[NFBCS] Filling Out PDF Forms With Adobe Acrobat

[Curtis Chong]

Hi Steve:

 

CTRL+SHIFT+5 is not the same as CTRL+K. CTRL+K brings up the generic
preferences dialog for Adobe Acrobat whereas CTRL+SHIFT+5 brings up the
dialog about the reading order, and whether or not you want the entire
document loaded. Setting the reading options not to read the document turns
off the ability of Adobe Acrobat to send information to the screen reader.

 

The modern interface turns off what we know as the standard menu bar, but
you can turn it back on again in the file menu, reached by pressing ALT+F.

 

Kind regards,

 

Curtis Chong

 

 

 

 

 

 

From: NFBCS <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Steve Jacobson via NFBCS
Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2023 4:54 PM
To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Steve Jacobson <steve.jacobson at outlook.com>
Subject: Re: [NFBCS] Filling Out PDF Forms With Adobe Acrobat

 

Curtis,

 

Is CONTROL-SHIFT-5 the same as the old CONTROL-K which I am still able to
use?  I did not know why, but I also noticed that one has to infer reading
order from document to have form fields read.  I also noticed that not all
form fields, such as check boxes, are in the tab order.  I had to find them
with the virtual cursor.  Is this new behavior?  I haven't done that many
PDF forms so don't know if this is changed behavior or not.

 

Best regards,

 

Steve

 

From: NFBCS <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Curtis Chong via NFBCS
Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2023 3:59 PM
To: 'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List' <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Curtis Chong <chong.curtis at gmail.com>
Subject: [NFBCS] Filling Out PDF Forms With Adobe Acrobat

 

Greetings all:

 

I'd like to share a few tidbits I just picked up regarding the use of
Adobe's free Acrobat software to fill out properly-constructed PDF forms.

 

In prior versions of the Adobe Reader, you could adjust your accessibility
settings so that tags in documents would not be ignored. In this way,
whenever you opened up a properly-constructed PDF form, JAWS would verbalize
the form fields and even enable you to enter information.

 

In the latest version of Adobe Acrobat, this setting has disappeared. Thus,
when I went to open up a PDF form document, JAWS could not detect the form
fields.

 

(parenthetically speaking, some of you have have noticed that the
traditional menus that we used to see in older versions of Adobe Acrobat
have disappeared. The only menu left is the File Menu, which you can reach
by pressing ALT+F after opening a PDF file._)

 

The solution is to open the PDF form document, press CTRL+SHIFT+5 to bring
up the Reading Preferences dialog, and then to choose the "Infer reading
order from document" option, which says it is the recommended choice.

 

Try as I might, I could not find anything written up about this anywhere.

 

Warm regards,

 

Curtis Chong, Treasurer

National Federation of the Blind in Computer Science

 

 

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