E-mail List Archives

Search E-mail List Archives for

Number of posts in this thread: 5 (In chronological order)

From: David Farough
Date: Fri, Oct 28 2011 1:15PM
Subject: Converting word docx documents to PDF
No previous message | Next message →

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 ADDRESS REMOVED =
Tel. / Tél: (613) 992-2779

>
This e-mail message is intended for the named recipient(s) and may
contain information that is privileged, confidential and/or exempt from
disclosure under applicable law. Unauthorized disclosure, copying or
re-transmission is prohibited. If you are not a named recipient or not
authorized by the named recipient(s), or if you have received this
e-mail in error, then please notify the sender immediately and delete
the message and any copies.
>
Ce courriel est destiné exclusivement au destinataire mentionné en titre
et peut contenir de l'information privilégiée, confidentielle ou
soustraite à la communication aux termes des lois applicables. Toute
divulgation non autorisée, toute reproduction ou réacheminement est
interdit. Si vous n'êtes pas le destinataire de ce courriel, ou n'êtes
pas autorisé par le destinataire visé, ou encore, si vous l'avez reçu
par erreur, veuillez le mentionner immédiatement à l'expéditeur et
supprimer le courriel et les copies.

From: John E Brandt
Date: Fri, Oct 28 2011 2:42PM
Subject: Re: Converting word docx documents to PDF
← Previous message | Next message →

What are you using to do the PDF conversion?

If you have a Word document that is formatted correctly (e.g., alternative descriptions for your images, semantically correct headings, and tables that have "heading" info, etc.) if you simply use the "Save As" function in Word to save you document as a PDF, it will *probably* convert just fine and show up having no accessibility errors in accessibility checker built into Adobe Acrobat Pro. To do this you choose Save As, and in the "Save as type:" drop-down menu, simply choose "PDF" from the choices provided.

I have had less success (recently no success) with the "Save as Adobe PDF" utility that gets installed by Adobe Connect Pro. While this gives you some extra controls and settings, but I have found the conversions often do not go smoothly. I think part of the reason may have been that I had Office 2007 installed and then upgraded to Office 2010.

If you have old Word documents (pre Word 2007), you need to convert them into the new Word version (i.e., .docx) for you to be able to successfully convert them to accessible PDF. But my experience has been that this doesn't always happen smoothly.

I have also found that documents created by "many hands," files that may have been converted from an iWork Pages document or had stuff cut and pasted into them, with cause problems when trying to convert to PDF. You may have to strip our ALL of the formatting, and re-format.

If you have the opportunity to upgrade to Office 2010, there is an accessibility checker tool installed into that version which helps the process considerably.

I have never had any success with any of the free "word-to-pdf" applications as they typically just convert the file to an image.

Hope this helps.

~j

John E. Brandt
www.jebswebs.com
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
207-622-7937
Augusta, Maine, USA

From: David Farough
Date: Fri, Oct 28 2011 2:57PM
Subject: Re: Converting word docx documents to PDF
← Previous message | Next message →

Hi John:
This document was created using word 2003. I suspect that the
conversion to word 2007 was the problem. I am considering doing as you
suggest and remove the formatting and re-create the doc in 2007 format.
I believe that initially I tried converting to PDF using the Save as
method. with similar results. Since that time I have been using the
create PDF button in the Acrobat tab.





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 ADDRESS REMOVED =
Tel. / Tél: (613) 992-2779

>
This e-mail message is intended for the named recipient(s) and may
contain information that is privileged, confidential and/or exempt from
disclosure under applicable law. Unauthorized disclosure, copying or
re-transmission is prohibited. If you are not a named recipient or not
authorized by the named recipient(s), or if you have received this
e-mail in error, then please notify the sender immediately and delete
the message and any copies.
>
Ce courriel est destiné exclusivement au destinataire mentionné en titre
et peut contenir de l'information privilégiée, confidentielle ou
soustraite à la communication aux termes des lois applicables. Toute
divulgation non autorisée, toute reproduction ou réacheminement est
interdit. Si vous n'êtes pas le destinataire de ce courriel, ou n'êtes
pas autorisé par le destinataire visé, ou encore, si vous l'avez reçu
par erreur, veuillez le mentionner immédiatement à l'expéditeur et
supprimer le courriel et les copies.

From: John E Brandt
Date: Sat, Oct 29 2011 10:00AM
Subject: Re: Converting word docx documents to PDF
← Previous message | Next message →

Whatever works, go for it!

John E. Brandt
www.jebswebs.com
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
207-622-7937
Augusta, Maine, USA

From: Ryan E. Benson
Date: Sat, Oct 29 2011 8:15PM
Subject: Re: Converting word docx documents to PDF
← Previous message | No next message

David,
If you choose save as PDF, there should be a button that pops up
titled options. Select that, and make sure the tagging option is
selected. I don't think it is by default.

--
Ryan E. Benson



On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 4:54 PM, David Farough
< = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Hi John:
> This document was created using word 2003. I suspect that the
> conversion to word 2007 was the problem.  I am considering doing as you
> suggest and remove the formatting and re-create the doc in 2007 format.
> I believe that initially I tried converting to PDF using the Save as
> method.  with similar results.  Since that time I have been using the
> create PDF button in the Acrobat tab.
>
>
>
>
>
> 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 ADDRESS REMOVED =
> Tel. / Tél:    (613) 992-2779
>
>>
> This e-mail message is intended for the named recipient(s) and may
> contain information that is privileged, confidential and/or exempt from
> disclosure under applicable law. Unauthorized disclosure, copying or
> re-transmission is prohibited. If you are not a named recipient or not
> authorized by the named recipient(s), or if you have received this
> e-mail in error, then please notify the sender immediately and delete
> the message and any copies.
>  >
> Ce courriel est destiné exclusivement au destinataire mentionné en titre
> et peut contenir de l'information privilégiée, confidentielle ou
> soustraite à la communication aux termes des lois applicables. Toute
> divulgation non autorisée, toute reproduction ou réacheminement est
> interdit. Si vous n'êtes pas le destinataire de ce courriel, ou n'êtes
> pas autorisé par le destinataire visé, ou encore, si vous l'avez reçu
> par erreur, veuillez le mentionner immédiatement à l'expéditeur et
> supprimer le courriel et les copies.
>
>