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Issues with Reading Order in Interactive PDF Export (InDesign 19.5 / Acrobat 2024)

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Hi everyone,

I’ve been working on a 200-page report, meticulously checking all text threads to ensure the reading order is correct. However, after exporting to an interactive PDF, about 55% of the document still has issues with the reading order in Acrobat, even though it passes the Acrobat check.

My goal is to make the PDF as accessible as possible. All other accessibility issues were resolved after the latest export, but the reading order still seems off during visual inspection.

Currently, I’m exporting via File > Export > Interactive PDF, which seems to be the standard advice I found online. Am I missing something? Is there a better way to export for accessibility?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated—reordering elements in Acrobat manually is taking forever!

Thanks!

Frans v.d. GeestCorrect answer

Community Expert

The reading order is determined by the LAYER panel order bottom (first) to Top (last), so it should be the same as Tags where top (first) to Bottom (last) is read, lets say 'reversed' order. What is at the bottom of the LAYER is numbered 1, what is at the top of the LAYER panel is last.

The Article panel order does NOT set the Reading (Z) order:

The ARTICLE panel order = the TAG order (top to bottom)

And the LAYER panel order = the 'reading' (Z) order (bottom to top)*

*Open the layers (triangle) to see items in them bottom to top

Philip Byrne

Known Participant

Frans v.d. Geest, after many, many hours troubleshooting reading order in Acrobat, I finally discovered this for myself. However, it contradicts what is detailed in Adobe’s own documentation. Take a look at ‘Establish a reading order with the Articles panel’:

https://helpx.adobe.com/ie/indesign/using/creating-accessible-pdfs.html

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Frans v.d. Geest

Community Expert

Yes, the TAG reading order.

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Philip Byrne

Known Participant

Yes, all content that I want read – and the content I don’t – has been tagged via paragraph style mapping and image tagging/alt text. All tagged content is arranged as I want it read in the Articles panel, as per Adobe’s documentation.

Your point?

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Philip Byrne

Known Participant

As usual with interactive/accessible PDFs, no follow-up or fixes from Adobe.

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Frans v.d. Geest

Community Expert

Read the replies.

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Philip Byrne

Known Participant

Frans, please do the same. There was no follow up after the initial response from the Community Manager – even though the OP replied with the information he requested.

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Frans v.d. Geest

Community Expert

Tag order or Logical reading order? Are you in the tags pane or the reading order pane?, Check the tag order (H1,2 P etc) which you can set through the Articles pane for instance, and check the Layer order (bottom to top) for the Logical/Reading order. Use PAC to check or use the PDF/UA preflight check in Acrobat. If you do not know what this all means then you really, really(!) should get some kind of training in Accessible PDF...

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Ben GamlinAuthor

Participant

Reading order.
Tags are correct.
The real issue here, is that what I am seeing in InDesign is not translated into the PDF after export.

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Frans v.d. Geest

Correct answer

Community Expert

The reading order is determined by the LAYER panel order bottom (first) to Top (last), so it should be the same as Tags where top (first) to Bottom (last) is read, lets say 'reversed' order. What is at the bottom of the LAYER is numbered 1, what is at the top of the LAYER panel is last.

The Article panel order does NOT set the Reading (Z) order:

The ARTICLE panel order = the TAG order (top to bottom)

And the LAYER panel order = the 'reading' (Z) order (bottom to top)*

*Open the layers (triangle) to see items in them bottom to top

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Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @Ben Gamlin,

I understand how frustrating it can be to ensure the reading order is perfect, especially after putting in so much effort for accessibility.

Could you please share the details of your operating system? Also, if possible, could you provide a screenshot of your export settings?

To help with the reading order in interactive PDFs, here’s what you can try:

1. Make sure the reading order is correct using the Articles panel. Drag and drop content into the correct order before exporting.

2. When exporting, go to File > Export > Interactive PDF and check the options under Tags and Bookmarks to ensure all relevant sections are marked properly.

3. Ensure that the content on different layers follows a logical top-down reading order in the Layers panel.

4. Once exported, use Acrobat’s Reading Order tool under Accessibility to verify and adjust the order manually if needed, though this step should be minimized if the initial setup is correct in InDesign.

Let me know if this helps or if you'd like more guidance! I’m leaving this open for any additional insights from our wonderful community experts.

Thank you,
Abhishek Rao

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Ben GamlinAuthor

Participant

Hello,
Firstly, thank you for the reply.
OS is Mac OS 15 (Newest one, updated yesterday)
As mentioned in the title, Indesign 19.5 and Acrobat 2024.
Export setting attached along with a screen shot of my Articles, which are in order.
In answer to your comments;
1. Checked, and double checked
2. As per screenshot, the onlky settings I see are those for Create tagged PDF and Create structure options
3. All my text is on a single layer at the top, as per screenshot
4. That's what I have been doing, there is a lot of correcting that is required.
Considering the amount of effort I have put into the setup, I did not to have to put in so much effort after the export to correct reading order.

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