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Answered

Headings in Word become images when exported to PDF

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
April 13, 2020
3 replies
13152 views

I have a document that uses multi-level numbering (1., 1.1, 1.2,...2.,...) for Heading 1 through Heading 5. A tab separates the autonumber from the heading text. The font is Arial for Heading 1 and Heading 2, Times New Roman for Headings 3, 4, and 5. The document must comply with Section 508 accessibility requirements.

I am using Word 365 in Windows 10 and Acrobat Pro DC.

When I export the document to a PDF file, Heading 1 through Heading 5 are no longer text. Instead, each is a pair of images, one for the number and one for the heading text. And Acrobat produces the accessibility error, "Other elements alternate text."

What can I do to ensure that the text remains as text when exporting to PDF?

Correct answer Katie5E90

I run into this a lot with PDFs sent to me, usually after I've started remediating and then kick myself for not checking sooner.

To fix, in Word, go to the first heading level where the problem occurs (in this example it would be “2.1.1”), highlight the number with the cursor, and hit Ctrl + space bar.

This action should fix all heading level threes (or any other heading levels that exhibit this error). This fix needs to be done only once, but the TOC must be regenerated (the image errors carry over from the headings to the TOC).

Bob_Brown

Participant

The solution to use Ctrl-space already posted often works. Ctrl-space removes character-level formatting (fonts, italics/bold, font size, etc.) but leaves paragraph formatting (indents, line spacing, etc.) intact. As Barbara has written, sometimes that doesn't work because a heading style has been corrupted by the addition of <w14:scene3d> element. The post by Doug Robbins tells what the solution is, but not how to do it. I have stubborned my way through it and put some pretty detailed instructions in the Superuser forum. I hope they help someone.

W

w_otto

Participant

Yes, it did help! Thanks!

However, I wonder how this glitch happens and how to prevent it happening.

K

Katie5E90Correct answer

Participant

I run into this a lot with PDFs sent to me, usually after I've started remediating and then kick myself for not checking sooner.

To fix, in Word, go to the first heading level where the problem occurs (in this example it would be “2.1.1”), highlight the number with the cursor, and hit Ctrl + space bar.

This action should fix all heading level threes (or any other heading levels that exhibit this error). This fix needs to be done only once, but the TOC must be regenerated (the image errors carry over from the headings to the TOC).

ls_rbls

Community Expert

Interesting!

Thank you for updating this old thread with this solution.

ls_rbls

Community Expert

Verify the workflow that was used during export. Both MS Office and Adobe Acrobat have Accessibility Checkers.

You should run the Accessibility Checker in MS Word first to spot discrepancies and change Font type and encoding as necessary. You'll never go wrong with Arial, for example.

In addition, you need to identify what steps were used in your export workflow.

For example, If using the PDF Maker add-in in MS Office to convert to PDF caused the issue try Save As PDF from Word. If that was the issue try Print to PDF. If that was also an issue, just open the MS Word file directly in Acrobat and let Acrobat handle the optimization and conversion to PDF automatically (I believe this involves the Distiller part ) .

If this still is an issue, then use the Accessibility checker in Acrobat. You already spotted some failed evaluations in the Full Report. So your next step should be to use the Print Production tool. Select "Pre-flight" --->> PDF Fixus---> "Analyze and Fix".

Be watchful of certain additional settings that are also customizable with the Pre-flight options and the Print production tool.

Just remember to save a copy of the original work and performs these fixups on a copy that you can continue to test and practice with.

B

BarbaraHillAuthor

Participant

Thanks for your help!

I originally used File > Export > Create a PDF/XPS Document in Word to generate the PDF. Then, as you suggested, I used File > Save as...PDF in Word. That file looks to be the same as the one created by exporting. Oddly enough, both of these have the heading numbers and the heading text in the Bookmarks pane, but on the page they are still tagged as images and still produce the same errors for missing alt text. Using Print to PDF was worse: the resulting file has no tags and therefore no structure at all. Opening the Word document in Acrobat seems somewhat better than using Word's tools. In particular, the Reading Order tool shows pages broken into bite-sized pieces instead of giant chunks, making it much easier to tweak reading order as needed. However, Heading 1 through Heading 5 still produce the same accessibility error about missing alt text (because Acrobat still calls them images in the Reading Order pane and the Tags pane).

I was completely unfamiliar with the Print Production tools. I am still somewhat baffled. I managed to select Preflight and, in the list of profiles, to find PDF Fixups. But none of the options under PDF Fixups seem to have anything to do with getting my headings to be text instead of images. Can you explain a little more fully what I need to do? Thanks!

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