Adobe 22002418 User manual

Adobe® Acrobat® 9 Pro Accessibility Guide:
Best Practices for Accessibility

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Contents
Contents i
Introduction 1
PDF Accessibility 1
Each PDF File is Different 1
Two Workflows for Creating Accessible PDF Files 1
Making an Existing PDF File Accessible 1
Generating Accessible PDF Files from Authoring Applications 2
Characteristics of Accessible PDF files 2
Searchable text 2
Fonts that allow characters to be extracted to text 2
Interactive form fields 2
Other Features: Buttons, hyperlinks, and navigational aids 2
Document language 3
Security that will not interfere with assistive technology 3
Document structure tags and proper read order 3
Alternative text descriptions 3
Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader Accessibility Features 3
Features for Accessible Reading of PDFs 3
Features for Creating Accessible PDFs 3
Acrobat 9 Pro PDF Accessibility Repair Workflow 5

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PDF Accessibility Workflow Summary 5
Step 1: Analyze the PDF File 5
Step 2: Determine if the PDF is a Scanned Document 5
How to Tell if a PDF File is a Scanned Document 6
What to Do if the PDF is a Scanned Document 7
What to Do if the PDF is Not a Scanned Document 8
Step 3: Add Interactive Features: Form Fields and Buttons 8
PDF Form Fields 9
Use Acrobat to Detect and Create Interactive Form Fields 9
Acrobat Form Wizard 9
Enter Forms Editing Mode Directly 10
Create Form Fields Manually 10
Forms Editing Mode 11
Creating a New Form Field 11
Form Field Properties 12
Tooltips for Form Fields 12
Tooltips for Radio Buttons 13
Editing or Modifying an Existing Form Field 14
Deleting a Form Field 14
Buttons 15
Set the Tab Order 15
Step 4: Add Other Accessibility Features 16
Document Language 16
Set Security That Permits Accessibility 17
Create Accessible Links 19
Add Bookmarks 19

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Step 5: Determine if the PDF File is a Tagged PDF File 20
How to Tell if a PDF File is Tagged 20
What to do if the PDF File is Not Tagged 22
About the Add Tags Report 22
What to do if the PDF File is Tagged 23
Step 6: Determine if the PDF File is Properly Tagged 23
TouchUp Reading Order Tool (TURO) 23
Selecting the TouchUp Reading Order Tool 24
TouchUp Reading Order Tool Options 25
Tips for using the TouchUp Reading Order tool 26
Checking Read Order with the Touch Up Read Order Tool 26
Check reading order with the TouchUp Reading Order tool 27
Change the reading order by dragging on the page 27
Change the reading order using the Order panel 27
Editing Tags with the TouchUp Reading Order Tool 28
Tag a region 28
Change the tag for a region 28
Add or remove content from a tagged region 28
Split a region into two regions 28
Apply a heading tag 29
Remove page elements from the tag structure 29
Apply a figure tag 29
Using TouchUp Reading Order to Check and Correct Figure Tags 29
Adding Alternate Text with the TouchUp Reading Order Tool 30
Using the TouchUp Reading Order Tool Table Editor 31
Add a Table Summary 31
Place the Table in Editing Mode 31
Remove or replace document structure tags 35

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Replace the existing tag structure 35
Remove all tags from a PDF 35
Complex Structures 35
Content Panel 35
Content Tab Options 37
Order Panel 37
Tags Panel 38
Edit tags with the Tags Panel 39
Edit a tag title 40
Move a tag 40
Change the element type 40
Tags tab options 40
Add alternate text and supplementary information to tags 41
Add alternate text to links 42
Add alternate text for a figure 42
Add alternate text for an abbreviated term 42
Create a new child tag 43
Add tags to comments 43
Correct table tags with the Tags tab 43
Check table elements 43
Set ColSpan and RowSpan attributes 44
Step 7: Use the Accessibility Checker to Evaluate the PDF File 44
Quick Check 44
Quick Check Results 44
Full Check 45
Accessibility Full Check Options 46
Continue Checking Until All Issues are Addressed 47
Additional Validation Techniques 47

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Creating Accessible PDF Files Using Authoring Applications 49
Introduction 49
Create an Accessible Microsoft Word Document 49
Use Styles 49
Text 49
Headings 50
Word 2003 Headings 50
Word 2007 Headings 50
Add Alternative Text to Word Graphics and Images 51
Word 2003 51
Word 2007 51
Configure the PDFMaker 52
Show or activate PDFMaker in Microsoft Word 53
For Office 2003 or earlier, 53
For Office 2007 53
View PDFMaker conversion settings 53
Settings Tab 54
Security Tab 56
Word Tab 57
Bookmarks Tab (Microsoft Word) 58
Video Tab (Microsoft Word and PowerPoint) 59
Settings for Other Microsoft Office Applications 60
Excel-specific options on the Settings tab 60
PowerPoint-specific options on the Settings tab 60
Convert the Word Document to Accessible PDF 61
Microsoft Office 2003 61

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Microsoft Office 2007 61
If the Word Document is a Form 62
Check the PDF Version of the Document Using Acrobat 62
Changes to the Conversion Settings 63
Repairs You Should Make in the Source File 63
Repairs You Should Make in the PDF File 63
Document Language 63
Tab Order is Consistent with Structure Order 63
Establish Table Headings for Tables 63

Making PDF Accessible with Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro
1
Introduction
PDF Accessibility
A document or application is accessible if it can be used by people with disabilities—such as mobility
impairments, blindness, and low vision—and not just by people who can see well and use a mouse.
Accessibility features in Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Reader, and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) make
it easier for people with disabilities to use PDF documents and forms, with or without the aid of assistive
software and devices such as screen readers, screen magnifiers, and braille printers.
Making PDFs accessible tends to benefit all users. For example, the underlying document structure that
makes it possible for a screen reader to properly read a PDF out loud also makes it possible for a mobile
device to correctly reflow and display the document on a small screen. Similarly, the preset tab order of an
accessible PDF form helps all users—not just users with mobility impairments—fill the form more easily.
Each PDF File is Different
Not all PDFs are the same. PDF files are created in a variety of ways, from a variety of applications, and for a
variety of purposes. In addition to applying the proper accessibility enhancements to PDF documents,
achieving your accessibility goals for an individual PDF file requires understanding the nature of the PDF
and the uses for which it is intended.
Using this guide, you will learn how to assess existing PDF files for certain characteristics which influence
their accessibility. The order in which this assessment is conducted is important. By following these
procedures in the recommended order, users can efficiently proceed through the analysis of a PDF file in a
systematic fashion. Systematically ruling out or confirming certain characteristics which a PDF file may
possess will guide you to the most appropriate next step for making an individual PDF accessible (See
“Acrobat 9 Pro PDF Accessibility Repair Workflow” on page 5).
This guide also discusses techniques for converting source files to accessible PDF. Using the Adobe
PDFMaker with Microsoft Word as an example, this guide provides best practices for designing your source
document with accessibility in mind so that the original document can be efficiently transformed into an
accessible PDF version (See “Creating Accessible PDF Files Using Authoring Applications” on page 53).
Note: These Best Practices techniques assume the user has access to Adobe Acrobat Pro 9 or
Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended for Windows. Adobe Reader 9 and Adobe Acrobat 9
Standard do not have the complete set of tools needed to create and validate PDF
documents for accessibility.
Two Workflows for Creating Accessible PDF Files
The PDF format is a destination file format. PDF files are typically created in some other application. What
this means is that the author who is concerned with PDF accessibility will be confronted with one of two
situations:
• Individuals working with an existing PDF file will want to know how to edit/update it to be
an accessible PDF file.
• Authors will want to know how to use some other software application, such as a word processing
or desktop publishing application, to generate an accessible PDF file from that application if
possible.
Making an Existing PDF File Accessible
“Acrobat 9 Pro PDF Accessibility Repair Workflow” on page5 provides a step-by-step approach for
analyzing PDF files and making them accessible based upon that analysis.

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Generating Accessible PDF Files from Authoring Applications
“Creating Accessible PDF Files Using Authoring Applications” on page53 provides an example using
Microsoft Word of how to use Acrobat’s PDFMaker to make an accessible PDF files from a word processing
application.
Even if you generate an accessible PDF file from an authoring application, you should then follow the steps
in “Acrobat 9 Pro PDF Accessibility Repair Workflow” on page5 in order to identify any items that may
have been missed in the initial conversion or to add PDF accessibility features that are not provided by the
authoring tool.
Characteristics of Accessible PDF files
The Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) is the native file format of the Adobe® Acrobat® family of
products. The goal of these products is to enable users to exchange and view electronic documents easily and
reliably, independently of the environment in which they were created. PDF relies on the same imaging
model as the PostScript® page description language to describe text and graphics in a device-independent
and resolution-independent manner. To improve performance for interactive viewing, PDF defines a more
structured format than that used by most PostScript language programs. PDF also includes objects, such as
annotations and hypertext links, that are not part of the page itself but are useful for interactive viewing and
document interchange.
Accessible PDFs have the following characteristics:
Searchable text
A document that consists of scanned images of text is inherently inaccessible because the content of the
document is a graphic representing the letters on the page, not searchable text. Assistive software cannot
read or extract the words in a graphic representation, users cannot select or edit the text, and you cannot
manipulate the PDF for accessibility. You must convert the scanned images of text to searchable text using
optical character recognition (OCR) before you can use other accessibility features with the document (See
“Step 2: Determine if the PDF is a Scanned Document” on page 5).
Fonts that allow characters to be extracted to text
The fonts in an accessible PDF must contain enough information for Acrobat to correctly extract all of the
characters to text for purposes other than displaying text on the screen. Acrobat extracts characters to
Unicode text when you read a PDF with a screen reader or the Read Out Loud tool, or when you save as text
for a braille printer. This extraction fails if Acrobat cannot determine how to map the font to Unicode
characters.
Interactive form fields
Some PDFs contain forms that a person is to fill out using a computer. To be accessible, form fields must be
interactive—meaning that a user must be able to enter values into the form fields (See “Step 3: Add
Interactive Features: Form Fields and Buttons” on page 8). Interactive PDF forms also have a defined tab
order allowing users of assistive technology to use the tab key in order to progress from one form field or
interactive control in a logical manner.
Other Features: Buttons, hyperlinks, and navigational aids
Navigational aids in a PDF—such as links, bookmarks, headings, a table of contents, and a preset tab order
for form fields—assist all users in using the document without having to read through the entire document,
word by word. Bookmarks are especially useful and can be created from document headings. Many of these
aids can be accessed using the keyboard without relying on the mouse (See “Step 3: Add Interactive
Features: Form Fields and Buttons” on page 8). and (See “Step 4: Add Other Accessibility Features” on
page 16)..

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Document language
Specifying the document language in a PDF enables some screen readers to switch to the appropriate
language (See “Document Language” on page 16).
Security that will not interfere with assistive technology
Some authors of PDFs restrict users from printing, copying, extracting, adding comments to, or editing text.
The text of an accessible PDF must be available to a screen reader. You can use Acrobat to ensure that
security settings don’t interfere with a screen reader’s ability to convert the on-screen text to speech (See “Set
Security That Permits Accessibility” on page 17).
Document structure tags and proper read order
To read a document’s text and present it in a way that makes sense to the user, a screen reader or other text-
to-speech tool requires that the document be structured. Document structure tags in a PDF define the
reading order and identify headings, paragraphs, sections, tables, and other page elements (See “Step 5:
Determine if the PDF File is a Tagged PDF File” on page 20).
Alternative text descriptions
Document features such as images and interactive form fields can’t be read by a screen reader unless they
have associated alternative text. Though web links are read by screen readers, you can provide more
meaningful descriptions as alternative text. Alternative text and tool tips can aid many users, including those
with learning disabilities (See “Step 6: Determine if the PDF File is Properly Tagged” on page 23).
Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader Accessibility Features
Accessibility features in Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader fall into two broad categories: features to make
the reading of PDF documents more accessible and features to create accessible PDF documents. To create
accessible PDF documents, you must use Acrobat, not Reader.
Features for Accessible Reading of PDFs
• Preferences and commands to optimize output for assistive software and devices, such as saving as
accessible text for a Braille printer
• Preferences and commands to make navigation of PDFs more accessible, such as automatic
scrolling and opening PDFs to the last page read
• Accessibility Setup Assistant for easy setting of most preferences related to accessibility
• Keyboard alternates to mouse actions
• Reflow capability to temporarily present the text of a PDF in a single easy-to-read column
• Read Out Loud text-to-speech conversion.
• Support for screen readers and screen magnifiers
Features for Creating Accessible PDFs
• Creation of tagged PDFs from authoring applications
• Conversion of untagged PDFs to tagged PDFs from within Acrobat
• Security setting that allows screen readers to access text while preventing users from copying,
printing, editing, and extracting text
• Ability to add text to scanned pages to improve accessibility
• Tools for editing reading order and document structure
• Tools for creating accessible PDF forms

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Though Acrobat Standard provides some functionality for making existing PDFs accessible, you must use
Acrobat Pro or Acrobat Pro Extended to perform certain tasks—such as editing reading order or editing
document structure tags—that may be necessary to make some PDF documents and forms accessible (See
“Table 1: Features for Creating Accessible PDF Files by Product” on page4).
Table 1: Features for Creating Accessible PDF Files by Product
Reader 9 Acrobat 9
Standard
Acrobat 9
Pro
Acrobat 9
Pro
Extended
Create PDF documents from any
application that prints
•••
Convert Microsoft Word, Excel,
PowerPoint, Publisher, and
Access files to PDF with one-
button ease*
•••
Capture web pages as rich,
dynamic PDF files for review
and archiving
•••
Scan paper documents to PDF
and automatically recognize text
with optical character recogni-
tion (OCR)
•••
Save PDF files as Microsoft
Word documents, retaining the
layout, fonts, formatting, and
tables, to facilitate reuse of con-
tent
•••
Easily create fillable PDF forms
from paper or existing files using
the Form Wizard
•••
Enable users of Adobe Reader®
(version 8 or later) to fill in and
save PDF forms locally
•••
Create dynamic XML forms with
Adobe LiveCycle® Designer ES
(included)*
• •
Create and validate accessible
PDF documents
• •
* Windows Only

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Acrobat 9 Pro PDF Accessibility
Repair Workflow
PDF Accessibility Workflow Summary
At a high level, the process of making existing PDF files accessible consists of a few basic steps:
1. Analyze and evaluate the PDF document before you (See “Step 1: Analyze the PDF File” on
page 5).
2. Determine if the PDF file originated from a scan. If so, perform Optical Character Recognition
(OCR) using the OCR Text Recognition command in Adobe Acrobat 9 (See “Step 2: Determine if
the PDF is a Scanned Document” on page 5).
3. Add fillable form fields and buttons with short descriptions if the PDF file is intended to work as an
interactive document. Set the tab order for the form field (See “Step 3: Add Interactive Features:
Form Fields and Buttons” on page 8).
4. Add other accessibility features to the PDF such as bookmarks and security that does not interfere
with assistive technology (See “Step 4: Add Other Accessibility Features” on page 16).
5. Add tags to the PDF if it has not been tagged (See “Step 5: Determine if the PDF File is a Tagged
PDF File” on page 20).
6. Determine if the PDF file has been properly tagged (See “Step 6: Determine if the PDF File is
Properly Tagged” on page 23).
7. Use the Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro accessibility checker to evaluate the PDF and repair tagging problems
and other issues such as missing alternate text descriptions, missing short descriptions for form
fields, and improper read order. Run the accessibility checker and follow its suggestions for repair
until no problems are found (See “Step 7: Use the Accessibility Checker to Evaluate the PDF File”
on page 44).
Though these stages are presented in an order that suits most needs, you may perform tasks in these stages in
a different order or iterate between some of the stages. In all cases, you should first examine the document,
determine its intended purpose, and use that analysis to determine the workflow that you should apply.
Step 1: Analyze the PDF File
When you open the PDF file, take a moment to analyze the document before you. Take a moment to note its
characteristics.
• Is it a short document with a small number of pages or a long document consisting of many pages?
• Is the document mostly text or a mixture of text and graphics?
• Does the document appear to have form fields?
• Another item to note is the complexity of the document’s layout. In some instances, documents of
shorter length may be more challenging from an accessibility perspective than longer docments
because their layout and read order are more complex. Is the layout simple, a single column with a
limited number of graphics, or is it complex with multiple columns, mixed layouts, tables and many
graphics? Complex layouts are an indicator that you may be spending more time with the
document doing more detailed accessibility enhancements with the Touch Up Read Order Tool.
Step 2: Determine if the PDF is a Scanned Document
A common method for making PDF documents is to place a paper copy of a document into a scanner and
then opening the resulting electronic version using Adobe Acrobat to view the newly scanned document as a
PDF file. Unfortunately, this process results in creating an image of text and not the actual text itself. This

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means the content is not accessible to users who rely on assistive technology to hear the contents of the page.
Additional work must take place to make the document accesible.
Note: If you are certain that the PDF document is not a scanned document or it has previously
undergone optical character recognition, you can skip this discussion and proceed to
“Step 3: Add Interactive Features: Form Fields and Buttons” on page8.
How to Tell if a PDF File is a Scanned Document
There are a number of indications that a PDF file originated from a scanned page. Onscreen, the document
appears to contain text, but the page is actually an image. Choose the method that suits you best for
determining if the PDF is from a scan and is an “image only” PDF.
• Note if the page appears to be skewed. Sometimes sheets are not properly fed into the
scanner with the effect being the page appears to be crooked, or skewed on the screen .
Lines of text will not be straight but will appear to slant up or down (See “Figure 1 Skewed
Text Indicates a Scanned PDF” on page6)
Figure 1 Skewed Text Indicates a Scanned PDF
• Search for characters that appear on the page. Use the find command in Acrobat to
search for text that appears on the page. Select Edit > Find (Ctrl + F on Windows or
Option + F on Mac OS) and type a term that appears on the page in the search field.
If the document was scanned, Acrobat will not find the search but will display a message
indicating “Acrobat has finished searching the document. No matches were found”.
• Zoom in and check for jagged edges on smooth characters. Scanned images are bitmaps
(See “Figure 2 Bitmap text (top) and text that has undergone OCR (bottom)” on
page7)The edges of curves on bit maps will not appear to be smooth or rounded but will
be jagged as shown in the top sample illustrating the word “Ozone” in Figure 2 on page7
Use the marquee zoom tool in Acrobat to define the area and magnify the edges of curved
letters such as “c”, “s”, and “o”. Text that has undergone the OCR process using the

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ClearScan option will display smoother edges as shown in the bottom illustration of the
word “Ozone” in Figure 2 on page7
Figure 2 Bitmap text (top) and text that has undergone OCR (bottom)
• Use assistive technology or the Read Out Loud feature. Acrobat 9 Pro can detect the
presence of assistive technology and if it encounters a scanned document will announce an
audible empty page warning and display the Scanned Page Alert dialog (See “Figure 3
Scanned Page Alert Dialog” on page7)
Figure 3 Scanned Page Alert Dialog
What to Do if the PDF is a Scanned Document
Perform Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to convert the bitmap image of text to actual characters. In
Acrobat 9 Pro. You can do this by selecting “OK” from the Scanned Page Alert dialog (See “Figure 3
Scanned Page Alert Dialog” on page7) You can also run the “Recognize Text Using OCR” command in
Acrobat 9.
• Document > OCR Text Recognition > Recognize Text Using OCR...
• or use the keyboard accelerator: ALT + D + C + R
All three of these methods will result in the display of the Recognize Text dialog (See “Figure 4 Recognize
Text Dialog and Recognize Text Settings” on page8) Use the Edit button in the scanned page dialog to set
the desired characteristics for the resulting file.
• Primary OCR Language (user should select the applicable document language)
• PDF Output Style should be ClearScan. ClearScan will allow the resulting PDF to “reflow”. The
other two options, “Searchable Image” and “Searchable Image Exact” will work with assistive
technology but will result in a PDF file that cannot be reflowed.
• Downsample should be set to the lowest downsampling which results in the highest resolution as
measured in dots per inch (dpi). This should be 600 dpi.

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Figure 4 Recognize Text Dialog and Recognize Text Settings
For additional information on performing optical character recognition using Adobe Acrobat, refer to the
Acrobat 9 Help.
What to Do if the PDF is Not a Scanned Document
Proceed to “Step 3: Add Interactive Features: Form Fields and Buttons” on page8.
Step 3: Add Interactive Features: Form Fields and Buttons
Determining if a PDF file is meant to be an interactive form is a matter of visually examining the file and
looking for the presence of form fields, or areas in the document where some kind of information is being
asked for such as name, address, social security number. Boxes or fields drawn on the page are also typical
indications that the document is meant to function as a form. If you want users to be able to complete the
form online, rather than resort to printing a paper copy in order to complete the form, then the form is
meant to be an interactive form.
Note: If you are certain the PDF document is not intended to have fillable form fields or buttons,
you can skip this discussion and proceed to “Step 4: Add Other Accessibility Features” on
page16.
You can make form fields accessible to vision impaired users and users with mobility challenges by adding
fillable fields to the PDF and by properly structuring it. In addition, you can use the Tooltip field property to
provide the user with information about the field or to provide instructions. For example, using the Tooltip
property value, the screen reader user would hear “Check this box if you will be attending the luncheon.”
Without the tool tip property, a screen reader simply provides the name of the form field (Check Box 1), its
type (Check Box), and its state (Unchecked). It would not be clear to someone listening to the form that they
are indicating their desire to attend a luncheon.
You can have Acrobat Pro detect and create the form fields automatically or you can manually create the
necessary fields using Acrobat Pro’s form tools.

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This discussion limits itself to the accessibility issues involved with PDF forms. For a more detailed
discussion of forms, refer to the Adobe Acrobat 9 Online Help.
PDF Form Fields
A PDF form created with Acrobat can contain the following types of fields:
• Text field. Lets the user type in text, such as name, address, or phone number.
• Check box. Presents yes-or-no choices for individual items. If the form contains multiple
check boxes, the user can typically select as many or few of these as needed.
• Radio button. Presents a group of choices from which the user can select only one item.
All radio buttons with the same name work together as a group.
• List box. Displays a list of options the user can select. You can set a form field property
that enables the user to Shift-click or Control-click to select multiple items on the list.
• Combo box. Lets the user either choose and item from a pop-up menu or type in a value.
• Button. Initiates a change on the user’s computer, such as opening a file, playing a sound,
or submitting data to a web server. These buttons can be customized with images, text, and
visual changes triggered by mouse actions. Action buttons have a different purpose than
radio buttons, which represent data choices made by the user.
• Digital signature field. Lets the user electronically sign a PDF document with a digital
signature.
• Barcode. Encodes the input form selected fields and diplays it as a visual pattern that can
be interpreted by decoding software or hardware (available separately).
Use Acrobat to Detect and Create Interactive Form Fields
You can convert an existing electronic document (for example a Word, Excel, or PDF document) or scan a
paper document to a PDF form, and then add interactive form fields to the form.
When you convert a document to an Acrobat form, Acrobat can detect the form fields in the document. In
many instances, Acrobat will use the form field labels to name the field and provide a Tooltip. While the
results are often acceptable, this is not a foolproof process. You will need to examine the document carefully
to verify that Acrobat accurately detected the fields and labelled them appropriately.
Acrobat Form Wizard
You can use the Form Wizard in Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro or Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended to create
interactive forms from an existing electronic document (for example a Word, PDF, or Excel document) or
scan a paper form into a PDF form.
• Choose Forms > Start Form Wizard.
This displays the Create or Edit Form Dialog. From the Create or Edit Form Dialog, do one of the following,
and then follow the on-screen instructions.
• To convert an existing electronic document (for example Word or PDF) to a PDF form, select An
Existing Electronic Document. This places the document in Form Editing Mode.
• To scan a paper form and convert it to a PDF form, select A Paper Form. The form will be scanned
and placed in Form Editing Mode.
• To use LiveCycle Designer to create a form from scratch or from one of the available templates,
select No Existing Form.
Note: Using the Adobe LiveCycle Designer, included in Adobe Acrobat Pro and Adobe Acrobat
Pro Extended for Windows, to create accessible PDF forms is beyond the scope of this Best

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Practices Guide.
The Form Wizard completes its analysis of the document, adds any form fields it may detect and places the
PDF form in Forms Editing Mode where you can edit the automatically created fields or add additional form
fields (See “Forms Editing Mode” on page 11).
During form field detection, Acrobat may have missed some fields or created unneeded fields. It may have
also created fields of the wrong type. Please verify the fields and field names on your form. You can select
Add New Field on the Forms Editing toolbar to add more fields or right click on the form to edit or delete
fields.
Enter Forms Editing Mode Directly
If you don’t want to use the Form Wizard, you can open the file, and place the document in Form Editing
Mode directly.
• From the Acrobat Menu, select Forms > Add Or Edit Fields (Keyboard shortcut is Shift + Ctrl 7).
This displays the Add or Edit Form Fields dialog (See “Figure 5 Add or Edit Form Fields Dialog” on
page10)
Answering “Yes” to the Add or Edit Form Fields dialog question “Do you want Acrobat to detect form fields
for you?” results in the automatic detection of form fields prior to placing the document in Form Editing
Mode. This is the same as if you had proceeded using the Form Wizard on the current PDF.
Acrobat completes its analysis of the document, adds any form fields it may detect and places the PDF form
in Forms Editing Mode where you can edit the automatically created fields or add additional form fields (See
“Forms Editing Mode” on page 11).
During form field detection, Acrobat may have missed some fields or created unneeded fields. It may have
also created fields of the wrong type. Please verify the fields and field names on your form. You can select
Add New Field on the Forms Editing toolbar to add more fields or right click on the form to edit or delete
fields.
Answering “No” to the Add or Edit Form Fields dialog question “Do you want Acrobat to detect form fields
for you?” also places the document in Form Editing mode, but does not create form fields automatically. You
will have to add the form fields manually. Proceed to the next section, “Create Form Fields Manually” on
page10 for futher information.
Create Form Fields Manually
To add form fields manually you first select Forms > Add or Edit Fields (Keyboard shortcut is Shift + Ctrl 7)
and answer “No” to the question “Do you want Acrobat to detect the Form Fields for you?” in the resulting
dialog (See “Figure 5 Add or Edit Form Fields Dialog” on page10) This places the document in Forms
Editing Mode without automatically creating any fields. You can now add new form fields to the PDF form.
Proceed to the next section “Forms Editing Mode” on page11 for further instruction.
Figure 5 Add or Edit Form Fields Dialog

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Forms Editing Mode
With the PDF form in Forms Editing Mode, you can add new fields and buttons to the form and edit or
delete any existing field or button (See “Figure 6 Adobe Acrobat 9 Forms Editing Mode” on page11) The
Forms Editing Mode changes the Acrobat user interface slightly.
• A Forms Editing Toolbar provides access to the Select Object tool, the Add New Field button, and
the Form Preview button. You can configure the Add New Field button to display the Forms tools
on the toolbar instead of the Add New Field button if you prefer.
• On the right hand side of the Forms Editing Toolbar, are the Distribute Form button and the Close
Form editing button.
• A fields panel appears on the left side of the document.
• There is a forms menu bar which offers users choices that are mostly restricted to forms editing
functions.
Figure 6 Adobe Acrobat 9 Forms Editing Mode
Creating a New Form Field
In Acrobat, you create a form field by choosing one of the form tools. For each field type, you can set a
variety of options through the form field Properties dialog box.
You can access the forms tools one of three ways.
• You can select “Add New Field” on the Forms Editing Toolbar to add more fields
• From the Forms Editing menu you can select Forms > Form Tools (Keyboard accelerator ALT + R
+ O). This will provide access to the Acrobat form tools.

Acrobat 9 Pro PDF Accessibility Repair Workflow
Making PDF Accessible with Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro
12 |
• You can right click over the form to present options that allow you to add, edit, or delete fields.
The cursor becomes a cross hair.
• On the page, click where you want to add the field to create a field with the default size. To create a
field using a custom size, drag a rectangle to define the size of the field.
• In the Field Name box, type the name of the field and specify if you want the field to be a required
field. Acrobat provides a default name based upon the field type and the number of fields drawn on
the page. You should choose a name that is relevant and descriptive to make organizing and
collecting the data easier (See “Figure 7 Field Name Box” on page12)
• To display the Properties dialog box and modify any other field properties, click Show All
Properties (See “Figure 7 Field Name Box” on page12)
Note: If you have selected the Keep Tool Selected option in the forms toolbar, the Field Name
box doesn’t appear after adding a field. Each time you click the page, a new field is added
to the form. To exit this mode, press the Esc key or click the Select Object Tool button. To
modify the properties of the field, double-click the field.
Figure 7 Field Name Box
To test your form, click the Preview button. Previewing a form allows you to view the form the same way the
form recipients will and gives you a chance to verify the form. If you are previewing a form, you can click the
Edit Layout button to go back to the Forms Editing mode.
Form Field Properties
How a form field behaves is determined by settings in the Properties dialog box for that individual field. You
can set properties that apply formatting, determine how the form field information relates to other form
fields, impose limitations on what the user can enter in the form field, trigger custom scripts, and so forth.
You can set a variety of properties for an Acrobat form field, depending on the form field type. The
properties for each type of form field are selected on a series of tabs. When you change a property, it is
applied as soon as you select another property or press Enter.
All the form field types have a General tab, Appearance tab, and an Actions tab. Other tabs appear only in
specific types of form fields. The Options tab appears for most form field types but the options available are
unique to each type of form field.
If you are changing the properties of multiple fields, you can leave the Properties dialog box open. Click on
each field to change its properties.
Tooltips for Form Fields
For accessibility, the Tooltip option on the General tab is important for entering text that will be announced
by screen readers.
You can make form fields accessible to people with disabilities by adding tags to the PDF and by properly
structuring it. In addition, you can use the tool tip form field property to provide the user with information