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Thread: Word to PDF conversation has tags for images appearing at the top of the PDF tag tree

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From: Gauvreau, Jennifer (CGI Federal)
Date: Wed, Jun 25 2014 8:15AM
Subject: Word to PDF conversation has tags for images appearing at the top of the PDF tag tree
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Does anyone know of a fix or workaround for a Word-to-PDF conversion problem where tags for all images appear at the top of the PDF tag tree? This documented as a known issue for Microsoft Word 2010 and 2007 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2701086<;http://t.co/17Pe1jsP3N>;).

Excerpt:
There is a known issue that affects Microsoft Office Word 2007 and Microsoft Word 2010. The issue is associated with the tags that are created in PDF files that are generated from Word documents. When you export a document that contains images to PDF, the tags for those images may have to be updated by using a PDF authoring tool.

When you export a document that contains images to PDF, the tags for those images may appear at the top of the PDF tag tree instead of in the correct location in the document flow. The tags for those images may have to be updated by using a PDF authoring tool.

We have a project team with a very large User Guide with many images and they've had to recreate the tag tree/manually retag in Adobe Acrobat Pro but they are looking for a simpler (read as less time intensive) solution.

Thanks,
Jennifer

Jennifer Gauvreau, CUA
Executive Consultant
Human Factors Practice
T: 703-227-6167
C: 571-606-4973

From: Karlen Communications
Date: Wed, Jun 25 2014 8:23AM
Subject: Re: Word to PDF conversation has tags for images appearing at the top of the PDF tag tree
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The only workaround I've found is to ensure that the Word document has
captions for the images and when the document is converted to PDF, Artifact
the images which still leaves the caption text to describe the images. I
usually use the same caption text (copy and paste) for both since in some
cases I need to archive the Word document as well as the PDF.

Cheers, Karen

From: Chagnon | PubCom
Date: Wed, Jun 25 2014 8:56AM
Subject: Re: Word to PDF conversation has tags for images appearing at the top of the PDF tag tree
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J.G wrote:
"We have a project team with a very large User Guide with many images and
they've had to recreate the tag tree/manually retag in Adobe Acrobat Pro but
they are looking for a simpler (read as less time intensive) solution."

Upgrade to Word 2013.
When exported to PDF from Word 2013, figure tags are in the correct location
in the tag tree.
Simple, easy as pie.

-Bevi Chagnon
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From: Petri, Kenneth
Date: Wed, Jun 25 2014 9:22AM
Subject: Re: Word to PDF conversation has tags for images appearing at the top of the PDF tag tree
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There is no work-around. However, the problem does not exist in Word 2013, which also does a better job with text boxes and preserves the language of text runs when outputting to PDF (that is, if I set a language on a piece of text in Word 2013 and you use Acrobat to export to PDF, the text language change is preserved).

So, you can either upgrade to Word 2013 or you can use a third-party tool such as CommonLook Office Pro (a Word plug-in), which will also save you lots of time if you have to deal with presentation-only images (they are artifacted by CommonLook) or tables (very nice table editing tools -- no more fussing with the lame Touch-up Reading Order tool).

Best,
ken