WAC Workshop. January 2005. Written and Presented by: Lori Bailey.
Contents:
Converting your Word document to an accessible PDF version will take less time and result in a more fully accessible product if you take the time to design (or update) your original document to include accessible mark-up. If you omit this information, you will need to spend more time in Adobe Acrobat after the conversion to clean-up the document.
What Accessibility Features Should My Document Have?
As you create your document in Microsoft Word, you'll be bettered prepared to convert to PDF if you use the following features:
Using styles properly creates a document structure with headings, paragraphs, table data, and lists. Styles also insure a consistent look for each of these elements (e.g. all paragraph text looks the same, all heading 2 looks the same, all table data looks the same). When converted to PDF, the structure of the document is maintained.
New to using styles in Microsoft Office? The WAC recommends you spend a little time to walkthrough Microsoft's online tutorial in how to use styles. This self-paced tutorial includes video and audio assistance and takes about 40-50 minutes to complete. Get started at: http://office.microsoft.com/training/training.aspx?AssetID=RC011039261033.
See also:
From the FORMAT menu, choose "Styles and Formatting" or use the button Image: button to open and close formatting and styles task pane on your toolbar to toggle the pane on and off. Image: typical style lsit for a new, blank document in the Styles and Formatting task pane. Image: description of styles and formatting [Long Description: text reads: "The typical style list for a new, blank document in the Styles and Formatting task pane. 1) Three heading styles and 2) The default paragraph style, called Normal."]
There are two types of styles: paragraph and character. Paragraph styles are used to define and format blocks of text grouped between carriage returns [ENTER]. Character styles format individual letters, words, or groups of words.
When you format your text using the Formatting toolbar, you are applying character formatting, even when you select entire paragraphs. Character formatting means that initially, all text on the page is assigned as "Normal" paragraphs. As you highlight and format your document, a particular set of formatting instructions is added to the Normal definition. When the document is converted to PDF, all text is converted as one long paragraph with a myriad of style codes to manage each specific formatting change. These formatting instructions are often misinterpreted or interpreted differently throughout the document. Using styles properly insures structure is maintained.
To apply an existing style to your document:Image: Styles and Formatting drop-down box on the formatting toolbar in Word
You can easily view the features of a current style definition holding your mouse over the definition in the "Styles and Formatting" pane:Image: Heading 1 style definition revealed. Image: Modify Style dialog box
Image: quick tip:You can also modify an existing style quickly using the style update feature:
In the "Modify Style" dialog box, check the "Automatically update" box to have Word automatically update your style definition whenever you change the formatting in your document.
You can create a custom style by clicking on the "New Style" button in the "Styles and Formatting" pane. Be sure to base your new style on either a paragraph or heading to insure it is included in the document structure.
You should seriously evaluate the information that a visual is conveying. Is the information already present in the text? Is the visual simply providing color and images that are not essential to the message conveyed by the document? The alternate text that you tie to a visual should not repeat the caption.
If you get in the habit of adding your alternate text each time you insert an image, it will be easier than trying to add descriptions later when you are ready to convert the file. Alternative text will be stored for conversion to both PDF and HTML.
Do not use tabs, spaces, dashes, dots, or other "tricks" to create the look of a table in your document. Instead, use the Draw Table Image: Draw table button or Insert Table Image: Insert table button
tools. If you are creating several tables, you may want to use the "Tables and Borders" toolbar (pictured below).Image: Tables and Borders toolbar
Image: Caution: For DATA TABLES: Regardless of how you insert or format your table, Acrobat does not import table header definitions. For any document with data tables, you must manually add these definitions using the TAGS palette in Acrobat 6.0 Professional (or above). And you will need to re-add them each time you reconvert from the original Word version to PDF.
Although links work after conversion, screen readers may not be able to distinguish link text from other text. Therefore, you may want to provide textual cues to the presence of a link, either by citing the URL itself (recommended) or by using some variation on "click here."
Use our online form to register for the workshop.
Use our online form (www.wac.ohio-state.edu/register) to register for the workshop.
Since PDF files offer only limited navigation options in most cases (by paragraph or by page), including both a Table of Contents and bookmarks to all the major sections of your document will add a much-needed method of moving through content, especially for assistive technology users. The WAC recommends using Word's automated features to add a Table of Contents to longer documents before conversion.
Pictured right: Table of Contents dialog with settings limiting hierarchy to 3 heading levels. Image: Index and Tables Dialog box: Table of Contents tab. Image: Update Table of Contents dialog.
If your document changes and you add headings or rearrange content, you can update your Table of Contents in your Word document at any time.
Most of your content will convert to an accessible mark-up in PDF. However, some elements require special consideration. Here are a few tips to help you create a PDF-ready document:
There are two primary methods for converting documents to PDF: printing to the PDF distiller or using the conversion add-in installed by Acrobat. Using the "Print to PDF" method, creates an "untagged" PDF that is not at all accessible to screen reader users. You must add tags to the document in Acrobat. If you use the plug-in tool within Microsoft, your document will be fully tagged and needs only to be checked for consistency and accuracy.
Because the Acrobat plug-in automates adding tags to your PDF, this is the best and most reliable method of creating an accessible PDF from Word. Before you convert, you'll need to setup your conversion settings using the "Adobe PDF" menu in Word.
Note: you'll most likely only have to change these settings once. Word remembers your last settings. You'll only have to change the settings again when you want different conversion options.
The Acrobat PDFMaker dialog box default view is the "Settings" tab. Advanced users can create custom sets of conversion settings, save them, and then use them in a variety of programs (besides Word). To select your custom conversion settings, select the setting name under the drop-down box next to "Conversion Settings." For our purposes, we are going to use the "Standard" setting that comes with Acrobat and modify the options for use only in Word.
"Add links to Adobe PDF" insures your links get converted to active, clickable links in your PDF.
You can set a variety of security settings on your document to prevent printing, copying and pasting, changes, or even unauthorized access. If you do decide to add security settings, you must remember to check the box "Enable text access for screen reader devices for the visually impaired." Otherwise, your document will appear as a large blank file to screen reader users.
Image: Caution: Security and Older Versions of Acrobat: If you have an earlier version of Acrobat, you will not be able to add security features to your document without also locking out the document to screen readers.
Pictured right is an example of a document with the following security settings:Image: PDFMaker dialog "Security" tab
Image: quick tip: If you are sharing this document with many contributors and are using the comments and track changes features, you may want to limit which elements of these comments and notes go into your final PDF version. For longer documents, you'll want to include easy navigation between table of contents, indexes, footnotes, and endnotes. This tab allows you to add comments (as notes), convert linked text boxes to article threads, convert table of contents to links, and convert footnotes and endnotes to links. For most documents, you'll want to leave the default of having all options checked.
Table of Contents: The WAC recommends using Word's automated features to add a Table of Contents to longer documents before conversion [see Create a Table of Contents above]. These settings will insure that TOC creates working links in the PDF document as well.
Creating useful bookmarks in your document adds a helpful feature for most users and a highly desirable feature for users of assistive technology. Since PDF files offer only limited navigation options in most cases (by paragraph or by page), including bookmarks to all the major sections of your document will add a much-needed method of moving through content.
As with your Table of Contents [see above], you can select the level of headings that get converted into bookmarks. You can also allow your custom styles to become bookmarks. This is especially useful if you have created custom title, header, or footer styles. Image: PDFMaker dialog "Bookmarks" tab
In the example pictured above, we have limited our bookmarks to Heading 1, 2, and 3. If you could scroll down the window, you would also notice that our custom style "Title" is also designed to be a bookmark. You can select which styles will be converted into bookmarks by checking or unchecking the box under "Bookmark."
Once you have reviewed your conversion settings, you are ready to convert your document to PDF using the Adobe PDFMaker plug-in.Image: PDFMaker 6.0 toolbar
As we explained above [see "Using the Acrobat Plug-in"], you must use the Acrobat PDFMaker tool within Word to automatically create a tagged (accessible) PDF document. If you choose to create your documents using the PRINT method, you will need to add tags to your PDF using Adobe Acrobat Professional (6.0 or above). While there are some features in Acrobat that assist you in adding tags post-production (discussed below), this is not a reliable method for creating tags and should be avoided when possible. Adding tags to the PDF will require extensive mark-up and editing in the Tags palette. In addition, all changes will be lost (must be repeated) if the Word document is converted again later using the PRINT method.
To get more practice with creating accessible PDF from Word, the WAC recommends these online tutorials and help files:
