Guide To Making Instructional Materials Accessible

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Converting a Microsoft Word 2007 Document to an Accessible PDF

Introduction

This section of the tutorial covers how to create an accessible PDF document from a Microsoft Office 2007 Word document. If there are more detailed questions on how to work more effectively in Microsoft Office 2007, please refer to the Microsoft Office 2007 Guide found at the Central IT - Helpdesk Training Guides website. The Classroom Training Labs held by Central IT offers courses that cover Microsoft Office 2007 as well. Adobe also provides a downloadable PDF entitled Quick Reference Card for Preparing Microsoft Word Documents to Create Accessible PDFs.

The key to making an accessible PDF document from a Microsoft Office 2007 Word document is making sure that there is structure to the document - meaning there is alternative text for all images and headers aiding in document structure. The following steps will give more insight to creating document structure in Microsoft Office 2007 Word, exporting to PDF, then provide information on how to check the PDF to ensure accessibility.

1. Enable Tagging in Microsoft Office 2007 Word

   Remember, the computer being used must have Adobe Acrobat 7.0 or higher in order to convert documents!

   • Open a document in the Microsoft Office 2007 Word application, select the Acrobat tab, then choose the <Preferences> option from the top left-hand side of the menu bar.

      

     

   • Make sure that Enable Accessibility and reflow with Tagged PDF is checked. Select <OK>.

      

     

      

2. Use Styles in Microsoft Office 2007 To Format Document

   

• Use Styles toolbar in Microsoft Office 2007 Word to format all the text in the document.
• Use H1, H2, and H3 headers to mark-up the text and add structure to the document. These should be used in the same way as titles and subtitles in the document.
• Use Normal style option for the body of the text.

Also Note The Following:

• The use of Styles is VERY IMPORTANT. If the Styles toolbar is not used when creating a Word document that will be export to PDF, it will make it that more difficult to fix the PDF document in order to make it accessible and compliant for the Web.
• The formatting may need to be cleared on any document whose formatting is in question. (i.e. documents that have been inherited or were not formatted using the above methods). The following explains how to clear the formatting of a Word 2007 Document:
  • On the Styles Toolbox in the lower right-hand corner, click the Dialog Box Launcher

     

    

     

  • In the Styles Dialog Window, select "Clear All"

     

    

• Avoid using text boxes to format text layouts
• Styles can be modified by right clicking the style name in the styles palate.

   

  

   

• In the Modify Style Dialog Window, a particular style can be edited by changing the format of the font, paragraph line spacing, and other options. To learn more about changing styles in Word 2007, documentation can be found at the Microsoft Office Word 2007 Online Site, under the section labled Change a Style for Word 2007.

   

  

   

• To show a list of styles on the right-hand side of the screen, click the Dialog Box Launcher as shown below.

   

  

   

• To reveal all the styles available, select the <Manage Styles> option.

   

  

   

• Select the <Recommend> tab on the Manage Styles dialog box.
• Individual styles can be selected to show up in the styles palate by right clicking on the names of the styles then selecting <Show> and <OK>.
• Using the CTRL or Shift keys while right clicking will allow multiple styles or a whole series of styles to be selected.

   

  

   

3. Insert Alternative Text For Images and Graphics (As Needed)

   • Select the image, right click and select <Size>.

      

     

      

   • Under the Alt Text tab, enter a short text description of the image.

      

     

      

     

      

   • Select <Close> and continue with the document creation.

      

     

      

   • Use discretion in applying ALT tags. ALT tags need to be descriptive and convey the meaning behind why the artwork or illustration has been included in the text. They do not need to be lengthy.

4. Convert To PDF

   • Choose the <Adobe Acrobat> option from the menu bar.
   • Select the <Create PDF> option.
   • Save the file at the prompt.

      

     

      

5. Manual Checking of the PDF

   • Open the resulting PDF file.
   • Navigate though the Tags tab to ensure the document has the proper structure (H1, H2, H3 etc.) To get the Tags tab to display, from the menu bar, select <View>, <Navigation Panels>, then <Tags>. The Tags Dialog Window will be displayed.

      

     

      

     

      

   • Navigate though the Order tab to ensure the reading order flows logically and that the images and graphics have been properly tagged with ALT text. To get the Order tab to display, from the menu bar, select <View>, <Navigation Panels>, then <Order>. The Order Dialog Window will be displayed.

      

     

      

     

      

   • As a second check, export the documents as <File>, <Export>, <Text>, then <Text Accessible> and manually look over the reading order.

      

     

      

      

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