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Alternate Media Workflow Strategies for PDF

Alternate Media Workflow Strategies for PDF. Gaeir Dietrich Director High Tech Center Training Unit. PDF. Great starting point Contains all text and graphics Easy to generate Word files once you learn how Reduces retyping Excellent format for creating large print. What is a PDF?.

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Alternate Media Workflow Strategies for PDF

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  1. Alternate Media Workflow Strategies for PDF Gaeir Dietrich DirectorHigh Tech Center Training Unit

  2. PDF • Great starting point • Contains all text and graphics • Easy to generate Word files once you learn how • Reduces retyping • Excellent format for creating large print

  3. What is a PDF? Portable document format (PDF) Reads the same on any computer Looks like the book Contains all the text Easy for publishers

  4. Types of PDF Documents • Text-based PDF • Searchable • Graphical PDF • Picture of text (i.e., a graphic) • Use text-selection (I-beam) toolto tell the difference • Text can be selected; graphics cannot

  5. PDFs and Publishers • Fairly easy for publishers • Usually even small publishers can create a PDF • Most accurate format • Looks like the book • Includes page numbers and all text • Will be complete • BUT watch out for teacher’s editions

  6. Requesting through ATPC • Use the ATPC request form • www.atpc.net • If additional processing is required, send syllabus! • Please note: Look for the “conversation” feature on the ATPC interface

  7. Security Issues • PDF files can be locked • Some files can be read with TTS but no text extracted • Some files cannot be read • Sometimes OmniPage and/or FineReader can OCR locked files • If you receive a locked PDF, go back to the publisher

  8. Working with PDF Files • Native utilities from Adobe • Adobe Reader • Acrobat Pro • Optical character recognition (OCR) • Free extraction tool: Balabolka

  9. Different Acrobats • Adobe Reader • Free • Open, view, and read (including TTS) • www.adobe.com/products/reader/ • Adobe Acrobat Professional • www.uscollegebuy.com Discounted Price • Crop pages, delete/combine pages, renumber pages, extract text • Required for alternate format producers

  10. Access with Acrobat Reader • Access text-based PDFs within Reader • Reads aloud • But does not highlight or track • Enlarges text • Nice reflow feature • Changes text/background colors • Text highlighting, sticky notes, and comments

  11. Adobe Reader Reality Check • As good as Kurzweil? • NO • As good as PDF Aloud? • NO • Appropriate as only assistive technology? • NO • Nice as a free, widely available option? • YES

  12. Production Features in Reader • Really designed for reading, not reformatting • Export PDF • Subscription service (about $20/year) • Upload PDF file, service auto-converts to Word, download

  13. Process with Acrobat Pro • Cropping • Enlargement for printing • Tiling • Extracting/deleting pages • Combining/inserting pages • Text extraction • Works best with text-based PDF • Does have built-in OCR capability

  14. Customize Quick Tools • Click on the “gear” • View > Show/hide > Toolbar Items > Quick Tools

  15. Quick Tools Menu

  16. Customize

  17. Please Note • To enable single-key shortcuts • Open Preferences dialog box Ctrl + K • Under General > select Use Single-Key Accelerators To Access Tools (first checkbox under Basic Tools)

  18. Cropping • Tools > Pages > Crop • Shortcut: C • (Please note: This shortcut brings up the mouse-driven cropping tool—must double click to open the dialog box!)

  19. Crop Tool

  20. Crop Toolbox

  21. Enlarging • Choose paper size/printer • File > Print > Size…to Fit • Shortcut: Ctrl + P (tab through) • Tip: Crop document before enlarging

  22. Print to Fit

  23. Tiling • Choose paper size/printer • File > Print > Poster > Tile Scale and Overlap • Shortcut: Ctrl + P (tab through) • Tip: Crop document before tiling

  24. Enlarge with Tiling

  25. Extracting Pages • Tools > Pages > Extract • Delete Shortcut: Ctrl + Shift + D • Extract Pages Shortcut: Alt V + T + P (opens Pages pane; F6 focuses in pane and can arrow down)

  26. Extraction Tool

  27. Tips for Extracting Chapters • Crop on complete file before extracting • Work on a copy!!!!! • Extract from end toward front! • Use table of contents to help • Place focus on first page of chapter to extract (beginning with last)

  28. Starting from the Back

  29. Combining • File > Pages > Insert • OR • Create > Combine files

  30. Inserting Pages

  31. Combining Pages

  32. Auto Extracting Text • File > Save As > MS Word • Retains styles and paragraphs • File > Save As > More options… • Text (Accessible) • Lose styles, places hard returns at end of line • Text (Plain) • Lose styles, keeps paragraphs • Shortcut: Alt F + A

  33. Save As Options

  34. Better Text Extraction OCR programs analyze text and structure Acrobat Pro has built-in OCR, but other programs provide more control Can control which text to include

  35. More Control over Text • For graphical PDFs • Or • To maintain more control over extracting text from text-based PDFs • Use an OCR program!

  36. Processing Graphical PDFs • Must use OCR program • Use virtual printer with Kurzweil • Creates KESI files • Will not work with locked files • Use OmniPage or FineReader • Sometimes work with locked files • OP handles tighter security than FineReader does • Nothing works on some locked PDFs

  37. Want to Stay in PDF? • Sometimes students do want a text-based PDF • Can OCR in Adobe Pro • Tools> Recognize Text

  38. Under Tools

  39. OCR Programs • ABBYY FineReader Pro • Easier to learn • Somewhat better with structure • About $75 • Nuance OmniPage • A bit more accessible • A bit better with STEM materials • About $100

  40. Kurzweil Users: Please Note! • If students are using Kurzweil, then use Kurzweil for the OCR • Do not OCR and then load into Kurzweil unless you do not care about the page structure • Use KESI virtual printer • Print from Acrobat or Adobe Reader • Creates KESI files • Will not work with locked files

  41. OCR Programs • Treat all graphics files the same • PDFs, TIFFs, JPEGs • Load image file • Create templates • Zone (analyze structure) • Run OCR

  42. OCR Process Details • Crop before loading into OCR engine • Turn on multiple languages as needed • If doing math, turn on Greek • Only turn on the languages you need • Edit in the OCR program • Some OCR programs have font matching features • Save to Word

  43. Once in Word • Learn to use “show hidden” • Ctrl + Shift + 8 • Beware of the optional hyphen • Search and replace to delete • Search for ^- replace with nothing • Run spell check • Use styles to structure files for braille program

  44. Summary • Source files vs. end-user files • Source files = for you to create alt media from • End-user files = alt media formats • PDF • Consider PDFs as source files (files to process) that sometimes double as end-user files (for certain students with limited access issues)

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