Re: PDFs and Link

>At 10:19 PM 12/05/2000, Charles McCathieNevile wrote:
>>Officially, the Adobe thing works. Practically it works too - it translates
>>PDF into HTML. 

I fear these answers may not reflect what was intended by the questions.

There is no answer to "offically" in the WAI-IG context because there is no
official W3C position on this question.

Also, "it generates HTML" is not how I would evaluate "does it work,
practically."

My interpretation of the questions would lead to answers:

Practically: sometimes; try before you buy.  Talk to Adobe for what to try.

Officially: no answer; you must determine this for your own definition of what
is 'official.' 

Don't be ignorant of what is happening in the Federal arena on this question,
but don't fail to do your own analysis independent of what is happening
there. 
If you are involved in a state agency, the accessibility SWAT team of the
national association of state CIOs may be a network you want to work
through in
addressing this issue.

There are PDF publishing practices which improve the results when the PDF so
produced is then transformed to HTML or text by the available PDF conversion
processes.  Adobe can and will gladly tell you about them.  But try before you
buy.  Only you can see if they are workable in your document production
environment, and effective for the kinds of documents you produce.  

A successful document production practice which generates both PDF and
accessible HTML may require either or both of a) a constrained set of document
templates in the original authoring environment and/or b) extraction of the
HTML from a point in the authoring process prior to the PDF form.

If people are using contract print shops and getting the PDF form from them,
then we need to get the people who run these enterprises involved in
consolidating the best practice for this requirement.  I am not aware, myself,
of best-practice literature that covers all you have to do and has been
independently validated as working by real content providers and consumers
with
disabilities.

Al

At 10:18 AM 2000-12-06 -0500, Massey, Nancy wrote:
>Charles,
>
>I am intrigued by your comment of "good PDF". Up until recently I have not 
>had occasion to need to create PDF's for clients, but will be very shortly. 
>Can you suggest any resources where I might learn more about good vs bad PDF.
>
>Thanks,
>-Nancy
>
>
>
>At 10:19 PM 12/05/2000, Charles McCathieNevile wrote:
>>Officially, the Adobe thing works. Practically it works too - it translates
>>PDF into HTML. How useful the resulting HTML is depends a lot on the
original
>>PDF - some PDF can be translated into extremely useful content, other PDF
>>turns out more or less pointless.
>>
>>Authoring good HTML or authoring good PDF is preferable - it is possible to
>>use both formats to make something that is more or less useless to readers.
>>
>>cheers
>>
>>Charles
>

Received on Wednesday, 6 December 2000 12:10:28 UTC