Alternative description missing for annotation - table of contents

[Minka316]

Hello

I have what seems to be, a properly structured TOC in a PDF. When I run the pac 3.0 checker, I get the above message for every single item in the table of contents.

I viewed the tutorial on taggedpdf.com site on this error message and see that i have to edit each link but I wonder why this is the case for a table of contents? Also, if i do edit each item, what is it that I'm editing? Is it the Reference tag? Link tag? Link OBJR tag?

thanks, Marion

[hammer0909 · Accepted solution]

The PAC 3.0 checker requires that every hyperlink contains alternate text for that link. Personally I feel this is redundant for something like a TOC link but the PAC 3.0 checker doesn't discriminate between link types. So to fix the errors, you basically need to select the link tag, right click on the Link tag and choose Properties, then add alternate text in the Alternate Text field. This will fix the errors that you are getting for the Alternative description missing for annotation.

[olafdruemmer]

If the links you are dealing with are already clear to a user - as would be the case for entries in a Table of Contents - you could also try the Preflight fixup "Create Content entry for Link annotations" - it derives the text to be used for the Content entry from the destination for the link.

You should only use this fixup after you have verified that any links in need of a non-generic Content entry have an Alternate Text entry before you apply the fixup to the document.

And as always - for such wholesale fixing operations it is always a very good idea to keep a backup copy of the document, so you can go back to a previous state in case something does not work out the way you expected it to work out.

Olaf

[Minka316]

Thank you Olaf. I will also try your suggestion and see how this works out too.

Marion

[Minka316]

HI Olaf.

I don't see the option to "Create Content entry for Link Annotations"

[hammer0909]

You have to go to the PDF Standards category at the top of the Preflight window.

[hammer0909]

Hey Olaf,

That fixup works great but I don't see anything added to the alternate text field. Do you know exactly where this fixup adds the required properties?

[Minka316]

Thanks. I ran the preflight and got this message... 'preflight did not find any errors or warnings'. Ran the PDF thru Pac 3 checker and error message did not appear. yay! 

[Minka316]

HI Olaf. I managed to get this to work.

My question though is this... if i need to add alt-text to each link tag why do i then need to run the preflight?  By adding alt-text, it passes the pac 3 checker. So then, why the extra step of preflight?

Thanks, Marion

[hammer0909]

This Preflight Fixup is instead of manually adding the alt text. The fixup does it for you.

[Minka316]

OK, that's great. Thanks for the clarification.

[Minka316]

Thanks Chad

I will give this a try.

Marion

PS: I enjoyed working thru your Lynda.com tutorials.

[Minka316]

Hello. This solution worked. Thank you.