Bookmark with alternative text missing in PDF

[Agim31170049247v]

To crerate an accessibility PDF we have to give all bookmarks an individual alternative text. This is possible in InDesign through "Edit Hyperlink". So when I give a bookmark the alternative text, it is missing in the Acrobat bookmark list. 

Will this bug fixed in the next Version of InDesign?

[Frans v.d. Geest]

Alt text is written in the Contents Key of the Link tag, a 'bookmark' is something completely different. What is it you want and expect, and where?

[Agim31170049247v]

Maybe I was not clear. I have a table of content automatically created in InDesign. For Accessibility every link in this table of content needs to have an Alternative Text. This can be done in InDesign through "Edit Hyperlink". In "Edit Hyperlink" there is the button Accessibility, where I can write the text in. So when I write a text into this field and export to PDF, this particular bookmark will not show up in the bookmark list. In the attachment you see that I put alt.-text in "Vorwort" and saved the File. Then I Opened it in Acrobat and Vorwort is missing in bookmarks

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

First, bookmarks are not formal hyperlinks that require Alt Text.

So you will never see Alt Text in Acrobat's Bookmarks panel.

Second, the hyperlink that is automatically built into a table of contents entry doesn't need Alt Text at all, nor is there any way to add it when in InDesign.

Just use InDesign's Table of Contents utility (Layout/Table of Contents) and it will automatically build hyperlinks into the PDF for the TOC. You do not need to do anything further.

[Frans v.d. Geest]

Ah, you mean the TOC! No way to add Alt Text in InDesign itself. It will give you a PDF/UA error when validating however... In Acrobat choose Preflight, the the single fixes, and search for the fix 'add Contents item to Annotations', run that 😉

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

Yes, that's true @Frans v.d. Geest, but the standard and the checkers are wrong about when Alt Text is needed. Users do not want it on TOC entries at all: they need the real text of the entry, not in Alt Text. Alt Text is actually a hinderance for TOC hyperlinks. Tried to get that fixed with the committee but...

PDF/UA does not follow the rest of the standards on when to use Alt Text. But you and I can leave this for another discussion!

[Frans v.d. Geest]

Yes I know, but AxesPDF, PAC, CommonLook all will throw warnings at you. And the clients want 0 errors. So oke, I'll run the fix...

>But you and I can leave this for another discussion!

There are still more things that can use some debate, Alt text vs Contents Item as NVDA/JAWS skip that, rolemap Title to <P> not <H1> (MS Word latest uodate does that) in pdf/ua-1 untill Title-tag is supported in PDF2 for  example... And why does InDesign has such few tags (where is Quto/blockquote, Caption!) and why can we not use Character style for adding tags, or rather things like Expansion text, Actual text etc? Enough work to do but all InDesign offers as new later on will be 'Cloud documents' that will not even supported in a InCopy workflow!

Ah... needed that venting 😉