2 Correct answers
Hi Jennifers,
We apologize for the inconvenience caused, please refer to the following KB articles which discuss the similar issue and scenario Alternate text disappears in Acrobat DC
Alternate text not always displaying
You may also refer to Repair tag structure accessibility | Adobe Acrobat DC PDF
Let us know how it goes and share your findings.
Regards,
Anand Sri.
If you are using SharePoint, make sure your document is CHECKED OUT before conversion, it makes all the difference for me. Many small maddening things get picked up in that mode.
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Replies
AnandSri-
I reviewed the Alternate text disappears in Acrobat DC, but that does not help , as it refers to adding alt text manually with Adobe Acrobat and my issue is with adding text in Word and it not coming over when converting to a PDF. Your link for the Alternate text not always displaying is no longer working.
ScI am having the same issue as the OP, where I am using the latest version of Word, adding in the alt text for the images, then using the Acrobat Make Accessible option in the Microsoft Word ribbon. When the document gets converted to an Adobe PDF then goes through the Make Accessible options, when it gets to the detecting "figures with missing alternate text" it is finding many items that I had already added the alt text in Word are now missing that alt text. Sometimes it converts some of the alt text, and not others for images/objects in the same document! This is making for double work, and is particularly concerning when some of the documents we create in Word are hundreds of pages long with hundreds of images and charts. Here is a screenshot showing that the alt text is added in Word, but not found by Acrobat Pro. What is further concerning is that the Accessbility Checker report shows that only 6 figures need alternate text, however if you go to the accessibility tool and use the Set Alternate Text method, it shows that 8 of the 18 figures do not have alternate text. I'm not sure why the report is showing a different number of figures to fix than the accessibility tool. Is there a way in Word, an option that needs to be checked, an accesibility format to save as to force all of the alt tags that are already created in Word to show in the converted PDF document?
Replying to @showalters because their post has the most detail (2021).
What's described in the post is a hodgepodge of information that refers to utilities that either don't exist or are in another program. It also contains misconceptions about how these tools work.
First, here's a quick step-by-step of how to make an accessible PDF from MS Word.
- Make an accessible Word document.
- Format it correctly for accessibility (in other words, use Paragraph Styles to trigger the correct tags in the PDF).
- Add Alt-text to all graphics in the Word document. Right-click on each graphic, select Alt-text, and write a short description of the graphic.
- Export the Word document to Tagged PDF. Use either of these 3 methods.
- Use Acrobat's PDF Maker plug-in, which is accessed through the Acrobat Ribbon in Word. Set the Preferences, then Create the PDF.
Adobe PDF Maker plug-in -- The Acrobat Ribbon in MS Word.
After setting the conversion preferences, Create the PDF from MS Word.
- Use File / Save As Adobe PDF (note the wording) for a condensed version of the above utility.
- Use Microsoft's built-in utililty: File / Save As, and choose PDF from the File Type menu.
- Either of these 3 methods will carry over the Alt-text from Word into the exported PDF. Rarely fails. In fact, it's been a few years since this feature has failed. So there's something about how you're making the source Word document, not the conversion itself.
And make sure you've updated your software to the latest version of Word (2019 or 365 as of 2021) and Acrobat (DC Pro 2020, and includes the PDF Maker plug-in for MS Office).
- Use Acrobat's PDF Maker plug-in, which is accessed through the Acrobat Ribbon in Word. Set the Preferences, then Create the PDF.
- Open the PDF in Acrobat DC Pro and review it for accessibility compliance.
Comments about the post:
Quote: << then using the Acrobat Make Accessible option in the Microsoft Word ribbon. >>
There's no such utility in MS Word. There's no such Microsoft Word ribbon.
However, there IS a Make Accessible action wizard panel in Acrobat, looks like this:
It does not do what you think it should do: It Does Not Make an Accessible PDF for you.
- It only prompts you to do these tasks in Acrobat, but doesn't actually do them. It is not magic wand software.
- But really, all of these tasks should have been done long before the PDF was opened in Acrobat.
- I don't know of anyone in the industry who uses it, which is why it took 3 of us accessibililty experts to figure out what you were describing.
Quote: << Is there a way in Word, an option that needs to be checked, an accesibility format to save as to force all of the alt tags that are already created in Word to show in the converted PDF document? >>
I'm concerned that you're getting only some of the Alt-text and not all of the Alt-text.
- Please double-check you're using the steps above to create the Word source document and export it to PDF with the appropriate settings for Adobe Tagged PDF.
- Try each of the 3 export methods described above. Let us know if any of them works, or doesn't.
- And in Word, check the Alt-text for each graphic and ensure that the "Decorative" checkbox option isn't checked. That means to artifact the graphic and whatever Alt-text you might have written in the field box can be left out of the PDF.
Let us know if any of this corrects your situation.
Dear @showalters and @A5FAD
First, this is a user-to-user forum, not an Adobe help line where Adobe staffers answer your questions. Occassionally, a real Adobe employee will post, and you'll see "Adobe Employee" next to their name as well as the Adobe logo.
The rest of us -- the majority of us -- are users like you. "Adobe Community Professionals" are UNpaid volunteers invited because of their expertise in particular subject areas and software. We are encourged by Adobe to post detailed instructions and answers when possible because these forums are used for years by many people around the world, not just the original poster. They want us to give complete information.
That's not meant to insult you. It's meant to help you and the greater community. The long-term community.
...
You said "There's no such utility in MS Word. There's no such Microsoft Word ribbon." Well, please see the attached picture that clearly shows the Acrobat ribbon...
By @showalters
Thanks for sending the screen cap. It clarifies what you wrote in your original post: "using the Acrobat Make Accessible option in the Microsoft Word ribbon."
Yes, your graphic shows the Acrobat ribbon, but that's not what you originally wrote in your Sept 20, 2020 post, "Microsoft Word ribbon." There are a handful of ribbons in Word, none called the "Microsoft ribbon."
(The following is meant to explain details to the community, not to insult your intelligence.)
The 2 utilities in Word that can help make your document accessible are in the Acrobat ribbon you recently gave us (this utility is by Adobe), and under the File tab / Info / Check for Issues / Check Accessibility (this one is by Microsoft). Both do minor, but somewhat helpful, tasks for accessibility, like checking graphics for Alt-text.
But note that both either miss essential accessibility items or create accessibility errors. Usually headings, structure, footnotes, tables, links, and lists have errors in their tags. And many underlines and borders come in as live "path" content rather than as artifacts. So our shop doesn't find either utility very userful in the end, we don't use them very often, and consequently I completely forget they exist. In my classes and books, I recommend our students and clients use them with caution and not depend upon them for full compliance.
Hopefully both Microsoft and Adobe will improve these tools in the future.
Returning to my original reply...
...
I'm concerned that you're getting only some of the Alt-text and not all of the Alt-text.
- Please double-check you're using the steps above to create the Word source document and export it to PDF with the appropriate settings for Adobe Tagged PDF.
- Try each of the 3 export methods described above. Let us know if any of them works, or doesn't.
- And in Word, check the Alt-text for each graphic and ensure that the "Decorative" checkbox option isn't checked. That means to artifact the graphic and whatever Alt-text you might have written in the field box can be left out of the PDF.
Let us know if any of this corrects your situation.
...
By Bevi
Usually when a feature sometimes works and doesn't other times, it's a sign of one or more of these workflow and software issues:
- Out of date software somewhere in the workflow. Although you have recent versions, older software used by your colleagues could affect how the Word.docx is converted to a tagged PDF by the time it gets to you, even when it's converted to your recent versions of Word before exporting. Lots of errors can happen.
- Legacy code in the Word file, left over from ancient versions of the file that have been reused over and over for years. We do "508 forensics" for our clients and we frequently find left over code from Word 95, 2000, 2007, etc. stuck in the file's code. These hidden codes often cause accessibility errors in the PDF.
- Copying/pasting graphics rather than formally inserting the graphics. There is a difference in how each method encodes the graphics in the file, and that can affect how the PDF convertor (whether the Acrobat ribbon or the MS version described above) interprets the file and makes the PDF.
Another diagnostic strategy is to use the other 2 methods of exporting to tagged PDF and see if you get better results. See my original post ...
- Try each of the 3 export methods described above. Let us know if any of them works, or doesn't.
From my original post above, the 3 export methods are:
- The Acrobat ribbon (Preferences and Create PDF, not the error-prone Make Accessible action).
- File / Save as Adobe PDF (Note, use the Adobe brand of conversion utility).
- File / Save as and select PDF (This is the Microsoft conversion utility).
@A5FAD My answers are coherent and I am an expert.
For 25 years, I've been a contributor to the WCAG and PDF/UA standards that you had to learn to become OAST DHS trained.
So glad you found that part of my work "coherent"! <grin>
@A5FAD Thanks!
Just clarifying something you wrote above:
By @A5FAD- I tried again with "Save as" + PDF with "PDF/A compliant" and "Document structure for accessibility" checked in the options
PDF/A = PDF for Archival documents (required by US and other governments).
PDF/UA = PDF for Universal Accessibility
So the PDF/A option in the MS export dialogue (File / Save As / PDF) won't help with accessibility. But other settings in that dialogue do affect accessibility. Here's a screen capture of what it should look like for accessible PDF:
(And yes, we're here in an Adobe forum discussing Microsoft Word and its Microsoft export conversion utility to make a PDF, which is no longer an Adobe proprietary file format but is now an open source format. Whew!)
It looks like you've tried all 3 methods of making a compliant PDF from Word, but are still missing the Alt-text.
- Two of the methods use an Adobe conversion utility.
- One uses a Microsoft conversion utility
Both companies' utilities are producing an incorrect PDF.
That leads me to suspect that there's something in the file itself that is causing the problem. Given that you confirmed that the Alt-text was added to the graphics, I'm suspecting that there is some hidden code in the file causing the Alt-text to be dropped. A well-known culprit: legacy code in older documents that have been reused over and over throughout the years. Older versions of Word leave some "code crud" (our term) in the file that often hangs up the conversion process and assistive technologies, too.
Interested in seeing what happens with a fresh Word file. Reminder:
- Update your MS Office to ensure you're using the latest version.
- Update your Acrobat DC Pro, too. It will also update the PDF Maker plugin you see as the Acrobat ribbon in Word.
- And use Insert / Picture to place the graphics, not copy/paste.
Maybe place 2-3 different types of files, such as a JPG and a PNG. Might help us narrow down if it has something to do with the file format itself.
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