Accessing PDF Forms 101

Webinar 3 of 3

Presenter:

Karen McCall

AMAC Accessibility Solutions

• AMAC Accessibility is a social change organization on a mission to create affordable services for governmental, private and non-profit organizations working with individuals with disabilities. Services include e-text, braille, captioning, assistive technology, office management software and consulting.

AMAC Services

AMAC creates practical solutions that work, with a focus on utility, ease of use, and high quality.

• Accessibility Consulting focuses on organizational accessibility needs with evaluation, technical assistance, customer support, and website accessibility solutions.

• Braille Services produces customized projects from both print materials and electronic text including partial books and chapters, or graphics only, using cutting-edge technology.

• Captioning Services makes classrooms, meetings, labs, and other audio environments fully accessible for the deaf or hard-of-hearing.

Additional AMAC Services

AMAC creates practical solutions that work, with a focus on utility, ease of use, and high quality.

• Audio Description Services makes visual information present in multimedia accessible to persons who are blind or low vision.

• Professional E-Text Producers provide high-quality e-text in many formats such as PDF, DOC, DAISY, and HTML.

• AMAC’s Certified Assistive Technology team provides on-site and remote assessments, demonstrations, training, and technical assistance for education, work, and daily living environments.

AccessGA

AccessGA represents a joint initiative of the Georgia ADA Coordinator’s Office, AMAC, and GTA. The objective is to support Georgia’s state agencies with ICT accessibility, and promote equal and timely access for employees and customers with a wide range of disabilities.

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AccessGA Offerings

• Webinar Offerings

• Technical Assistance and Hands-On Training

• Newsletters

• Up-to-Date Wiki of ICT Accessibility Resources and Information

• Web Accessibility Audits

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PDF Forms 101

Karen McCall, M.Ed.

Karlen Communications

Copyright 2017

Zoom vs Magnification

• Clarification about the zoom levels I mentioned in the last webinar.

• Many people don’t know that they can zoom in and out of a PDF document.• It is one of a remediator’s best friends.

• Fastest way is to Ctrl + Plus Sign on NumPad to increase zoom or Ctrl + Minus Sign on Numpad to decrease zoom.

• Can also return to Actual size.

• Done through the View menu.

Adobe Acrobat Zoom (Alt + V, Z)

Hierarchy of Tasks

• Adobe Systems Hierarchy of Tasks for creating accessible PDF documents.

• Is the document a scanned image?• If yes, perform OCR (either using the on-board OCR or another one).

• Does the document have links?• If yes, add them using the Edit PDF tools (auto-find links and add them

manually).

• Is the document a fillable form?• If yes, then add the form controls using the Prepare Form tools.

• THEN Tag the document! You must start a form with an untagged PDF document.

Starting to Build a Form in Acrobat

• Start with an untagged PDF!

• This is the ONLY time you do not save your Word (or other formats) templates as tagged PDF.

• Ctrl + P for Print and then choose Adobe PDF from the available printers.

• This will produce an untagged PDF.

• You can then open the PDF in Acrobat and begin adding form controls.

Print to Adobe PDF

• MUST start a PDF form with an untagged PDF document.

• This is the ONLY time you use Print > Adobe PDF!

Choosing your Form Template

Tip: Open the PDF document you want to use for the PDF form before you begin.

Prepare Form Tools

If you don’t have the Prepare Form tools in the Tools Task Pane to the right of the document, activate Tools and then add them.

Open the Form Template

• I find that having the PDF document that is my form template open saves time.

• If you are running adaptive technology, dismiss the dialog asking if you want to “create Virtual Tags” or “Infer Reading Order.”

Prepare Form!

• When you activate the Prepare Form tools, you then need to choose which document to use for the form.

• I recommend turning off the auto-detect form controls.

Form Tools

• There are two areas to keep in mind: the actual form controls in the Prepare Form Toolbar, and the information to the right of the document about the pages and logical Tab Order.

• We only Tab through links and form controls, not general text.

Show Tab Order

In the Tools Task Pane for the Prepare Form tools, open the context menu and make sure that you are showing the Tab Order or the Tab Number, and that you are using the Create Tabs by Structure..

ToolTips for Each Form Control

You MUST add a Tooltip for each form control you have in a PDF form.

Required Fields/Form Controls

• There are two ways of making a form control required:• Through the pop-up dialog.

• Through the Properties dialog.

Previewing the Form

• At any time you can switch to Preview mode and test the form, then activate Edit to return to the form and continue working.

• Under the More button is a context menu with Clear Form.

Text Form Controls

Used for name, address, phone numbers, dates and short/long answers.

The Text Based Question

Text form controls are used when you want someone to type in information such as their name, date, phone number or comments.

ToolTip for Text Form Control

• Once you give the form control a user friendly name such as Name, Address, Date or Phone Number…with no spaces, activate the All Properties link to open the Properties dialog to write a ToolTip.

Multiline Text Form Control

If you have a multiline text form control, move to the Options tab in the Properties dialog and check the Multiline check box and identify characters.

Form Control Appearance

• Just say NO! Do not force colour choices on those with colour deficits!

• Can change the text to Auto size and make that the default for text form controls.

Sample Auto-Size Text form Control

Sample Multiline Text Form Control

Check Boxes

Used for multiple choices in responses.

Adding Check Boxes to a PDF Form

Check Box Values

Add the ToolTip and then you can move to the Options tab and verify the value.

Multiple Form Controls - Pin Tool

• Two options:• Pin the form control tool.

• Use the context menu.

Multiple Form Controls – Context Menu

Dropdown Lists

Which type of list do you want to use? Dropdown, List or combo?

Dropdown Lists

• Three types of Lists: Dropdown, Lists and Combo Lists.

Add Dropdown, List and Combo List choices

Radio Buttons

You have one choice only!

Adding Radio Buttons to a PDF Form

Use the Radio Button tool in the Prepare Form Toolbar.

ToolTip for Radio Buttons

The ToolTip will be used for all Radio Buttons in the same Group.

Radio Buttons Completed

Adding the Tags!

Once all the form controls are added, THEN Tag the document.

ICK! What a Mess!

• When you add the Tags, you will need to remediate the PDF document so that the text liens up with the <Form> Tags.

• “Many” form controls can be in one <Form> Tag.• While this means they can retain the Tab Order, they will not be synchronized with

the text they should be associated with.

• You will need to drag the correct <Form> Tag to the logical place in the Tags Tree.• This means adding new <Form> Tags so that EVERY form control has its OWN <Form>

Tag!

• Even if you use the TURO tool to add form controls or the Find > Unmarked Annotations, odds are the new <Form> Tags will be at the BOTTOM of the Tags Tree.

Remediating Tags

Accessibility Full Check

• Two types of errors:• Form element is missing

from the Tags Tree

• Form element lacks description (ToolTip).

• If you click on the problem it should be highlighted in the document.

Fourth Edition of PDF Book!

Finally! The fourth edition of Accessible and Usable PDF Documents: Techniques for Document Authors is available!

Contact PubCom.com to purchase using a credit card or me directly if you can purchase with invoice or purchase order. http://www.pubcom.com/about/contactus.html

It is tagged PDF with option to print entire book or pages, sections, chapters.

Contact!

Karen McCall, M.Ed.

Karlen Communications

info@karlencommunications.com

http://www.karlencommunications.com

@KarlenInfo

Consulting and training on accessible document design (Word, PowerPoint, Excel and PDF). Advocate for a Global Inclusive Education Standard.