Acrobat Pro X - 2010-2011

Acrobat 9 Pro Online Help –
Use this!  Adobe Help is very good on “starter” issues.

About.com – PDF Tutorials

Planet PDF -

InDesign and PDF - Run Form Field Recognition -

Accessibility Tutorials @ Acrobat

Form Field Recognition - InDesignSecrets.com

 

In this class we learn how to make government PDFs and PDF forms accessible on the web under Section 508. 

There is nothing easy about making PDFs accessible -- though you'll learn the routine "tips" and practical steps for success.

PDF Accessibility production is time consuming and labor-intensive, as you'll see.  There are significant limitations in the Acrobat Pro editing software.  Adobe has attempted address some of the PDF accessibility production problems through introduction of its LiveCycle software, bundled with Acrobat Pro.  However, in many instances, to preserve the original PDF or PDF form, you will be required to use Acrobat Pro, and not Live Cycle, to edit your files. 

There are at least three or four essential tasks associated with making PDFs accessible:

• Create a Tagged PDF from "authoring software" such as Word, Excel, or InDesign. "Tags" permit a text reader to "read" the PDF file.
  • Or, create tags directly in Acrobat Pro from an "untagged" legacy (i.e., pre-2007) document;
• Adjust the Tag Reading Order so that a text reader would read the document in a logical order the same as or very similar to "visual reading order."  This implements 508 (a) [text alternatives for non-text elements];
• Create PDF Form Fields using Acrobat Pro 9 or Acrobat Pro X (2010-11) in a PDF so that the form field labels are associated with the form input fields.  This implements 508 (n) - equivalent form functionality.
• Live Cycle PDFs:  Create new PDF forms "from scratch" using LiveCycle ES 2, which comes bundled with Acrobat Pro 9 or Acrobat Pro X.

PDFs are pictures created from the print stream of your document. File > Print > Create PDF or File>Save As...>PDF are two commands often used to create PDF documents.

Topics Include:

• Making Accessible PDF Forms from Word;
• Creating a "Tagged" PDF Form;
• Creating Logical "Tag Reading Order" in Acrobat Pro;
• Working with Form fields in Acrobat Pro;
• Creating Accessible PDF Forms with LiveCycle.