InDesign conversion to Acrobat

[saral33076186]

I'm creating accessible PDF files — WCAG 2.0 AA standard. InDesign and Acrobat have made a lot of improvements when building and exporting accessible files. But there are still a number of settings in InDesign that don't export to Acrobat. It would save a lot of time to be able to export more of these settings from the original file, versus splitting some steps in InDesign and some in Acrobat.

Is there a patch, plug-in, work-around or future development planned that can properly convert more of these features? I'm open to any suggestions.

Thanks!

-SLL

[pixelstrolch · Accepted solution]

The only ID plugin I know of is MadeToTag. It is not for free but improves the workflow a lot. There are some advantages:

• it adds the PDF/UA Metadata file
• it marks an element as an Artifact, if it is not inside an article
• it allows you to create complex table structure right inside ID
• and a lot more

I know ID could add more accessibility features for the pdf export, however, I'm interested to know what you are missing. You could also write a ID feature request.

Cheers,

Stefan

[saral33076186]

Thank you, Stefan, this information will be a great starting point. Even if it's not the "perfect" tool, simplifying the few manual steps you listed will definitely save time, especially if it can be done before exporting to PDF. I'll look into the ID Feature Request, too. If the need for accessible files is going to continue to grow — not to mention, it's the right thing to do — software improvements should follow.

Below, I've listed a few of the time consuming processes we've come across. I know some steps will always be manual, but it would be great to simplify even a couple of these.

• Combining the two-step reading order — Setting Articles (Reading order) and Layers (Reflow order). (If the logical reading order is set in Articles, is it possible for the Layers to automatically match their structure?)
• Simplifying table structure — Setting header scope in cell properties. (Building complex tables without having to link all cell IDs. Sounds like MadeToTag can take care of this.)
• Simplifying footnote structure — Creating the hyperlink and correct tags. (I know how to do this in INDD, but it doesn't work if the reference number is in a table, and we have a lot of those.)
• Find and Artifact paths. (Sounds like MadeToTag can take care of this.)
• Find and Artifact/delete empty tags. (Sounds like MadeToTag can take care of this.)
• Combining the two-step (x21) language properties — Setting language codes to both Content and Tag properties panels. (Only 9 of the 21 languages are partially converted from INDD to PDF.

Any suggestions are welcome. Enjoy your week!

Sara LL

[pixelstrolch]

Hi Sara,
here are few comments to the points you mentioned

Combining the two-step reading order — Setting Articles (Reading order) and Layers (Reflow order). (If the logical reading order is set in Articles, is it possible for the Layers to automatically match their structure?)

Acrobat's reflow order is equal with the order in the order panel. Concerning this matter, you might find the thread Why does reordering in Order panel change Tags in Tags panel?  useful.

Simplifying table structure — Setting header scope in cell properties. (Building complex tables without having to link all cell IDs. Sounds like MadeToTag can take care of this.)

The table structure tool in MadeToTag definitely is much more comfortable than set it in Acrobat.

Simplifying footnote structure — Creating the hyperlink and correct tags. (I know how to do this in INDD, but it doesn't work if the reference number is in a table, and we have a lot of those.)

The latest version of MTT has an option to automatically link footnotes.

Find and Artifact paths.  Find and Artifact/delete empty tags.

I do not understand what you mean with Artifact paths? Artifacts can be set inside the paragraph style settings or with the object export options. With MTT objects which are not inside an article will automatically be an Artifact. There are no empty tags to delete.

Combining the two-step (x21) language properties — Setting language codes to both Content and Tag properties panels. (Only 9 of the 21 languages are partially converted from INDD to PDF.

I don't know enough about that yet.

Cheers Stefan

[Frans v.d. Geest]

pixelstrolch  schreef

I do not understand what you mean with Artifact paths? Artifacts can be set inside the paragraph style settings or with the object export options. With MTT objects which are not inside an article will automatically be an Artifact. There are no empty tags to delete.

Cheers Stefan

I do (now): many objects are set as Paths. You can Artefact objects in InDesign (for Reflow order zoom etc.) but coloured background objects that even are Artefacted in InDesign will still yield a Path error in the PAC3 checker. Those 'paths' have to be artefacted in Acrobat Pro first. A tedious job. Same goes for weblinks in Text, they have to have an Alt text you can not set in InDesign (only to objects}

[olafdruemmer]

There is a fixup in Acrobat Preflight "Mark all non-structure elements as artifacts" - a very efficient clean up feature, once a user has made sure all real content is included properly in the tag tree. The fixup marks everything not in the tag tree as artifact.

[Frans v.d. Geest]

So combining the Article panel, Artefacting objects in InDesign and then this fixup would save time.

Now for the links...