[Athen] Microsoft Word versus Open Office

[Terry Thompson]

> On the other hand, Word's pdf plugin does NOT do tagged PDF very well.


That actually hasn't been my experience. It depends to some extent on the
complexity of the document, but if the Word document uses Word's heading
styles effectively, and if the author knows about and takes the time to add
alternate text to images, all that information is exported into the
structure of the PDF and is accessible to supporting screen readers.  



> -----Original Message-----

> From: Kelmer, Susan M. [mailto:SKelmer at stlcc.edu] 

> Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2007 9:43 AM

> To: tft at u.washington.edu; Access Technologists in Higher 

> Education Network

> Subject: RE: [Athen] Microsoft Word versus Open Office

> 

> >Does OpenOffice's PDF export feature support "tagged PDF", 

> and is the 

> >result a well-structured, reasonably accessible PDF document?

> >

> >(I'm asking this not to squelch you OpenOffice advocates' 

> >enthusiasm - It's just something I've been wondering and 

> haven't had a 

> >chance to investigate).

> 

> I have not used it to that extent as we aren't creating 

> tagged PDF's in any way here on this campus, yet.  I have 

> used it to export documents that needed to be PDF's for their 

> own protection, or as layout types for printing, and it works 

> really well in that way.  I have not drilled any further into 

> it than that.

> 

> On the other hand, Word's pdf plugin does NOT do tagged PDF very well.

> 

> -Susan Kelmer

>