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Re: PDF Accessibility

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From: Chagnon | PubCom
Date: Jun 26, 2013 10:28PM

> I am usually not lucky enough to get simple <H#s> and <Ps>, instead I
> get <Normal> <1stpara><P> with one line of the paragraph instead of
> the entire paragraph or even just a carriage return.

This sounds like your PDF was made from InDesign. The PDF exporter from
InDesign usually takes the first half-dozen characters of the Paragraph
Style's name and creates a tag from it. Then, to correct the error, it uses
Acrobat's Role Map utility to designate <Normal> to be read as <P>.

So, check Role Map and edit any of the mappings that it didn't get right.
You can go and change every individual <Normal> to <P>, for example, but
that's not worth the time when Role Map gets the same result but quicker.

Also in InDesign, use the Export Tags feature in CS 5.5, CS6, and CC (CS7).
This way you can tell each paragraph style what it should map to when
exported to an accessible PDF.

> Usually my bulleted
> lists turn out as some kind of paragraph style.

Looks like you might not be formatting your bullets with the correct styles.

In Word, rather than using the bullet icon at the top, instead use the
paragraph style for List Bullets. I find it translates accurately every
time.
In InDesign, you must create a paragraph style and define the Bullet
settings in it. Hand formatted bullets don't export to PDF correctly, but
those created through a paragraph style create the correct <L> and <LI>
tags.

--Bevi Chagnon
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