InDesign STILL NOT Exporting PDF Tags

[bren87]

Similar to this issue I reported 11/21/23, InDesign is not exporting PDF tags on yet another file.  
https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/indesign-not-exporting-pdf-export-tags-on-a-spec...

The correctly tagged paragraph styles are completely absent from the tags tree, meaning the file isn't accessible.  

As with the other file, it seems the file itself is corruputed somewhow and there is nothing I can do but START OVER COMPLETELY with a new file.  Saving to IDML doesn't do anything. 

This is a glitch with InDesign - it fails to properly export PDF tags at random.

[Eugene Tyson]

Best place for this is the bugs forums where Adobe monitor posts there - it's not likely to garner much attention - bar you are doing something incorrectly and/or another method/workaround might be possible. 

Here's the bugs forum
https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601180-adobe-indesign-bugs

[bren87 · Accepted solution]

Let's check something else. Using Acrobat DC Pro...

1. Select the text that's not getting the <H1> tag (or another tag) and use Find Tag from Selection in the tag panel's option drop-down.  Does it find the text in the tag tree? Is it tagged, but not in the correct reading order?

2. Switch to the Order panel. Set the options for that panel to Show Page Content Groups to Page content order or Structure Types (doesn't really matter for this check). But make sure that Display Like Elements in a Single Box is UNchecked. If the content is tagged, it will be highlighted in a grey box and might also have the Acrobat magenta outline. UNtagged content will not be highlighted.  What do you find for the untagged headings?

3. Switch to the Content panel. Every element on the page is listed here, whether it's tagged or not. This panel shows the construction of the page. If it's tagged, it will show Container <H1> blah blah, or Container <Figure> PathPath. Content that is correctly artifacted will appear as Container <Artifact>. How is your untagged heading shown in this panel?

I'm concerned about this happening in multiple documents for you. I can't recall seeing this previously in the forums, and I haven't seen it in our own projects and beta testing. If it is a bug, I want to figure what the heck is causing it so it can be reported to Adobe and fixed.

And can you tell us which platform you're on, OS version, and InDesign 19.0.???  Need the rest of the build numbers.

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

[bren87]

The issue with this document is solved:  https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/indesign-still-not-exporting-pdf-tags/m-p/143504...

1. H1 and other text is not tagged at all, so “The selection was not found.”

2. H1 and other content is not tagged so it doesn’t show in the Order Panel.

3. OK, THIS SOLVES THE MYSTERY.  The content shows as artifacted because the frame was artifacted in the Object Style.  Removing the artifact tag causes the tags to display just fine.  I see what I did wrong now.  There is no need to artifact a text frame - it doesn’t display as needing an alt tag anyway.  Wowser.

With this form (https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/indesign-not-exporting-pdf-export-tags-on-a-spec...), I looked in the content panel and although it was tagged as H2s, those were exporting as artifacts.  I rebuild the styles multiple times and they were still exporting as artifacts.  They weren’t in an artifacted frame or anything like that so I don’t know what went on there.

Thank you so much for these fixes - this is an excellent troubleshooting guide that I will remember in the future!

I am on ID 19.0.1.

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

That's great news, @bren87!

Glad you stuck with it and drilled down to find the problem.

And you're correct: Text frames themselves do not need to be artifacted in Object Styles or any other method. The text frame container is automatically artifacted by InDesign itself, leaving the frame's content intact and tagged.

Some other elements that are automatically artifacted by InDesign:

• Anything placed on a parent/master page is automatically artifacted.
• Graphic frames are similar to text frames: the container frame itself is artifacted, leaving the graphic intact and tagged as <Figure>.
• Rules above/below, Borders, and Shading are automatically artifacted and leave the text content intact and tagged.
• Underlines on text, including those used to indicated hyperlinks are automatically artifacted.
• Cell Borders and Shading in tables are artifacted, leaving the cell contents intact and tagged.
• Borders/rules between columns are artifacted.
• If using footnotes, the short horizontal line above the first footnote's text is artifacted.

I'm sure I've missed a couple but those are the main elements I can recall from memory.

You only have to manually artifact something only if you deliberately create or place it on the page, like an unimportant graphic that is only eye candy but has no significant visual information to convey. Otherwise, InDesign pretty much automatically takes care of the items listed above.

Best to you!

[bren87]

Excellent information; Thank you so much!!! ❤️