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Thread: Adobe Acrobat accessibility problem with PDF on reflow

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From: Carmen Mardiros
Date: Wed, May 12 2004 3:04AM
Subject: Adobe Acrobat accessibility problem with PDF on reflow
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Hello,

I have been trying for 3 weeks to make a PDF document accessible and the problem I can't seem to get past is the logical order of the document being messed up. Ok so the document doesn't have multiple columns, forms etc but it does have special styles used for headings, bullets etc. It also has a header and footer (logo in the header, copyright in the footer).

On conversion to PDF using Acrobat 6.0 some pages reflow properly while on others it either reads:

word179 word289 word246 (in no particular order, no last or first word in a paragraph) and then the rest of the page as a block. Using TouchUp Text reveals that the whole page is one big block of text which JAWS just skips over.

On other pages parts of the copyright get placed first, then some words, then the rest of the page.

Looking at what the document looks like in Word XP I can't for the life of me understand what is causing it, I haven't used line breaks or anything that could cause it.

Please help, it's driving me insane!

Carmen

From: Carmen Mardiros
Date: Thu, May 13 2004 8:51PM
Subject: Re: Adobe Acrobat accessibility problem with PDF on reflow
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Yes, the native application is Word and the document is created using
styles. Why I'm making a PDF? Well it's a 10,000 word paper and people will
want to save a PDF of the whole thing on their drive to print later.


There is also a HTML version but that's broken in quite a few pages. Plus
PDF allows me to preserve the feel of the document as it was intended from
the beginning.


Thanks,
Carmen


----- Original Message -----
From: "ED COHEN" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
To: < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2004 7:17 PM
Subject: Re: Adobe Acrobat accessibility problem with PDF on reflow



Hello Carmen,
Aren't PDF's fun? You know people will ask why you're making a PDF?


What is its native application, Word?
If so, was the document created using styles?


Ed Cohen
Web Accessibility Manager
Indiana Department of Environmental Management
Office of Information Technology
http://www.state.in.us/idem


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PH: 317/232-8600
800/451-6027 Toll-free within Indiana)