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Thread: PDF Form question
Number of posts in this thread: 5 (In chronological order)
From: Joseph Sherman
Date: Thu, Aug 09 2018 3:52PM
Subject: PDF Form question
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Hi all,
I'm working on a PDF form for our central office to send to our 25 colleges for students to fill out. I'm converting from a Word file, and then needing to do extensive remediation.
Everything is going fine, except one thing. In the header of the document, we need to be able to change the College Name and Address for each school. When I try to edit the PDF where College Name and Address are, it messes up the spacing and moves other text around. Is there any way to get this to work without having to create 25 Word files, then convert and remediate each form- which would take days.
The only thing I can think of is to make College Name and Address fillable fields- is there a way to fill out and lock those two fields when posting the form for students to fill out?
Thanks,
Joseph
From: L Snider
Date: Fri, Aug 10 2018 10:11AM
Subject: Re: PDF Form question
← Previous message | Next message →
Hi Joseph,
By header, do you mean the header (footer/header) or the top of the
document? Will the students know the college is sending these to them? I
assume so, but wasn't sure.
Cheers
Lisa
On Thu, Aug 9, 2018 at 4:52 PM, Joseph Sherman < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm working on a PDF form for our central office to send to our 25
> colleges for students to fill out. I'm converting from a Word file, and
> then needing to do extensive remediation.
> Everything is going fine, except one thing. In the header of the document,
> we need to be able to change the College Name and Address for each school.
> When I try to edit the PDF where College Name and Address are, it messes up
> the spacing and moves other text around. Is there any way to get this to
> work without having to create 25 Word files, then convert and remediate
> each form- which would take days.
>
> The only thing I can think of is to make College Name and Address fillable
> fields- is there a way to fill out and lock those two fields when posting
> the form for students to fill out?
>
> Thanks,
>
>
> Joseph
>
> > > > >
From: chagnon@pubcom.com
Date: Fri, Aug 10 2018 10:38AM
Subject: Re: PDF Form question
← Previous message | Next message →
Joseph wrote:
" When I try to edit the PDF where College Name and Address are, it messes
up the spacing and moves other text around. Is there any way to get this to
work without having to create 25 Word files, then convert and remediate each
form- which would take days. "
You've run into two limitations with the Word-to-PDF workflow. One is a
Microsoft shortcoming, the other is an Acrobat bug.
- Anything in a Word header or footer is automatically artifacted when the
PDF is exported. In cases like yours where the author has placed their
college name (or letterhead information) in the header, the PDF reading
orders/tags leave out that critical information.
You can capture that info in the PDF with Acrobat's Order Panel tool
(formerly called the TURO tool), but you'll have to do that manually for
each of the 25 versions of your PDFs.
Tell Microsoft to give us the option of designating headers, footers, and
other objects as artifacts or live content (like Adobe InDesign does). They
just added that capability to graphics (it's in the new Alt-text dialogue),
but we need it for many more objects and text that are common in documents.
Forum is at https://word.uservoice.com/
-The Edit tools in Acrobat Pro have a major bug; when used, they can destroy
the accessibility (tags and tag reading order get changed) as well as mess
up line breaks and visual placement on the page. That's what is happening to
you.
Editing a PDF will always cause these problems; the only difference is to
what degree and how easily you can correct the changes.
Caution: when editing a PDF, do check the entire PDF's tags and reading
orders. Doesn't matter where you edited the content, the breakage in
accessibility can occur anywhere else in the document, like on page 99 when
the change was made on page 1.
Adobe knows of this bug, but it would be helpful to keep it on their radar
screen via the user forum at https://acrobat.uservoice.com/
Solutions:
1. Your forms idea.
2. Don't put the college info in the header. Just make it live text/graphics
at the top of the page in your Word source documents. If you have multiple
pages in a document, learn how to designate different headers/footers on the
1st page of a document because you'll want the info live on page 1 but
artifacted (therefore in a traditional header) on page 2 and beyond.
3. #2 above, but use a Word Content Control in the source document. Use it
to type in the specific details for each college and then export a unique
PDF for each college.
Hope this helps,
-Bevi
- - -
Bevi Chagnon, founder/CEO | = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
- - -
PubCom: Technologists for Accessible Design + Publishing
consulting . training . development . design . sec. 508 services
Upcoming classes at www.PubCom.com/classes
- - -
Latest blog-newsletter - Accessibility Tips at www.pubcom.com/blog
-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > On Behalf Of L
Snider
Sent: Friday, August 10, 2018 12:12 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] PDF Form question
Hi Joseph,
By header, do you mean the header (footer/header) or the top of the
document? Will the students know the college is sending these to them? I
assume so, but wasn't sure.
Cheers
Lisa
On Thu, Aug 9, 2018 at 4:52 PM, Joseph Sherman < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm working on a PDF form for our central office to send to our 25
> colleges for students to fill out. I'm converting from a Word file,
> and then needing to do extensive remediation.
> Everything is going fine, except one thing. In the header of the
> document, we need to be able to change the College Name and Address for
each school.
> When I try to edit the PDF where College Name and Address are, it
> messes up the spacing and moves other text around. Is there any way to
> get this to work without having to create 25 Word files, then convert
> and remediate each form- which would take days.
>
> The only thing I can think of is to make College Name and Address
> fillable
> fields- is there a way to fill out and lock those two fields when
> posting the form for students to fill out?
>
> Thanks,
>
>
> Joseph
>
> > > archives at http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
> >
http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
From: L Snider
Date: Fri, Aug 10 2018 11:50AM
Subject: Re: PDF Form question
← Previous message | Next message →
One thing to add, while Word now gives us the options for the alt to be
decorative (artifact), which is awesome, in my testing on Mac and PC it
doesn't translate to Acrobat Pro DC latest version. Microsoft is aware, but
I have to start to bug Adobe about it, because it annoying that it won't
translate.
I just mentioned this so others can bug both of them to change this issue,
if you contact them about the important issue Bevi mentioned below.
Cheers
Lisa
On Fri, Aug 10, 2018 at 11:38 AM, < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Joseph wrote:
> " When I try to edit the PDF where College Name and Address are, it messes
> up the spacing and moves other text around. Is there any way to get this to
> work without having to create 25 Word files, then convert and remediate
> each
> form- which would take days. "
>
> You've run into two limitations with the Word-to-PDF workflow. One is a
> Microsoft shortcoming, the other is an Acrobat bug.
>
> - Anything in a Word header or footer is automatically artifacted when the
> PDF is exported. In cases like yours where the author has placed their
> college name (or letterhead information) in the header, the PDF reading
> orders/tags leave out that critical information.
>
> You can capture that info in the PDF with Acrobat's Order Panel tool
> (formerly called the TURO tool), but you'll have to do that manually for
> each of the 25 versions of your PDFs.
>
> Tell Microsoft to give us the option of designating headers, footers, and
> other objects as artifacts or live content (like Adobe InDesign does).
> They
> just added that capability to graphics (it's in the new Alt-text dialogue),
> but we need it for many more objects and text that are common in documents.
> Forum is at https://word.uservoice.com/
>
> -The Edit tools in Acrobat Pro have a major bug; when used, they can
> destroy
> the accessibility (tags and tag reading order get changed) as well as mess
> up line breaks and visual placement on the page. That's what is happening
> to
> you.
>
> Editing a PDF will always cause these problems; the only difference is to
> what degree and how easily you can correct the changes.
>
> Caution: when editing a PDF, do check the entire PDF's tags and reading
> orders. Doesn't matter where you edited the content, the breakage in
> accessibility can occur anywhere else in the document, like on page 99 when
> the change was made on page 1.
>
> Adobe knows of this bug, but it would be helpful to keep it on their radar
> screen via the user forum at https://acrobat.uservoice.com/
>
> Solutions:
> 1. Your forms idea.
>
> 2. Don't put the college info in the header. Just make it live
> text/graphics
> at the top of the page in your Word source documents. If you have multiple
> pages in a document, learn how to designate different headers/footers on
> the
> 1st page of a document because you'll want the info live on page 1 but
> artifacted (therefore in a traditional header) on page 2 and beyond.
>
> 3. #2 above, but use a Word Content Control in the source document. Use it
> to type in the specific details for each college and then export a unique
> PDF for each college.
>
> Hope this helps,
> -Bevi
>
> - - -
> Bevi Chagnon, founder/CEO | = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
> - - -
> PubCom: Technologists for Accessible Design + Publishing
> consulting . training . development . design . sec. 508 services
> Upcoming classes at www.PubCom.com/classes
> - - -
> Latest blog-newsletter - Accessibility Tips at www.pubcom.com/blog
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: WebAIM-Forum < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > On Behalf Of L
> Snider
> Sent: Friday, August 10, 2018 12:12 PM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] PDF Form question
>
> Hi Joseph,
>
> By header, do you mean the header (footer/header) or the top of the
> document? Will the students know the college is sending these to them? I
> assume so, but wasn't sure.
>
> Cheers
>
> Lisa
>
> On Thu, Aug 9, 2018 at 4:52 PM, Joseph Sherman < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
> wrote:
>
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I'm working on a PDF form for our central office to send to our 25
> > colleges for students to fill out. I'm converting from a Word file,
> > and then needing to do extensive remediation.
> > Everything is going fine, except one thing. In the header of the
> > document, we need to be able to change the College Name and Address for
> each school.
> > When I try to edit the PDF where College Name and Address are, it
> > messes up the spacing and moves other text around. Is there any way to
> > get this to work without having to create 25 Word files, then convert
> > and remediate each form- which would take days.
> >
> > The only thing I can think of is to make College Name and Address
> > fillable
> > fields- is there a way to fill out and lock those two fields when
> > posting the form for students to fill out?
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> >
> > Joseph
> >
> > > > > > archives at http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
> > > >
> > > at
> http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
> >
> > > > >
From: Shiva Pourgholaminejad
Date: Fri, Aug 10 2018 3:10PM
Subject: Re: PDF Form question
← Previous message | No next message
HI Joseph,
If you are using adobe pro, you can definitely add fillable forms and type your text for each 25 colleges , lock and save it.
Shiva
-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > On Behalf Of Joseph Sherman
Sent: Thursday, August 9, 2018 2:52 PM
To: 'WebAIM Discussion List' < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Subject: [WebAIM] PDF Form question
Hi all,
I'm working on a PDF form for our central office to send to our 25 colleges for students to fill out. I'm converting from a Word file, and then needing to do extensive remediation.
Everything is going fine, except one thing. In the header of the document, we need to be able to change the College Name and Address for each school. When I try to edit the PDF where College Name and Address are, it messes up the spacing and moves other text around. Is there any way to get this to work without having to create 25 Word files, then convert and remediate each form- which would take days.
The only thing I can think of is to make College Name and Address fillable fields- is there a way to fill out and lock those two fields when posting the form for students to fill out?
Thanks,
Joseph