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Number of posts in this thread: 7 (In chronological order)

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Mon, Nov 26 2012 8:48AM
Subject: Alt text for images in Word 2010 always get lost when "save as PDF" is selected
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Hi gang

Is it just me or has anyone else seen this?
I've been trying to save an accessible PDF document with a bunch of
screen shots. The document is edited in MS Word 2010.
Whenever I try to save the document as PDF the alt text of the images
disappears (I domake sure that "tagged PDF" is selected in the PDF
options in that dialog).
Has anyone else experienced thi, or am I possibly doing something
wrong (scary thought, but it happens occasionally). ;)
Be well all, hope you U.S. folks have gotten over the turkey and you
had a great Thanksgiving.
-B

From: Chagnon | PubCom
Date: Mon, Nov 26 2012 9:10AM
Subject: Re: Alt text for images in Word 2010 always get lost when "save as PDF" is selected
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Birkir,
First, the obvious.
1) Make sure the Alt-text is there in MS Word (not "Actual text" by
mistake).
2) Check the Acrobat conversion settings and check "tagged PDF."

If it still is dropping the Alt-text during the conversion, then you might
have a corrupted/damaged version of Acrobat.
Try:
1) Uninstall Acrobat.
2) Reboot the computer.
3) Reinstall Acrobat.

Acrobat can act a bit crazy if your version of Word is updated or changed
AFTER the Acrobat plug-ins have been installed. The best solution I've found
is to remove Acrobat, reboot, and reinstall Acrobat to get everything in
place once again.

- Bevi Chagnon
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
www.PubCom.com - Trainers, Consultants, Designers, Developers.
Print, Web, Acrobat, XML, eBooks, and U.S. Federal Section 508
Accessibility.
New schedule for classes and workshops coming this fall and winter.
- It's our 31st year! -

From: Pratik Patel
Date: Mon, Nov 26 2012 9:42AM
Subject: Re: Alt text for images in Word 2010 always get lost when "save as PDF" is selected
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You will also need to make sure that the alt text you write is in the
description field of the format picture dialogue for the image. The title
box results in the alt text not transferring to the converted PDF.


Birkir,
First, the obvious.
1) Make sure the Alt-text is there in MS Word (not "Actual text" by
mistake).
2) Check the Acrobat conversion settings and check "tagged PDF."

If it still is dropping the Alt-text during the conversion, then you might
have a corrupted/damaged version of Acrobat.
Try:
1) Uninstall Acrobat.
2) Reboot the computer.
3) Reinstall Acrobat.

Acrobat can act a bit crazy if your version of Word is updated or changed
AFTER the Acrobat plug-ins have been installed. The best solution I've found
is to remove Acrobat, reboot, and reinstall Acrobat to get everything in
place once again.

- Bevi Chagnon
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
www.PubCom.com - Trainers, Consultants, Designers, Developers.
Print, Web, Acrobat, XML, eBooks, and U.S. Federal Section 508
Accessibility.
New schedule for classes and workshops coming this fall and winter.
- It's our 31st year! -

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Mon, Nov 26 2012 9:59AM
Subject: Re: Alt text for images in Word 2010 always get lost when "save as PDF" is selected
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Thanks guys

One question, by "Acrobat Tools", do you mean that Adobe ACrobat Pro
needs to be installed on the machine, or are the Adobe plug-in for
Word part of the Adobe Reader package?
I will double check the desc vs title, prety sure I did it correctly,
but this is a possibility.
Thank you guys.
-B

On 11/26/12, Pratik Patel < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> You will also need to make sure that the alt text you write is in the
> description field of the format picture dialogue for the image. The title
> box results in the alt text not transferring to the converted PDF.
>
>
> Birkir,
> First, the obvious.
> 1) Make sure the Alt-text is there in MS Word (not "Actual text" by
> mistake).
> 2) Check the Acrobat conversion settings and check "tagged PDF."
>
> If it still is dropping the Alt-text during the conversion, then you might
> have a corrupted/damaged version of Acrobat.
> Try:
> 1) Uninstall Acrobat.
> 2) Reboot the computer.
> 3) Reinstall Acrobat.
>
> Acrobat can act a bit crazy if your version of Word is updated or changed
> AFTER the Acrobat plug-ins have been installed. The best solution I've
> found
> is to remove Acrobat, reboot, and reinstall Acrobat to get everything in
> place once again.
>
> - Bevi Chagnon
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> www.PubCom.com - Trainers, Consultants, Designers, Developers.
> Print, Web, Acrobat, XML, eBooks, and U.S. Federal Section 508
> Accessibility.
> New schedule for classes and workshops coming this fall and winter.
> - It's our 31st year! -
>
>

From: Karlen Communications
Date: Mon, Nov 26 2012 10:17AM
Subject: Re: Alt text for images in Word 2010 always get lost when "save as PDF" is selected
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The Acrobat Ribbon is installed if you have Acrobat Pro installed on your
computer so that is the Adobe tool set.

The Word add-in is not part of the Adobe tools. If you add the Alt text in
Word, it should be added to the resulting tagged PDF document. I've tried
both Title and Description fields with success but end up just using the
Description field as it meets my needs.

If the Alt text is not coming through, I agree that you might need to repair
your install of either Acrobat if it is installed and you are using that
tool or repair Office/Word if that is the tool you are using. Have you
checked the Tags to see if the Alt Text is really there and this might be a
bug with the screen reader..before you begin repairing installs?

Cheers, Karen

From: Chagnon | PubCom
Date: Mon, Nov 26 2012 11:26AM
Subject: Re: Alt text for images in Word 2010 always get lost when "save as PDF" is selected
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Yes, Adobe Acrobat Pro needs to be installed on the workstation. Reader does
not create PDFs so it doesn't include the Acrobat plug-ins (or tools) for
MS Office.

If MS Office (including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook and other office
applications) is already installed, Acrobat will install its plug-in (with
its conversion settings and tools) in those applications. It adds a new
tab/ribbon bar named "Acrobat" as well as a PDF printer driver (virtual
printer, that is).

If MS Office is installed after Acrobat, then there won't be an Acrobat tab,
plug-in, tools, or controls for conversion settings, so you can't make an
accessible PDF from Word.

The basic ground rules I give my clients:
1) Make sure Acrobat is installed last, after all other software, so that it
can drop its plug-in into MS Office.
2) If your copy of MS Office is upgraded, you might lose the Acrobat plug-in
entirely or Acrobat will not perform correctly when exporting PDFs from MS
Office (behavior like what Birkir described). If that's the case, uninstall
Acrobat, reboot the computer, and reinstall Acrobat so that it can add the
Acrobat plug-in again and fix the installation of Acrobat.

-Bevi Chagnon
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
www.PubCom.com - Trainers, Consultants, Designers, Developers.
Print, Web, Acrobat, XML, eBooks, and U.S. Federal Section 508
Accessibility.
New schedule for classes and workshops coming this fall and winter.
- It's our 31st year! -

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Tue, Nov 27 2012 1:10PM
Subject: Re: Alt text for images in Word 2010 always get lost when "save as PDF" is selected
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Hey guys

Thanks for the help. I was idiotic enough to put the text in the title
attribute of the pictures (that, despite heavily criticizing any use
of the title attribute in HTML, at least from screen reader user
perspective), I just thought that title was closer to "alt text" than
description, because Word uses different names for all thoes fields.
But, again, thanks to everyone, this works fine now and returns, in
fact, no errors using PAC, despite a lot of fairly complex structures.
-B

On 11/26/12, Chagnon | PubCom < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Yes, Adobe Acrobat Pro needs to be installed on the workstation. Reader
> does
> not create PDFs so it doesn't include the Acrobat plug-ins (or tools) for
> MS Office.
>
> If MS Office (including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook and other office
> applications) is already installed, Acrobat will install its plug-in (with
> its conversion settings and tools) in those applications. It adds a new
> tab/ribbon bar named "Acrobat" as well as a PDF printer driver (virtual
> printer, that is).
>
> If MS Office is installed after Acrobat, then there won't be an Acrobat
> tab,
> plug-in, tools, or controls for conversion settings, so you can't make an
> accessible PDF from Word.
>
> The basic ground rules I give my clients:
> 1) Make sure Acrobat is installed last, after all other software, so that
> it
> can drop its plug-in into MS Office.
> 2) If your copy of MS Office is upgraded, you might lose the Acrobat
> plug-in
> entirely or Acrobat will not perform correctly when exporting PDFs from MS
> Office (behavior like what Birkir described). If that's the case, uninstall
> Acrobat, reboot the computer, and reinstall Acrobat so that it can add the
> Acrobat plug-in again and fix the installation of Acrobat.
>
> -Bevi Chagnon
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> www.PubCom.com - Trainers, Consultants, Designers, Developers.
> Print, Web, Acrobat, XML, eBooks, and U.S. Federal Section 508
> Accessibility.
> New schedule for classes and workshops coming this fall and winter.
> - It's our 31st year! -
>
>
>