[Athen] Update: PDF Maker problems

[chagnon at pubcom.com]

Karen, here's FoxIt's website:  https://www.foxit.com/ 

FYI, a couple years ago, folks inside FoxIt told us that they wrote
Microsoft's PDF export utility for Word (that's File / Save As / PDF).

For those who need this information, Foxit's headquarters are in Fremont,
California, but the company is incorporated in Fujian, China, and is listed
on the Shanghai Stock Exchange STAR Market (symbol 688095). It is not a US
company, no matter what their website says. 

Since we now have companies with offices around the world, always look for
where a company is incorporated, and on which country's stock exchange it's
listed. That shows a company's true pedigree. 

-Bevi

- - -

Bevi Chagnon  | Designer, Accessibility Technician |
<mailto:Chagnon at PubCom.com> Chagnon at PubCom.com 

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PubCom: Technologists for Accessible Design + Publishing

consulting . training . development . design . sec. 508 services

Upcoming classes at  <http://www.pubcom.com/classes> www.PubCom.com/classes 

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From: Karen McCall <K4mccall at outlook.com> 
Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 2021 11:11 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network
<athen-list at u.washington.edu>; chagnon at pubcom.com
Cc: WebAIM Discussion List <webaim-forum at list.webaim.org>
Subject: RE: [Athen] Update: PDF Maker problems

 

I just bought Kofax PowerPDF - My instance of Nuance PowerPDF wouldn't
install. Kofax bought the print part of Nuance in 2018 or 2019 so my guess
is that Nuance is no longer supporting even the install of PowerPDF.

 

I bought the PowerPDF Advanced which has the tagging capability. Standard
does not.

 

On an untagged PDF with headings, lists and page numbers in a coloured box,
everything got tagged as a <P> even the lists. This means that for this 10
page document with at least 4 lists on each page, the lists are going to
have to be manually tagged. 

 

There is no Content Panel in PowerPDF.

 

For the untagged document, when I opened the Reading Order Panel (which you
have to do EVERY time you want to use it - it is not added to the Navigation
Pane)  and tried to designate both the page number and the image the page
number was in/on, I was able to artifact the page number but the <Figure>
tag was still in the Reading Order Panel but not in the Tags Tree and when I
tried further remediation to get rid of the <Figure> tag, PowerPDF crashed.
I was using standard remediation techniques - nothing strange or outside of
what I would normally try.

 

For a tagged PDF that I use as my benchmark accessible Word document then
use the conversion tools to create the PDF, parts of table gridlines and
decorative images were "stuck" to text and without a Content Panel, I
couldn't remove them. They didn't show up in the Reading Order Panel but did
show up in the Tags Tree. For example: "PathIntroductionPathPathPath".

 

When Kofax purchased the Nuance PowerPDF I did call them and ask about their
continued commitment to accessible PDF and patiently went over tags and
their importance. Even their developers had no clue what I was talking about
and they didn't seem interested in further discussions.

 

Am trying to find a Foxit website where I can get Foxit. I had the Foxit for
Business and was working with them on accessibility/tags but they lost
interest and my complimentary copy ran out. I can find all sorts of third
party download sites but want to purchase from Foxit.

 

One final note.for this post.on PowerPDF. Kofax hasn't improved the
visibility of the "Autotag" button. It is a tiny button with no label to the
left of the settings/Options button just above the Tags Tree. It has an even
tinier plus sign on it so the visibility of the button looks like a "glitch"
in the software rather than a functional button. If you right click on No
Tags Available, you can only add a Tags Root. However, the PowerPDF Ribbon
in Word does create a tagged PDF by default.

 

Kofax PowerPDF Advanced is $179 USD or 238 CAD and is a one time payment. If
there is a significant upgrade you would pay for it. 

 

Will keep you updated on my research.

 

Cheers, Karen

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