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Converting word docx documents to PDF

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From: David Farough
Date: Oct 28, 2011 1:15PM

Good afternoon:
I have been working for some time on converting a word 2007 document to
PDF format using office 2007 and the PDF maker program. I have
encountered a few problems and don't know whether it is my PDF maker
settings that are at fault, or whether my heading styles are to blame or
whether there is something wrong with my Adobe Acrobat pro
configuration.

I am noticing that when first opening the converted document, that it
seems to take quite a while for Jaws to process the document. (2 to 3
minutes for a 19 page document.)

I have also noticed that in the conversion process all of my heading
text has been put in normal tags and that the appropriate heading tags
Which contain no text appear directly following the normal tags in the
tags tree.

When running the full accessibility report, I get errors for no
language defined for all the text in the document and several possible
tab order issues that can be corrected by specifying that the tab order
should be determined by the document structure.

Can anybody suggest anything that I should do so that I don't have to
manually move all of my heading text into the appropriate heading tags?

I am also noticing that it takes Jaws a long time to display the Links
list and headings list dialogues. If I specify a heading that is close
to the end of the document it takes Jaws a while to move to that
location. As things stand now, The document is much more navigable in
word.

I am also noticing that in the tags tree, everything else is defined
within one section. Is this an issue? I have often in the past seen
the section broken down into pages. I am wondering if this is causing
problems. In the source document, I have several sections and one of
these sections has two column text formatting. I am wondering if
putting a continuous break in the document may be the reason that
everything is contained in one section.

Thanks

David Farough
Application Accessibility Coordinator/coordonateur de l'accessibilité
Information Technology Services Directorate /
Direction des services d'information technologiques
Public Service Commission / Commission de la fonction publique
Email / Courriel: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Tel. / Tél: (613) 992-2779

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