Before you publish a document, make sure that your Word document is accessible. Then it will also be accessible in pdf-format.
If you are working on your thesis with the browser version of Word, it does not support all the features of the desktop version of Word. In this case, the form settings may not work properly and you will not be able to make accessibility settings. Therefore, use the latest desktop version when you finalize the look of your thesis to fit the layouts. Humak students have access to the Office 365 package and a desktop version can be downloaded from portal.office.com.
You should first define the language used in your thesis. You can adjust your language settings on Word from the Language section. If you have to change the language, don’t forget to adjust it for your entire document. You also may define a language for a specific section of your document by marking it with the cursor. Note: For Finnish-language degree programme theses written in other languages than Finnish, a Finnish abstract must be included. This is not required from English-language degree programme theses.
You can check accessibility like this
- Click “Review” from Word’s top ribbon menu.
- Select ”Check accessibility”.
- If the document has problems, fix them. Give your document a descriptive title.
Theseus’ publishing instruction determine that theses should be named: First name_Last name.pdf. For example: Student_Simon.pdf. A document must be named like this.
Despite this you can give the document a more descriptive name by choosing “file > information > properties: heading” from the Word menu. Note that your document heading is different from your document file’s name. Thus, this heading can be for example: Student Simon Thesis, followed by your thesis title if it is fairly short. If the title is long, you can write e.g. just your heading and not include any possible subheadings.
Transforming a Word document into a pdf format
- Don’t use the “Print pdf” function, if it appears.
- Choose “File” > “Save As” > Choose save location > Pick format as PDF
- Before pressing “Publish”, choose “Settings.”
- From the settings, choose the option “Document format settings for accessibility options”.
- Check that you have “PDF/A compatible” option checked. You can see this from the same view.
- On some programs you will see a setting called “best for electronic distribution”. If you have that setting available, choose it.
- Accept the settings and press “OK”
Creating an accessible pdf document with a Mac
In case you can’t convert to a pdf/a directly when using a Mac, you can use Adobe Acrobat Pro to convert a pdf to a pdf/a. The program is not free, but a free trial version is available. Other similar programs include the free Libre Office or Scribus. One option is to open the word file on a pc and add accessibility formats using it and finally save it there as a pdf/a. For more information, visit the Microsoft Support website.
If you’re using Adobe Reader, you can make sure that the alternate text is attached to the image. When you hover over the image, a pop-up window should appear over the image, displaying alternate text. If you’ve made patterns or charts in Word, it’s a good idea to convert them to an image format (such as png) first, making it easier to add alternate text. Adobe Reader also shows if the text is in PDF/A format. If it is, a blue bar appears on screen saying a PDF/A format has been detected.
NOTICE: DIFFERENT PROGRAM VERSION TERMS AND COMMANDS MIGHT DIFFER FROM THE ONES IN THIS DOCUMENT
For more information:
Theseus’ guide to accessibility
Microsoft’s guide to accessible documents