Working with PDF
- Make sure your PDF is tagged
- Consider other formats, such as HTML
- Use the Online PDF Converter to convert to HTML:
- Used by IBM Homepage Reader (a screen reader or spoken browser)
- Document must be in English or common western European languages that can be represented as ASCII text
If providing PDF files
- Optimise any images in the PDF
- Distil the file at 72dpi (fine for viewing text online) (you will need Distiller or Acrobat Professional to do this)
- Also subset the embedded fonts
- 'Save As' – removes unnecessary content
- Break files into chapters
- Convert to RTF from Acrobat - you will get a smaller file (but loss of format)
Write Searchable Documents
To optimise your files for search engines:
- Fill out the document 'Properties' – displayed in search results
- Use Structural elements properly in Word, PDF eg.:
- Headings
- Table of Contents
- Split large documents into sections:
- Get more content indexed
- Documents will load faster
- Provide alt text for images:
- Adds more 'indexable' text to your page
- If alt text is done well it increases accessibility for people with disabilities
