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Re: Word to PDF conversation has tags for images appearing at the top of the PDF tag tree

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From: Petri, Kenneth
Date: Jun 25, 2014 9:22AM


There is no work-around. However, the problem does not exist in Word 2013, which also does a better job with text boxes and preserves the language of text runs when outputting to PDF (that is, if I set a language on a piece of text in Word 2013 and you use Acrobat to export to PDF, the text language change is preserved).

So, you can either upgrade to Word 2013 or you can use a third-party tool such as CommonLook Office Pro (a Word plug-in), which will also save you lots of time if you have to deal with presentation-only images (they are artifacted by CommonLook) or tables (very nice table editing tools -- no more fussing with the lame Touch-up Reading Order tool).

Best,
ken
-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Gauvreau, Jennifer (CGI Federal)
Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2014 10:16 AM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: [WebAIM] Word to PDF conversation has tags for images appearing at the top of the PDF tag tree

Does anyone know of a fix or workaround for a Word-to-PDF conversion problem where tags for all images appear at the top of the PDF tag tree? This documented as a known issue for Microsoft Word 2010 and 2007 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2701086<;http://t.co/17Pe1jsP3N>;).

Excerpt:
There is a known issue that affects Microsoft Office Word 2007 and Microsoft Word 2010. The issue is associated with the tags that are created in PDF files that are generated from Word documents. When you export a document that contains images to PDF, the tags for those images may have to be updated by using a PDF authoring tool.

When you export a document that contains images to PDF, the tags for those images may appear at the top of the PDF tag tree instead of in the correct location in the document flow. The tags for those images may have to be updated by using a PDF authoring tool.

We have a project team with a very large User Guide with many images and they've had to recreate the tag tree/manually retag in Adobe Acrobat Pro but they are looking for a simpler (read as less time intensive) solution.

Thanks,
Jennifer

Jennifer Gauvreau, CUA
Executive Consultant
Human Factors Practice
T: 703-227-6167
C: 571-606-4973