WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Alt text for images in Word 2010 always get lost when "save as PDF" is selected

for

From: Chagnon | PubCom
Date: Nov 26, 2012 11:26AM


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! -


-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Birkir R.
Gunnarsson
Sent: Monday, November 26, 2012 11:59 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Alt text for images in Word 2010 always get lost when
"save as PDF" is selected

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 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! -
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Birkir R.
> Gunnarsson
> Sent: Monday, November 26, 2012 10:48 AM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List
> Subject: [WebAIM] Alt text for images in Word 2010 always get lost
> when "save as PDF" is selected
>
> 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
> > > list messages to <EMAIL REMOVED>
>
> > > list messages to <EMAIL REMOVED>
>
> > > list messages to <EMAIL REMOVED>
>
messages to <EMAIL REMOVED>