How to Prepare Source Documents to Create Accessible PDF's - Quick Guide
- Before you Create the PDF...
- PDF Conversion Options on Window/Mac
- PDF Conversion Options on Google/OpenOffice
The following content will go over how to prepare your content before you convert it into a PDF and how to ensure that you convert content into PDF the most effective way for accessibility. Please avoid "printing to PDF" as this option does not create an accessible PDF version of your documents.
Before you Create the PDF
Before you begin creating your file in the source application that you use e.g. MS Word, PowerPoint etc., review accessibility guidelines (if applicable) for the application you are working with. Applications that offer the best support for accessibility are:
- Microsoft Office Word Links to an external site.
- Microsoft Office PowerPoint Links to an external site.
- Microsoft Office 365 Links to an external site.
- Google Docs Links to an external site.
If you follow accessibility guidelines and you create your document using any of these applications, you will have fewer manual adjustments to make for accessibility once your file is in PDF format.
Microsoft Word Documents Accessibility Checklist
- Use Styles and Formatting for headings/section titles e.g. (Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3 etc)
- Add alternative text for images
- Use Descriptive Labels for Links instead of the long URL
- Keep your tables simple and Identify Table Headers and/or Row headers
- Use built in accessibility checker to review and fix accessibility issues
- Set preferences for Acrobat PDFMaker in Word, PPT and any other application you will be converting over from
- Use the Acrobat Tab or Save as PDF options to convert documents into PDF's
For detailed step by step instructions about how to create Accessible Word Documents, please see the Accessibility in Word Canvas course.
Microsoft PowerPoint Accessibility Checklist:
- Use the Normal View as you create your presentations
- Use built in Standard Slide layouts
- Ensure all slides have a unique title
- Review reading order/structure of each slide
- Use effective color contrast
- Use readable text (font/size)
- Use descriptive labels for your hyperlinks
- Use simple table structure and identify table headers
- Use captioned videos/audio (transcripts for audio)
- Distribute presentation in multiple accessible formats
For additional guidelines on creating accessible content in PowerPoint please see the Accessibility in PowerPoint Canvas course
Please Note: A PDF document that is created from a scan cannot be made accessible until the text that is present is converted into readable text. This can be done by using the OCR tool within Acrobat, available on the Enhance Scans tool in Adobe Acrobat Pro. If OCR results in Acrobat are not satisfactory, and if you do not have access to the original text document, you may need to start over or use more effective OCR software, like Omnipage Links to an external site. or ABBYY FineReader Links to an external site..
PDF Conversion Options for MS Office on Windows and Mac
PDFs can be created from Office and other applications regardless if you have Adobe Acrobat Standard or Professional installed on your computer system. Below we provide you the steps to follow to convert your files into PDF to ensure that all formatting and accessibility elements you included in your source Word or PowerPoint documents are carried over into the PDF version of those files.
Microsoft Office for Windows
There are two ways you can convert your office documents into PDFs depending on what software you have installed.
PDF Maker Through Acrobat Tab on Windows
If you have Adobe Acrobat Standard or Professional installed on your computer, then you can use PDF Maker through the Acrobat Tab on your Office Ribbon.
- Open your Office document and click the "Acrobat" tab on your ribbon.
- If the Acrobat tab does not display on the ribbon, you may need to enable it. Please read Get the Adobe Acrobat Tab to Appear Links to an external site. tutorial from Microsoft Office.
- From the "Create Adobe PDF" group, click on "Preferences". The Acrobat PDFMaker window displays.
- Under the Settings Tab, for Application Settings, make sure that "Enable Accessibility and Reflow with tagged Adobe PDF" checkbox is selected and click the OK button.
- Back on the Acrobat tab, click the "Create PDF" button.
- The Save Adobe PDF File As window displays. In the File Name box enter a name for your file. Verify that the Save as Type box displays "PDF Files (.pdf)" and click the Save button.
- Locate your PDF and review.
Save as PDF on Windows
If you don't have Acrobat installed then you will use the Save As PDF option under the file menu.
- Open your Office document and click on File menu.
- Select Save As and browse for a location to save your file e.g. Desktop.
- The Save As window displays. In the File Name area enter a name for your file.
- Under Save as Type box click the drop down menu arrow and select PDF (*.pdf).
- Click the "Options" button. The Options window displays. Make sure that "Document structure tags for accessibility" checkbox is selected and click OK.
- Back on Save As window Click Save button.
- Open PDF document and review for accessibility.
Microsoft Office for Mac
There are two ways you can convert your office documents into PDFs depending on what software you have installed.
Adobe PDF Maker on Mac
If you have Adobe Acrobat Standard or Professional installed on your computer, then you can use PDF Maker through the Acrobat Tab on your Office Ribbon.
- Open your Office document and click on the Acrobat Tab from the Office Ribbon,
- Select the Preferences button.
- You will see the Acrobat Create PDF Settings prompt. Select to "Prompt for using Adobe Create PDF cloud service" and click OK. This online service is necessary in order to create a tagged PDF.
- Click the Create PDF button on Office Ribbon. The Acrobat Create PDF prompt displays asking you if you want to create a "rich and accessible PDF using the Adobe Create PDF cloud service". Please click Yes button.
- Your document will begin to convert and the PDF will open. Review your PDF for accessibility.
Save As PDF on Mac
If you don't have Acrobat installed then you will use the Save As PDF feature to export your file as an accessible PDF.
- Open your office document and click on File menu and select Save As option from the menu.
- Enter/Edit the file name in the Save As box.
- Under File Format select PDF.
- You will see two options display below the File format box. Select the radio button next to "Best for electronic distribution and accessibility (uses Microsoft Online Service)". This option is required in order to produce a tagged PDF from Mac. Read more about "Why does the Microsoft online service need to convert some Office files? Links to an external site.".
- Click the Export button. Your document will process and convert into a tagged PDF. The tagged PDF will display. Review for accessibility.
Office 365 (Web)
Before you convert your documents into PDF's be sure to run the accessibility checker to review and fix issues.
- Open your Office 365 Document.
- Click File menu and select "Save As"
- Select "Download as PDF" option.
- You will see a Microsoft Word prompt that says "Your document is ready". Click the Download button.
- Depending on your computer settings, your document may go automatically to your downloads folder or open automatically in Adobe.
- Locate PDF file and review for accessibility.
PDF Conversion Options for Google Docs and Open Office
Google Docs
The Download as PDF option in Google Docs, creates an untagged PDF which will not carry over any formatting or structure you have established in the document. In order to conserve your formatting, you must download as a Word .docx format first and then save as PDF from Word or other Office application.
Please note, that once you Save your Google doc as a Word document, you may need to do some additional formatting in Word like adding alt text for images or identifying table headers if these did not carry over prior to converting it into a PDF format.
Open Office
If you don't have access to Microsoft Office or are a Mac user, using Open Office Links to an external site. which is a free version of the popular Office suite, may be an alternative.
Please note: If you are a Sac State student, staff or faculty, you have free access to the Microsoft Office 365 Suite through your OneDrive Links to an external site. that contains your Outlook Email, Word, PowerPoint, Excel and other applications to use on the cloud (online via web browser) or that can be downloaded directly to your computer at your convenience.
Converting OpenOffice Documents into PDFs
- Open your document in your OpenOffice application.
- Click on File menu and select "Export as PDF"
- Select the General Tab and select the checkbox "Tagged PDF" and click the Export button.
- The Save As dialog box displays. Enter a name for your file, make sure File Type displays "PDF" and click Save button.
- Locate and open PDF document and review for accessibility.
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