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AlexBerryLibrary
Inspiring
December 29, 2016
Answered

Acrobat DC Pro not able to read aloud some text

  • December 29, 2016
  • 2 replies
  • 5601 views

Hey hi,

I am trying to make an accessible pdf using InDesign CC 2017 and Acrobat DC Pro.

A surprising amount of the text cannot be read by the Read Aloud function in Acrobat DC Pro.

Test 1

I copied the text box with the unreadable text from my layout and pasted it into a new document and saved it as a pdf. Read Aloud did not work.

Next : I deleted the text from the box and used Indesign's auto placeholder text feature to repopulate the box. I restyled the text using the text styles from my original layout. I saved it as a pdf. This time the Read Aloud feature worked.

Test 2

I copied the  unreadable text from my layout and pasted it into a new text box in a new document and saved it as a pdf. Read Aloud did not work.

Next : I deleted the text and used Indesign's auto placeholder text feature to repopulate the box. I restyled the text using the text styles from my original layout. I saved it as a pdf. This time the Read Aloud feature worked.

readaloud​

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer AlexBerryLibrary
Below is a clearer explanation of what's happening ..
18. Re: I am using Adobe 11.0.10 and wish to use The READ OUT LOUD option. I activated it and clicked "read to the end of doc" then nothing happened. The volume is up and my speakers work. Please Help!!!

L GryfeLevel 1

L Gryfe  21-Feb-2016 5:55 PM (in response to racn117420)

I don't have a solution per se, but I do think I might have isolated the problem and could provide a workaround. It appears that (on a Mac) characters that use the option key to generate them - such as en dashes (option-hyphen), ellipses (...), apostrophes, etc. - seem to break the Read Out Loud feature. If you change the en dash to a regular hyphen, the ellipsis to three periods, and the proper typographic apostrophe to a prime (i.e. turn off smart quotes), then Read Out Loud seems to work. I wish there were a fix for this. I don't like compromising proper typographic conventions to accommodate an accessible version.

2 replies

A
AlexBerryLibraryAuthor
Inspiring
December 30, 2016

Ok, I think I have found a work around.

The problem seemed to be with the original copy in a Word doc. I tried a number of different ways to clear the bug, (see above), but nothing was working.

I just now tried copying the problem text from the Word doc into a new Text Wrangler file and saving as a .txt file. When I placed the Text Wrangler txt file into the Indesign layout and exported it to pdf, Acrobat was at long last able to Read Aloud the text.

Earlier I had tried cutting and pasting the problematic blurb from Word into Text Edit and saving it as a .txt file, but it didn't work.

So .. on to revising my InDesign file ..

Dave__M
Community Expert
Dave__MCommunity Expert
Community Expert
December 30, 2016

Great!  Glad the work-around works!

My best,

Dave

_Crockett_
_Crockett_
Known Participant
December 29, 2016

Text boxes are typically not accessible by screen readers, including the built-in Read Aloud function. It is best to avoid them.

A
AlexBerryLibraryAuthor
Inspiring
December 29, 2016

Hi Thanks .. text boxes are the only way to work with text in Indesign. Oddly, some of the text is readable, but much of it isn't. I'm trying to narrow down whether it is the Indesign document, the font I am using, or the text from the original Word doc that is creating the problem.

O
olafdruemmer
Inspiring
December 29, 2016

A sample document would go a long way... (preferably both an InDesign document and the PDF exported from it, illustrating the issue).

There could be a zillion reasons why it does not work some of the time...

Olaf

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