Microsoft Office (Microsoft Word)

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Microsoft Office generates tagged accessible PDF files with the assistance of a helper application that is part of Adobe Acrobat called the Acrobat PDFMaker. This plug-in for Microsoft Office ships with Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional and Standard.

In addition to Microsoft Word, there are other components to the Microsoft Office productivity suite including the PowerPoint presentation program, and the Excel spreadsheet. This tutorial will limit its discussion of generating accessible PDFs from the Microsoft Office suite to Word, though the techniques are similar for the other components of Microsoft Office.

There is a practice file on the CD to practice these techniques.

Practice Files:

5_wordfile.doc

Solution:

5_wordfile_solution.doc

Preparing a Microsoft Word Document for Making Accessible PDF

Microsoft Office 2000 and later applications have many features that help optimize files for accessibility before converting them to Adobe PDF. The following tips provide information on how to use these features for Microsoft Word documents for creating high quality accessible PDF documents.

Tagging

Adopting certain conventions while authoring in Microsoft Word will help generate a logical read order and a more accessible PDF file after conversion using the Adobe Acrobat PDFMaker:

Always use Paragraph styles, such as Heading1, Heading2, etc. rather than character formats for formatting text in a Word document. Acrobat PDFMaker and Acrobat 7.0 read paragraph styles to identify structural elements for tagging.

Use bullets and numbering to create lists and outlines, these convert well to tags.

If the layout has two or more columns, use Word's Columns feature (Format > Columns) to lay out the columns. Don't use spaces, tabs, or the table feature to simulate multicolumn text. Columns translate well to a tagged Adobe PDF file, while tabs and tables often require manual repair work with the Touch Up Reading Order tool in Acrobat 7.0 Professional.

Create live hyperlinks and cross references, and provide them with text descriptions (alternate text). Acrobat PDFMaker converts links and cross references to accessible links in the PDF document.

Create tables by using the table feature in Microsoft Word (Table > Insert > Table) rather than by using the tab key or spacebar to position text on the page. Using the table feature enables Acrobat PDFMaker and Acrobat 7.0 to correctly recognize and tag the content as a table.

If possible, do not create excessively deep rows in a table and do not allow rows to break across pages. To keep a row from breaking across pages in Microsoft Word, turn off the "Allow Row to Break Across Pages" option for that row.

On tables that span two or more pages, make headers repeat to help readers follow the flow of information. To do this in Word, turn on the "Repeat As Header Row at the Top of Each Page" option for the table's first (header) row.

Once your document is complete, you instruct the Acrobat PDFMaker on how to appropriatly convert Microsoft Office elements to their accessible PDF equivalents. You tell the PDFMaker what to do by selecting the Adobe PDFMaker dialog. From the Word menu, select Adobe PDF > Change Conversion Settings (See Figure 3 - 20 Selecting PDFMaker Conversion Settings in Microsoft Word) .

Figure 3 - 20 Selecting PDFMaker Conversion Settings in Microsoft Word

Once the PDFMaker dialog (See Figure 3 - 21 PDFMaker for Word Settings Tab) is displayed, you specify various settings within the dialog to determine the accessible characteristics of the resulting PDF file. There are four tabs: Settings, Security, Word, and Bookmarks.

Settings Tab

Convert document information - this option adds document information from the Word document's Properties dialog to the Adobe PDF document. Document information includes title, subject, author, keywords, etc.

Add Bookmarks to PDF - this option converts Word headings to Bookmarks in the PDF document.

Add Links to Adobe PDF - This option presenve links that are in the file and adds them to the PDF document.

Enable Accessibility and Reflow With Tagged PDF - This option is critical for accessibility and must be checked. It tells the PDFMaker to tag the document (See Figure 3 - 21 PDFMaker for Word Settings Tab)

Figure 3 - 21 PDFMaker for Word

Settings Tab

Security Tab

On the securities tab, make sure that the Enable Text Access For Screen Reader Devices for the Visually Impaired option is on. This option overrides the PDF security settings for the purpose of making content available to trusted assistive technology, such as certain screen readers that have registered with Adobe to become Trusted Agents. This option is on by default (See Figure 3 - 22 PDFMaker for Word Security Tab) .

Figure 3 - 22 PDFMaker for Word Security Tab

Word Tab

The Word Tab provides options for converting Word cross references, tables of contents, footnotes, and endnotes to links in the PDF document. Converting these elements to links can make the PDF document more accessible for all users.

Figure 3 - 23 PDFMaker for Word Word Tab

Bookmarks Tab

From the Bookmarks tab, you control whether to convert a document's headings and other styles to bookmarks in the Adobe PDF document and you can establish the heirarchy level of the bookmarks before conversion. Convert Word Headings to bookmarks creates bookmarks for paragraphs that use the Heading 1, Heading 2, etc. styles from Word's default style sheet. Convert Word Styles to Bookmarks creates bookmarks for paragraphs that use any other styles in the Word document. These include Word's non-heading default styles and custom styles you have created (See Figure 3 - 24 PDFMaker for Word Bookmarks Tab) .

Figure 3 - 24 PDFMaker for Word Bookmarks Tab

Adding Alt Text to Microsoft Word Graphics

To add alternative text descriptions to Graphics that appear in Microsoft Word documents, you use the format picture dialog for Microsoft Word (See Figure 3 - 26 Format Picture Dialog for Specifying Alternate Text in Microsoft Word) . You display this dialog for a Word graphic one of three ways:

Double click on the graphic (easiest method)

Right click on the graphic and select Format Picture from the menu

Select the graphic, by clicking on it, and then choose Format > Picture from the Microsoft Word menu (See Figure 3 - 25 Format Picture Option Selection in Microsoft Word) .

Figure 3 - 25 Format Picture Option Selection in Microsoft Word

With the Format Picture dialog open, make sure the fourth tab labelled "Web" is selected. Type the desired alternate description for the selected graphic in the text box that appears below the Web tab (See Figure 3 - 26 Format Picture Dialog for Specifying Alternate Text in Microsoft Word)

Figure 3 - 26 Format Picture Dialog for Specifying Alternate Text in Microsoft Word

Generating Accessible PDF from Microsoft Word

Once the Microsoft Word document has been prepared for conversion to an accessible PDF file, you convert it by selecting one of the Convert to PDF buttons on the Microsoft Word toolbar or by choosing Adobe PDF > Convert to Adobe PDF (or one of the other options available from the Adobe PDF menu). Name and save the file (See Figure 3 - 27 Convert to PDF Controls in Microsoft Office) .

Figure 3 - 27 Convert to PDF Controls in Microsoft Office