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heading structure quandry

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From: Trafford, Logan
Date: Jan 19, 2015 10:04AM

Looking for opinions. I will try to summarize the issue as succinctly as possible.

I’m building a Word template (for reports) that get converted to PDF and posted to external website. Once the Word document is completed, the author has no further control (i.e. the conversion to PDF is done in batch mode automatically and they can’t remediate the PDF after the fact).

The natural Heading 1 of the document is the text that appears at the top of the doc which is “Report to XYZ Committee”, followed by additional (normal text) that identifies date, who submitted it etc. and THEN the actual subject matter of the report.

Example:
Report to XYZ Committee
January 15, 2015
Submitted by: Jane Doe
Contact Person: Barney Fife
Ward:
File #
Subject:

My issue is that while it is natural to style the main title (Report to XYZ Committee) as a Heading 1 (and also enter it as the title in the Properties of the document), there may be hundreds of these reports converted to PDF and posted to the website on a yearly basis that would end up having the exact same title, thus potentially having an adverse effect on search capabilities.

Would it make more sense to have the unique “Subject:” of the document styled as the Heading 1 instead and the “Report to XXX Committee” as a Heading 2. I do realize that automated checkers will fail for having skipped heading levels, but that’s not the end of the world. Or am I simply over-thinking this and it wouldn’t make much of a difference either way (from and A11Y perspective), thus having the generic “Report to XYZ Committee” on multiple documents being totally acceptable.

Appreciate any input.
Thanks,

Logan Trafford

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