WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: PDF files have user default language set for some tags(<P>, <LBody>, <Link>)

for

From: Philip Kiff
Date: Apr 6, 2017 2:47PM

Dona Patrick wrote:
> Is there any way to remove the language from all of the tag properties
> in one go or am I doomed to do it for each and every tag?

Like CommonLook Global Access mentioned by Logan, axesPDF provides a
quick method to make such global changes. In axesPDF, you can mass edit
any property on all selected tags in a PDF at once. But these are both
very, very expensive pieces of software.


> Are there settings I have enabled that I should disable to stop this
> from happening in the future?

You should be able to eliminate this problem by making sure that none of
your styles in Word include language settings. The default language for
the document should be set, plus the Normal style in your template
should either have no language or should have the language that matches
your global preference. All other styles should have no language
attribute applied. I work in French and English simultaneously and I
find it is easy to end up with a style with a language attribute applied
accidentally - especially if you use the "Update [style] to match
selection" feature on a file that has multiple language codes present.

Also, still working in Word, you can use advanced find-and-replace to
replace all instances of one language with another. Language appears as
an option under the "Format" drop-down in the advanced search options in
the Find and Replace dialog. If using this strategy, you may need to
repeat the process in your headers, footers, and any text boxes or
figures with text.

Finally, always use the paste as "unformatted text" option so you don't
bring language codes from other files or programs.

Phil.