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RE: PDF for accessability

for

From: julian.rickards@ndm.gov.on.ca
Date: Mar 25, 2004 1:12PM

I haven't tested with the latest version of WordPerfect, my sons' new Dell
computer came with WordPerfect 11, 12 may be out soon or even now - I can
play with it tonight and if there is any improvements over my copy of
WordPerfect 10, I can add it to this list.

However, in October 2002, I went to a Adobe workshop on creating Accessible
PDFs. The Adobe representatives told us that because Corel sees Adobe as a
direct competitor (CorelDRAW/Photo Paint vs. Adobe Illustrator/PhotoShop),
Corel wasn't receptive to Adobe's offers to work with them to help
WordPerfect users create Accessible PDFs directly from the application.
WordPerfect has a "Save as PDF" option which precludes the need for
WordPerfect users to purchase Acrobat if all they need is PDF creation but
it doesn't create Accessible PDFs.

WordPerfect is not the only application in this same boat, there are others
including Lotus WordPro and MS Word 97 and earlier. The issue is not the
ability to create a PDF but to preserve the structure of the document. PDF
1.4 is the first version of the PDF standard which allows tagging. The
tagging in PDF 1.4 (and PDF 1.5 when it is available if not already) marks
up headings as headings, table cells as table cells, etc. not unlike HTML.
Although virtually all word processing software have these structures
internally within the application and the documents, currently, only MS Word
2000 and up can send this document structure information to Acrobat via the
PDFMaker macro (other Adobe products such as InDesign, PageMaker and
Framemaker can do this too). However, if you use MS Word 2000 (or up) and
print to Distiller instead of using the PDFMaker macro, no PDF tags are
created: the styles are preserved but the document structure is lost.

It is possible to take a PDF (PDF 1.4 version) from WordPerfect and in
Acrobat 5 or 6, tag it with the document structure but that can be a long
and labourious (and torturous) process, even more so for long documents.
Each block must be selected and tagged with the appropriate document
structure.

The simplest method is to save the WordPerfect document in Word .doc format
and then open the Word document, check the document structure and then make
the PDF from Word 2000 and up.

---------------------------------------------------------
Julian Rickards
Digital Publications Distribution Coordinator
Publications Services Section
Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines
Phone: (705) 670-5608
Fax: (705) 670-5690


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Cathy Mar [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
> Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2004 2:22 PM
> To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> Subject: RE: PDF for accessability
>
>
> Thanks Jules for the reference. This will help us review the
> process in
> Word documents. We also have clients using WordPerfect 8.0 and up
> creating PDF's. Is there a better way to create this in 6.0 to make
> accessible documents in WordPerfect? Anyone...
>
> Much appreciated.
> Cath
>
> >>> <EMAIL REMOVED> 3/25/2004 10:52:48 AM >>>
> At http://jrickards.ca/downloads/accessible_pdfs.zip, I have created a
> tutorial (in Word within the zip file) on my methods, tips, tricks and
> techniques on how I create an Accessible PDF. We use Acrobat 5 at work
> so
> where there may be differences between Acrobat 5 & 6: if so, my
> document
> does not account for them.
>
> Acrobat 6, in addition to other features, includes new image
> compression
> routines that were not available to Acrobat/Acrobat Reader 5.
> This last
> step
> probably is asking you if you wish to accomodate Acrobat
> Reader 5 users
> by
> using compression routines that may be read by Acrobat/Acrobat Reader
> 5. I
> don't think it is an accessibility issue per se.
>
> HTH,
>
> Jules
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> Julian Rickards
> Digital Publications Distribution Coordinator
> Publications Services Section
> Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines
> Phone: (705) 670-5608
> Fax: (705) 670-5690
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Cathy Mar [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
> > Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2004 1:36 PM
> > To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> > Subject: PDF for accessability
> >
> >
> > We have upgraded our software to Acrobat 6.0. Does anyone
> > have a step
> > by step process to create an accessible PDF tagged doc and
> > saving it for
> > other versions of Acrobat readers? We've run into problems of using
> > paper capture then running accessability checker. Once we've
> viewed
> > the tagged document and fixed the images tags, we will run it
> through
> > the accessibility checker again. It will say that there is nothing
> > wrong with the document. The last step is to "reduce file size"
> for
> > version 5.0 or later. Are we missing something?
> >
> > Also, having problems with netscape 4.79 using Acrobat plug
> > in. Works
> > on windows 2000/Netscape 4.79/Acrobat 5.0. Works on some machines
> and
> > others the page is blank...We also test to version 4.0 readers.
> >
> > Any information will greatly be appreciated.
> >
> > Cath
> >
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> confidential and/or legally privileged information. It is
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> use of the intended recipient(s). Unauthorized interception,
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> or disclosure is prohibited and may violate applicable laws including
> the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. If you are not the intended
> recipient, please contact the sender and destroy all copies of the
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