Dear Sherry,
I’ve applied all my document skills to making an accessible document, however when I save it as a PDF it seems like all that hard work disappears! Is there a step that I am missing?
Please help!
What Did I Miss
Dear What Did I Miss,
I’m so glad to hear that you are applying what you’ve learned, and don’t worry, I can help with this! In Word, when you are finished creating your document you will need to:
- Click File, Save As
- Choose where you want the file saved
- Under Save as type choose PDF
- Click Options…, make sure Document properties and Document structure tags for accessibility are check marked
- Click OK, and then Save
PDF files created in this manner will be the in the most accessible form and is considered “best practice”.
In Google Docs, using the extension for Grackle Docs will help you save an accessible PDF. If you do not have Grackle Docs loaded, you will need to go to the Extensions menu, choose Add-ons, Get add-ons, search for Grackle Docs and select to add it. Once this extension is added:
- Go to Extensions, Grackle Docs, and Launch
- Check the results from the accessibility check and make any updates needed.
- Once your document is ready, click the Export to PDF tab towards the top.
- It may ask you to sign in or allow Google Drive access to Grackle. Go ahead and allow this. Choose your NMC account, and then Allow. When you see Access Granted, click Close. You will see a pop-up confirming you are signed in, click OK.
- Once you are signed in go back and click the Export to PDF tab, then click Start.
- When it is ready you can click Close or the Download button if you need to download the file out of your Google Drive.
Remember, scanning a document to PDF will not create an accessible document, it will only create a document that is an image. Finally, saving a document by selecting Print to PDF will NOT create an accessible format either.
It may seem like a lot of steps, but this should help you with your documents.
All the best,
Sherry