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MTUM02
MTUM02
Participant
October 22, 2019
Question

Exporting to accessible PDF, paragraphs splitting into individual lines

  • October 22, 2019
  • 3 replies
  • 3710 views

Why are my paragraph tags splitting into individual lines (all in their own tag) when I export out of Indesign CC to an accessible PDF? I've tried both with and without using the articles panel. It makes for a much more complicated document structure in Acrobat when you need to make some changes. Have checked all of the proper buttons such as "Use for reading order" in the articles panel, and editing the export tags, etc.

    3 replies

    marct14230458
    marct14230458
    Participating Frequently
    July 21, 2025

    I've had the same problem and I managed to fix it in InDesign - I found this page here to start, but then this page and the linked page, really didn't help at all. hope it help you and others.

     

    https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/accessible-pdfs-every-line-in-paragraph-being-tagged-individually/m-p/15255991#M619857

      T
      time18
      Inspiring
      October 23, 2019

      You could consider removing the Accessability set in the PDF and start again using Acrobat to create an Accessible file.

      It might structure it better, or how you would expect. If the document is heavy on layout style (magazine with multiple columns and pitures) this might not be the best suggestion. As with any tests, always duplicate your file first to avoid 'mucking up' your one and only file.

      Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
      Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
      Legend
      October 22, 2019

      Is this what you're seeing?

      The little yellow bankers boxes are content containers, not tags. You'll see them line-by-line from InDesign layouts. They do not affect accessibility because assistive technologies only recognize the tags in the tag tree.

       

      |    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |
      MTUM02
      MTUM02Author
      Participant
      October 22, 2019

      Yes, the copy is, line-for-line, in individual bankers boxes as you show, but in most cases each bankers box is within a separate [span] tag. (Sorry, don't have the greater than/less than symbol on my Mac keyboard). Sometimes they are coming through grouped under one [P] tag, but often in separate tags. Also, sometimes they are in P tags and sometimes in Span tags, which are grouped under a P tag.

      Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
      Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
      Legend
      October 22, 2019

      Ok, good to know. In this case, I am remediating a document for accessibility, and I'm lucky to have the original InDesign file. However, I did not create the original .indd file and it was formatted very badly. It would take me too long to start all over and recreate it properly, so I am trying to make do. If it was not well formatted, would you recommend adding every page to the articles panel or not using the articles panel at all? The file is about 40 pages, but the copy does not flow from section to section or page to page. Eash page is made up of 3 or 4 descriptions of a grant recipient along with an acompanying photograph. I tried the articles panel, but everything is still coming in out of order, so I would either have to re-order in the articles panel or in Acrobat. Kind of a mess... 

      Thanks so much, by the way!!


      Given what you said, the Articles panel has some quirks and sometimes doesn't improve the RO. One quirk: once you use it and drag one frame/story thread into it, then everything must be dragged into the Articles panel. Otherwise any skipped items will be artifacted in the PDF. So think of it as an all-or-nothing tool.

       

      Quote: Each page is made up of 3 or 4 descriptions of a grant recipient along with an acompanying photograph.

      Given your description, I would drag each page's frames (individual text frames, threaded stories, and graphics) into the articles panel and sequence them, top to bottom, to create the base RO in the PDF's tag tree.

       

      If you want to improve the RO, here are 3 things that affect it:

      1. Threading the individual text frames from each page, if that's possible.
      2. Anchoring the graphic into a text frame at a logical place for it to be in the PDF's RO.
      3. Fine tuning the RO with InDesign's Layers panel. Items are sequence bottom up...bottom-most item in the bottom layer and up through that layer, and then the same on the next layer.

       

      Remember, the Articles panel is top-down, and the Layers panel is bottom up.

       

      If you're going to go through this type of mess with future PDFs from that designer, suggest he/she grab a course in how to use InDesign for accessible PDF. They can take Chad Chelius' online course at Lynda.com, or my live online (and in person in the DC area) course at www.PubCom.com. 

       

      |    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |
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