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Acrobat for Windows and Mac: Accessibility

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PDF Maker: New Bug puts <Figure> tags in the wrong reading order

Affects Windows Office users who use Adobe Acrobat PDF Maker (the Acrobat ribbon) to export PDFs from MS Office apps. Definitely affects US English versions, and may affect other language versions.

With the recent Acrobat update on either Sept. 12 or Oct. 17, 2023 (Acrobat ver. 23.006.xxxxx with PDF Maker 23 and Library 23.6.136), figures anchored in the Word.docx file do not end up in the correct location in the PDF's tag tree.

<Figure> tags are scattered randomly throughout the PDF's Tag Tree, sometimes several pages AFTER their anchor point in the Word.docx. Some <Figure> tags do get placed correctly in the Tag Tree, but the majority don't. (See the 3rd photo in the attached test PDF.)

This is a very OLD bug that has just resurfaced to haunt us again. It was common in all PDFs exported from Word up until about 2015 or so. I don't have a clue why this *&^%$#@! bug is back in PDF Maker.

Solutions:

— Do not update Acrobat until Adobe releases a bug fix. And turn off AutoUpdate in your account management.

— If your Acrobat was updated to version 23.006.xxxxx and now has the bug, then bypass Adobe PDF Maker entirely and use Microsoft's built-in PDF export utility to create accessible PDFs: File / Save As / PDF and check the option to tag the PDF file. This method places the <Figure> tags in the correct location in the Tag Tree. We have a free tutorial about this method at https://www.pubcom.com/blog/tutorials/ms-office/export-pdf/index.shtml

Note: Sandbox test of Word 365.docx + Exported PDF are attached.

This bug needs a critical hotfix as soon as possible. It's a lot of labor to locate where the <Figure> was placed in the tag tree and then move it manually into the correct location. On long documents with hundreds of graphics, it takes nearly a day to correct this by hand.

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Bevi Chagnon | PubCom.com shared this idea  ·   ·  Report…  ·  Admin →
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  • Bevi Chagnon | PubCom.com commented  ·   ·  Report

    Hi Subrato @subrato,
    The bug comes and goes and was just reported to us by another Acrobat beta tester.

    A file will work fine and be exported with the anchored graphics correctly. Export it again, and the graphics are way out of order, anchored in the tag tree on the wrong page or a few pages away.

    Export again with no changes to the file, and it's fine.

    This is the strangest bug I've seen. Will try to send another source Word file + messed up PDF when it occurs again.

  • Adminsubrato (Admin, Adobe) commented  ·   ·  Report

    Hi,
    Thanks for reporting the issue. I checked this thread and found that the issue has been fixed a while back, however, thread was not updated. Can you please update your Acrobat version to latest and confirm.

    Let me know, in case the issue still exists.

    Regards,
    Subrato
    Acrobat Quality team

  • Becky Bernauer commented  ·   ·  Report

    I'm not sure if this issue was fixed and is now back, but it is May 2024 and the issue is still happening. A co-worker reported the figures are coming into the tag tree in the wrong place and some alt text is missing. I tried a document using both the Create PDF icon and the Save As feature. The Save As did not correct the issue for me, so there is no work-around as far as I know.

  • Denise Lehe commented  ·   ·  Report

    It surprises me that we are still discussing this issue in 2023. Accessibility for people with disabilities should be part of Adobe's (and all organizations') Product Design and Software Development Life Cycle.

  • Scott S commented  ·   ·  Report

    Adobe needs to increase the robustness of its QA for updates. Issues like this make it harder to make a budgetary case for Acrobat DC or Pro being essential to accessibility when that's followed up by recommendations to stop using the software.

  • Bevi Chagnon | PubCom.com commented  ·   ·  Report

    @Lynore Avery, I agree, sort of. I just didn't find any "one step forward" improvements at all, just the revert to an old bug.

  • Lynore Avery commented  ·   ·  Report

    This update seems like one step forward, two steps back.

  • Assistive Technology Cath commented  ·   ·  Report

    Abode don't make PDF obsolete - our state laws already only allow us to use accessible PDF. If you make it impossible to create accessible PDF, it will fast become a world where we cannot share PDF without fines, so please fix this issue and make accessibility a very high priority

  • Alana Randol commented  ·   ·  Report

    Severe impacts to Section 508/WCAG work in PDF documents.

  • Bevi Chagnon | PubCom.com commented  ·   ·  Report

    Agree with LS's comment about lack of concern for people worldwide with disabilities.

    What makes this more appalling is that Adobe heads up the ISO committee that writes the PDF/UA accessibility standards. So they should know better and should be leading the industry.

  • LS commented  ·   ·  Report

    This is critical to fix this problem. Why is Adobe not caring about human rights? I just don't get it. They may read this and say this isn't human rights, yes it is. PDFs are used by businesses, organizations, health care, governments around the world, and yet again Adobe shows that people with disabilities don't matter. Do better!!! You did better in 2009 than today. Why are we still 'voting' for accessibility for people with disabilities?????