Overview

This lesson provides information on using document editing software such as Microsoft Word to create or update a PDF. It tends to be much easier to improve accessibility within Microsoft Word and create an accessible PDF from that source document.

Core Concepts

Creating a PDF

To create PDFs, it’s strongly recommended that you use a program like Microsoft Word. Word has many features which will allow you to create an accessible document that can be converted to PDF. When you use headings, the text formatting tool, and alt text in Word, it will carry over to your PDF if you make sure that "Document structure tags for accessibility" is selected when you save the document.

To check these settings, after you select PDF as the file type, open the Options pane. Double check that "Document structure tags for accessibility" is selected.

screen shot of Save as pane with arrows pointing to file type (PDF), Options button, and "Document structure tags for accessibility"

NOTE: Older versions of Word for Mac do not have this option and will not save documents as an accessible PDF.

Importance of Source Documents

Most people do not create PDFs in Adobe. Instead, most folks create documents in Word and save their document as a PDF to restrict editing. This brings them a (false) sense of security, but it can be problematic if the author needs to revise the document or modify it for accessibility.

We strongly encourage you to keep all source documents as it is incredibly easier to modify and improve a source document than it is to remediate a PDF file.

The lessons that follow will walk through how to check a PDF for accessibility features and how to add them if they are missing. If your source document is built using Word it will be much easier to remediate the source document in Word and save it as a PDF. You can use the lessons provided in this micro-course to double check your document and make sure the tags and read order are as anticipated.

That said, there are some benefits to PDFs. For one, if a document does contain text boxes - and for some really horrible reason you are unable to remove them - Acrobat does allow you to control where in the read order that content will fall. This can help ensure the content is not overlooked/skipped over as it may be in Word. (But, again, it's better to remove the textbox and just have a fully accessible document that doesn't require you to use two separate programs to repair it.)

No Source Document? No Problem!

If you find yourself in a position where you're missing the source document, don't worry. You can still avoid needing to remediate the document in Acrobat. When viewing the document in Acrobat, select Export PDF from the Tools list. Export the PDF to a Word document and make your changes in Word (this does work on scanned PDFs, but be aware that poor quality scans often contain spelling and punctuation errors).

Additional Resources

How to Convert a PDF File to Word - Instructions from Adobe Acrobat.

Click Next to advance to the next lesson or return to the Module Overview.