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_Jenn_Mixxman_
New Participant
May 20, 2008
Answered

read untagged document dialog box now shows up for every pdf opened..?

  • May 20, 2008
  • 18 replies
  • 210112 views
Hey,

This only started happening within the last three or four months. Whenever I open a .pdf file in reader, the .pdf will open but also a dialog box titled "Reading untagged document" will pop open also saying that the document is untagged and needs to be prepared for reading. It has something to do with 'assitive technology'. How do I get rid of this box. I don't want it to pop up any more. I'm very sick of it.

Thanks.
    Correct answer _Jenn_Mixxman_
    okay. A bit of work with Google provided the answer. (Just for the record, I could *not* find an answer to this through any of Adobe's resources directly. Even calling tech support. Calling tech support just got a heavily accented guy telling me to use the forums and an Adobe support person would answer my question here. I thought this was a user to user forum. Ah, well.)

    Here's the answer:
    go to Edit>Preferences>Reading> and focus on the 'Screen Reader Options' section. In the 'Page vs Document' dropdown box choose 'Only read the currently visible pages', and UNcheck 'Confirm before tagging documents'.

    18 replies

    Show previous replies
    J
    jackmeow
    New Participant
    August 11, 2015

    Many thanks!!!

    A
    Anonymous
    March 27, 2012

    Interestingly enough I was suddenly having this problem also and I disabled this feature, BUT now my screen reader won't read the entire document even though I go through and adjust the reading order from the Order panel. Anyone know why this could be happening?

    N
    noopdaloop
    New Participant
    December 7, 2011

    I found this adobe blog post to address the issue:

    http://blogs.adobe.com/dmcmahon/2011/08/19/acrobatreader-how-to-disable-the-reading-untagged-document-dialog/

    in my case, it's not obvious what triggered this dialog box to appear. I did just install wacom drawing tablet software which attempts to read graphically displayed text or it could be related to some change from an automated windows update.

    B
    buzzlyteyr
    New Participant
    November 1, 2011

    Incredible that Adobe hasn't fixed this yet. In my own experience, selecting 'Only read the currently visible pages', and unchecking 'Confirm before tagging documents' does get rid of the dialog box, but replaces that problem with a far worse one - long delays and pauses while the software tries to "read" each page you look at. The delay is simply unworkable for anyone trying to scroll through pages of a PDF quickly.

    The root cause is apparently the detection of "accessibility" options in your OS (i.e., things like read-out-loud). One solution is to manually remove the accessibility and readoutloud.api files from the plugins directory. I tried this, and it appeared to work.

    The fact that there is no way to fix this through setting an option in the software is just mystifying. I tried explaining this to Adobe tech support to no avail - I kept getting the first fix above, which is no fix at all in my book.

    T
    tkinsman
    New Participant
    August 29, 2011

    Just to close the loop on this:

    I figured out that on a Mac, if you accidentally hit <command><F5>, it can turn on the assisted reader,

    which causes some programs (such as Adobe PDF Reader) to try to read all text to you.

    It also changes the appearance of your system menu, and other attributes...

    Best,

      J
      joshuacorey
      New Participant
      August 29, 2011

      Great, I am happy you found the resolution.

      Thanks,

      Josh

      J
      joshuacorey
      New Participant
      February 18, 2010

      Same issue here.  I thought Acrobat was broken and tried to repair and then re-installed.  Thanks for the steps, I had to do a few more steps after setting the preferences, but now it is "working" as I expect (I don't get the dialog for every PDF). 

      Why is this happening in the first place using "default" settings?

      C
      chrispitude
      Inspiring
      March 17, 2011

      I also had this problem, and was frustrated that I could not easily find a solution to it on Adobe's website.  Thanks for posting the fix!

      T
      tkinsman
      New Participant
      August 27, 2011

      I was surprised to see this original post from 2008.

      This problem suddenly showed up again on my MacBook Pro yesterday,

      ~and~ the version of Java that I use for Matlab stopped working

      at the same time.

      The other symptoms I have are that the system menu now has duplicate

      entries for "restart", "shut down", and "log off".  Also, the default buttons

      are now no longer blue, they are outlined in black.

      I have got to wonder if some update installed incompatible binaries...

      Maybe auto-update isn't a good thing?

      ~graffiti
      ~graffiti
      Brainiac
      May 21, 2008
      Thanks for posting the fix Jenn. I'm sure it'll help someone else at some point.

      >telling me to use the forums and an Adobe support person would answer my question here

      Aaah. The joys of uninformed overseas tech support.
      B
      Bob5CE2
      New Participant
      June 17, 2021

      nice help you provided

      _
      _Jenn_Mixxman_AuthorCorrect answer
      New Participant
      May 21, 2008
      okay. A bit of work with Google provided the answer. (Just for the record, I could *not* find an answer to this through any of Adobe's resources directly. Even calling tech support. Calling tech support just got a heavily accented guy telling me to use the forums and an Adobe support person would answer my question here. I thought this was a user to user forum. Ah, well.)

      Here's the answer:
      go to Edit>Preferences>Reading> and focus on the 'Screen Reader Options' section. In the 'Page vs Document' dropdown box choose 'Only read the currently visible pages', and UNcheck 'Confirm before tagging documents'.
        I
        imagep
        New Participant
        September 20, 2012

        I am having the same problem but also having a problem printing as well.  I can 't print anything from Reader.  I tried to go to preferences just as you told someone else and I can't even get anything to come up when I go to preferences.  All I get is a blank screen.  Could you help me?

          B
          Bob5CE2
          New Participant
          June 17, 2021

          thanks it worked

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