Acrobat pdf tag

Beyond meeting the needs of the disabled, properly structured PDF files have a number of other qualities that can dramatically expand their usefulness in a variety of applications. For PDF files to display properly on these devices, and to reflow on-screen as well, the files must be structured, allowing text to be reflowed.

Acrobat Professional allows the adding of structural tags to a PDF, but a degree of quality control — in the form of manual oversight - is still required to ensure the tagging process is performed correctly. There is little room for error in document tagging. Seemingly small errors in document structure can easily render a page incomprehensible. For example, consider how a page would read if footnote text were to appear after the last paragraph on the page as implied by Left-Right-Top-Bottom reading order alone instead of at the footnote location in the document text as implied by logical order.

Unless the document is very simple, however, the automated reading order and tag structure alone is unlikely to produce satisfactory results. Acrobat PDF Maker dialog. Be sure "Enable accessibility and reflow" is checked!

To give you a sense of the reading experience with assistive technology that doesn't use tags, or on a PDA, Acrobat includes two tools that utilize structure in PDF files. But be careful! There is no "undo" for changes made to the content. Save your work after you complete each page so you can never lose more than a page of work if you make a mistake.

Use the order panel to correct the document's reading order before checking the tags. Drag and drop this panel into the left-hand edge of the window to place the Tags panel with the Bookmarks, Pages and other Navigation tabs. Note: There is simply no substitute for reading the manual. Don't expect to become a PDF-tagging expert overnight! Note that reading order and tags do not as yet fully "harmonize" with each other when you make certain adjustments, as they really should. For the moment, it is up to the document author or manager to ensure that the file is validated for the intended usage or for the standards it must meet.

A PDF file equipped with quality-controlled tags may be read effectively using a screen-reader or other assistive technology that reads PDF tags. If the PDF file is also optimized for reflowing of content, it will read well using assistive technologies that do not use PDF tags, as well as on mobile devices. If accessibility is important or mandatory , or if you want your files to work well on mobile devices, then you need to learn to tag your PDFs. Try Acrobat DC. Learn how to edit PDF.

Get started. Acrobat X accessibility - Beyond the obvious. Rearrange PDF pages. Create PDF online. Convert Word to PDF online. Convert Excel to PDF online. Compress PDF online. Sign Microsoft Word documents. Note: This demo is not intended to explain what content needs to be tagged as an artifact that is frequently the decision of the document author but only how to accomplish the activity what I find to be an efficient and effective manner. For demonstration, I created a document where blank lines are used between paragraphs instead of using the appropriate paragraph styling in Word but any document will work for this exercise.

After opening a document in Acrobat Pro open the tag panel. There are reasons for each that are beyond the scope of this blog but I have chosen the Structure type and the following steps will be based upon that display format.

The next blog, part of our release series blogs, and will cover updates for accessibility in our August release of Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. Steps to Tagging Content as an Artifact For demonstration, I created a document where blank lines are used between paragraphs instead of using the appropriate paragraph styling in Word but any document will work for this exercise.

Navigate the Tag Tree until you find tag to change to an artifact this is for illustration and not part of the real workflow. Figure 1 shows an example of empty tag representing the blank line used to create spacing between paragraphs. After converting the tag to an artifact tag you can return to the Tag Tree to verify that it has been automatically removed. Use the Forms tools to create fillable form fields, such as buttons, check boxes, pop-up menus, and text boxes.

When you create a field, type a description in the Tooltip box in the Properties dialog box for that field. Screen readers read this text aloud to the user. For more information, see Create form fields. For information on setting the tab order to use document structure, see Set form field navigation. For more information, see Set the document language , Prevent security settings from interfering with screen readers , Add accessible links , and About bookmarks.

For more information, see Set the document language , Prevent security settings from interfering with screen readers , and About bookmarks. Improve the accessibility of PDFs by adding tags in Acrobat. With a tagged PDF, the logical structure tree sends the contents to a screen reader or other assistive software or hardware in an appropriate order.

For best results, tag a document when converting it to PDF from an authoring application. Tagging during conversion enables the authoring application to draw from the paragraph styles or other structural information of the source document to produce a logical structure tree.

The logical structure tree reflects an accurate reading order and appropriate levels of tags. This tagging can more readily interpret the structure of complex layouts, such as embedded sidebars, closely spaced columns, irregular text alignment, and tables.

Tagging during conversion can also properly tag the links, cross-references, bookmarks, and alternate text when available that are in the file. Acrobat analyzes the content of the PDF to interpret the individual page elements, their hierarchical structure, and the intended reading order of each page.

Then, it builds a tag tree that reflects that information. It also creates tags for any links, cross-references, and bookmarks that you added to the document in Acrobat. The Add Tags To Document command adequately tags most standard layouts. However, it cannot always correctly interpret the structure and reading order of complex page elements.

Tagging these pages by using the Add Tags To Document command can result in improperly combined elements or out-of-sequence tags. These issues cause reading order problems in the PDF. You can add a watermark to a tagged PDF without adding it to the tag tree. Once you have a tagged PDF, evaluate the document for reading order problems, tagging errors, and accessibility errors, and then repair them as needed.

Whichever method you use to tag the PDF, use Acrobat to touch up the tagging and reading order for complex page layouts or unusual page elements. It may incorrectly tag all of these elements as figures. Similarly, this command may erroneously tag graphical characters within text , such as drop caps, as figures instead of including them in the tag that represents the text block.

Such errors can clutter the tag tree and complicate the reading order that assistive technology relies on.

If you tag a document from within Acrobat, the application generates an error report after it completes the tagging process. Use this report as a guide to repair tagging problems. For example, if the web page relies on tables for its layout design, the HTML code for the table may not flow in the same logical reading order as a tagged PDF would require, even though the HTML code is sufficiently structured to display all the elements correctly in a browser.

Depending on the complexity of the web page, you can do extensive repairs in Acrobat Pro by using the Reading Order tool or editing the tag tree in Acrobat. For more information, see the guidelines on the W3C website. Creating tags in the authoring application generally provides better results than adding tags in Acrobat. For more information about creating accessible PDFs, see www. You can combine multiple files from different applications in one operation to create a single PDF.

For example, you can combine word-processing files with slide presentations, spreadsheets, and web pages. If you start with a mix of tagged and untagged PDFs, tag the untagged files before proceeding. When you insert, replace, or delete pages, Acrobat accepts existing tags into the tag tree of the consolidated PDF in the following manner:.