Tagged PDF Files (Full Version)

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Nicole -> Tagged PDF Files (1/18/2007 4:59:51)

In relation to this thread;

http://www.frontpagewebmaster.com/m-354095/tm.htm

I'm wondering whether there is an easy way to tell whether a PDF file has been created using tags?

I have found this website that may be of use for others who may not be aware of how to format a word document correctly before converting to PDF.

http://www.its.monash.edu.au/staff/web/slideshows/accessibility-pdfformat/




jaybee -> RE: Tagged PDF Files (1/18/2007 5:16:41)

quote:

I'm wondering whether there is an easy way to tell whether a PDF file has been created using tags?
Yes, open it in Acrobat and run the accessibility checker.

Before you get all excited, Accessible PDFs are not that accessible. They're better than non accessible PDFs but still not brilliant. I have one on my site and I've created an HTML alternative.



Tailslide -> RE: Tagged PDF Files (1/18/2007 5:53:57)


quote:

ORIGINAL: jaybee I have one on my site and I've created an HTML alternative.


Same here.



Nicole -> RE: Tagged PDF Files (1/18/2007 17:10:52)

I only have Adobe Reader.

Or do you mean to run an accessibility check like Cynthia on it? I didn't think you could do that with pdf files?



caz -> RE: Tagged PDF Files (1/18/2007 17:21:30)

No you do the check in Adobe Acrobat Professional, you can also tag untagged documents but having never done that I don't know how well it works. ( Don't know about Standard though.)



Nicole -> RE: Tagged PDF Files (1/18/2007 17:24:16)

Thanks Caz, Tail & Jaybee.

Can't afford to spent $400 right now on that, will just say that it's not a good idea and write reasons to back that up.



jaybee -> RE: Tagged PDF Files (1/18/2007 17:32:53)

Nicole my dear, brain in gear. Your client has a requirement for you to work with a piece of software you don't have, so you add the cost on to your quote. They pay you an upfront percentage and you go buy the software you need to do the job.



Nicole -> RE: Tagged PDF Files (1/18/2007 17:35:57)

Brain is now in gear!



womble -> RE: Tagged PDF Files (1/18/2007 18:41:51)

I was looking into this this morning after reading this thread and the article Nicole posted a link to and went off and did some investigating. I don't have any clients at the moment requiring pdfs, and at the moment any pdfs I do, I use PDFCreator which is basically a printer driver that prints to pdf, but I was vaguelly thinking that I need to find out about this whole pdf thing, and found an Alistapart article on accessible pdfs which mentioned other software that'll produce tagged pdfs. One of them was PDFlib which I looked up. Not sure how it compares to Adobe Acrobat though.



rubyaim -> RE: Tagged PDF Files (1/18/2007 18:55:40)

I've always found Planet PDF a pretty good resource and usually make it my first port of call when looking for PDF stuff.

Check out the Accessible PDF Learning Center




Nicole -> RE: Tagged PDF Files (1/18/2007 19:46:44)

Thanks Sally I'll take a look at both of those sites!



Tailslide -> RE: Tagged PDF Files (1/19/2007 2:38:10)

Open Office allows you to save it's word processor files as tagged PDFs far as I know if that's of any use.



womble -> RE: Tagged PDF Files (1/19/2007 5:06:42)

Oooooh! My laptop's got OOo! I'd noticed the 'export to pdf' option but never paid much attention to it as I've always used PDFCreator. I'll have to investigate.



jaybee -> RE: Tagged PDF Files (1/19/2007 6:19:13)

Yes they all allow you to create tagged pdfs but AFAIK the only checker is Acrobat. And does anyone have any idea how you look to see what tags are created?



Tailslide -> RE: Tagged PDF Files (1/19/2007 6:32:51)

No, my method is to shout at my clients until they do it properly.



jaybee -> RE: Tagged PDF Files (1/19/2007 6:41:34)

That works for me. [:D]



caz -> RE: Tagged PDF Files (1/19/2007 17:37:00)

In Acrobat,
View>Navigation Tabs>Tags to display the Tags tab.
Click to the left of an element to expand the logical structure tree.
Choose Properties from the Options menu on the Tags tab.
From there you can also add a new tag or delete a tag (amongst other things.)

The tags are first created in the original authoring program, like Word where if the author has used Styles for formatting this will form the basis for tagging when converted to PDF and the tagging option is selected during conversion. The problems arise when authors just add styles willy nilly as they type eg. bold, italic, underline etc., without having a document structure in mind.
The Outline view of Word gives an idea of the document structure.

Acrobat will pick up tables, lists, TOC's , headings, paragraphs etc which can all be used for bookmarks as wells as tags



[image]local://upfiles/3479/8EA4BA21ACA143D4B61BCB96ED2833FA.jpg[/image]



Tailslide -> RE: Tagged PDF Files (1/21/2007 3:56:36)

Nicole - this may or may not be useful leverage for you apart from the legal requirements etc:

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9605.html

See number 2 on the list...



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