How to edit text in an accessible PDF that uses text threading without breaking the existing tags

[Alina22611429bjp9]

I have a fully accessible PDF with existing tags. I need to update one paragraph of the PDF, but I want to maintain the existing tags without having to retag the entire document. The PDF uses text threading. When I try to either edit or replace the paragraph, it breaks all the tags on that page. The tags are still in the tag tree, but when I click on them or expand them, they have empty containers with no text inside. Is there any way to edit/replace text in an already accessible PDF that uses text threading without breaking the existing tag structure? Thank you!

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com · Accepted solution]

No. Any editing done on a tagged PDF will break the tags on that page — and often elsewhere in the document. It's a shortcoming of the PDF file format and its construction.

I don't mean to harp, but your office's workflow really must adjust to this fact: NO EDITORIAL CHANGES once the PDF has been made and tagged. Therefore:

• Either return to the original source file, make the editorial changes in it and re-export a new PDF, or
• Re-tag the PDF after you've made the editorial changes. This option is a LOT of work.

Which reinforces the main theory of accessible documents: Always make the most accessible source file possible, one that when exported, creates a nearly perfect accessible PDF. This will let you return to the source, make the edits, and re-export a new PDF that's nearly complete.

If you're having to do a lot remediation on your PDFs, something's not right with the workflow. Usually templates and training of authors helps resolve this problem.

[Alina22611429bjp9]

Okay, thank you. That's pretty much what I thought.

Yes, I'm fully aware and have been saying that we can't make any changes to a final, accessible PDF. It should be considered done and uneditable. And we also created an InDesign template that would allow autotag to tag 95% of the content correctly. But we're working on a huge project involving hundreds of PDFs in 10 languages. To make the time commitment and resources worth it, we're trying to repurpose them for other partners, some of whom want specific language added. Obviously, we don't want to have to redo hundreds of PDFs, so we were hoping to find a solution, but it sounds like we can't get around it. I'm advocating for generic text. So even if we have to redo them one more round, we won't for every successive round.  

Thank you for your help.

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

In your case, would it be feasible to us MS Word instead of InDesign?

At least all the stakeholders would be able to make their changes in Word, and when done correctly, PDFs are very compliant directly from Word.

I know I know, it's not InDesign, but we've been able to design some decent simple layouts for clients in Word.