu bar, then select “export” and click on the option to “Create PDF/XPS Document.” Note: These instructions are for computers running Word for Windows. If you are using a Mac, please contact the tech help desk (see the "tech support" tab of this box) for instructions on how to properly export your Word doc to PDF.

Before saving, click on the “options” button. Make sure that the options under “include non printing information” for “document properties” and “document structure tags for accessibility” are selected. Also make sure that the option for “create bookmarks using:” is selected with “headings” selected underneath it. Then select “ok” and click “publish.”