Accessibility: Spaces in the Read-Out-Loud

[ID4WiscState]

What is the read-out-loud text reading, and how can I alter that?

When I touched up my reading order, a text box came over with spaces inside the word ("f ind t raining" instead of "find training"). Figuring that the original author might have done something strange, I went to Edit PDF, deleted the line, rewrote the line accurately, saved-closed-reopened the document, then went back to touch up the reading order again. The read out load text continues to have the spaces in the words "find" and "training". How can I fix those darned spaces?

Thanks,

Pierre

[AkanchhaS]

Hi Pierre,

Hope you are doing well and thanks for sharing the exact steps performed. 

Would it be possible for you to share the document you have been working on? If yes, then you can upload it here: https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/home/ and share the link with us. 

(We'd like to test the same at our end)

Meanwhile, also share the Security settings applied on document. Open PDF>right click Document Properties>Security. 

Thanks,

Akanchha 

[ID4WiscState]

Thank you. I will do that.

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

Often, this type of glitch is caused by how the original author created the original source document (aka, Word, InDesign, etc.). Either they deliberately wrote the content with the odd spaces, or there's a computer code of some sort that is being interpreted as a space, probably because Acrobat doesn't recognize the code.

It could even be hidden code that was copied/pasted from someplace else into the source document.

BTW, when you edited the PDF's content, you might have broken your tags. Once a PDF is tagged, editing anything in it will cause the tags to disappear, or for their content containers to disappear, either in just the immediate area where you made the edits, or someplace else in the document. Even the entire tag tree can be wiped out.

So it's always best to fix these things in the source document and re-export a better PDF. Faster, too.

[ID4WiscState]

Thanks! I definitely would have preferred to see the changes made in the original. 😉

It is good to learn about the potential for broken tags.