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Re: PDFs and JAWS

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From: Duff Johnson
Date: Jul 11, 2011 3:27PM

David,

If the PDF is correctly tagged, you should get each paragraph without pauses.

If the PDF hasn't been tagged, or is tagged poorly, then the text-stream delivered to you as an AT user is a crapshoot in the first instance.

In such cases, if you are lucky enough to ONLY suffer pauses, consider yourself fortunate!

Duff Johnson

US Committee for ISO/DIS 14289 (PDF/UA), Chair

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On Jul 11, 2011, at 5:21 PM, David Ashleydale wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I've noticed that when I listen to a PDF using JAWS, it generally reads one
> line at a time instead of one sentence at a time (or until a certain number
> of characters have been read). Is this expected Adobe Reader behavior, or is
> there a way to create a PDF so that it reads more like a web page?
>
> For example, if there is a PDF formatted like this:
>
> Temperatures in the Northeast (pause)
> will rise into the 80s and 90s, (pause)
> and into the 90s and 100s in (pause)
> the Southeast. Temperatures (pause)
> in the Southern Plains and the (pause)
> Southwest will rise into the 90s (pause)
> and 100s, and into the 80s in (pause)
> the Northwest. (pause)
>
> JAWS will pause at the end of each line and wait for the user to hit the
> down arrow before reading the next line. I have indicated this by putting
> the word "pause" at the end of each line.
>
> Is there a way for me to format the PDF so that it reads entire sentences
> without pausing for line breaks?
>
> Thanks,
> David
>