What is the Recommended Workflow when using CommonLook PDF

Overview

While CommonLook PDF is a robust tool that can effectively speed up your remediation workflow, there are some tasks that should be accomplished prior to opening the document in CommonLook PDF and remediating.  This is because you cannot change the physical view of the PDF. including adding form fields and hyperlinks to the document.  

Steps to Follow

There are essentially two parts to the PDF remediation workflow.  Part one is what happens in the document before you use CommonLook PDF.  Part two is your approach while you use CommonLook PDF.

Part 1: Prior to using CommonLook PDF: 

In Acrobat (or in your source document) 

1. Run OCR if the document is scanned.

2. Add Form fields and/or Links as needed.

3. Add Java Script if needed.

4. Embed fonts if needed (PDF/UA)

5. Add Tags to the document if needed – Check for corruption in the physical view!

6. “Save as” so that you’re not working on the original document!

Optional but helpful:

1. Print the Table of Contents and mark Heading Levels (in the margin).

2. Look over the document and see if there are tables that contain empty cells – if there are, remember to not do a “full” cleanup when cleaning empty tags!

3. Are there images that convey relevant information? If not (or if not many) then, in CommonLook PDF, it may be advantageous to “artifact all images” (lines on tables, for example).

Part 2: Remediation work in CommonLook PDF: 

1. Open CommonLook.

2. Open the Tags tree.

   1. Artifact images as needed (refer to the “Optional” section).

   2. Remediate the document: (remember to save periodically!)

      1. Verify reading order,

      2. Check that the correct tag is being used,

      3. Look for color issues,

      4. Fix tables, forms, links, artifact headers/footers, etc. as needed.

      5. Clean up empty tags.

      6. Set the Tabbing Order to follow Document Structure (this can also be done with the Fix Wizard after you run your verification)

      7. Add the Document Tag.

3. Run Verification(s) – Structural and Accessibility as needed.

   1. Address any failures, checkpoints requiring user verification, and warnings.

4. Generate and save the report.

5. Save your work!  When shutting things down, use “Save and Close.”

Common Problems

If you open CommonLook PDF and start remediating a document, but then realize you need to change something in the physical view of the PDF, you may find that after you make those changes and open the PDF back up in CommonLook, tags are empty, changed, or missing. This is why we stress following our recommended workflow.

Related Articles

Navigate to our "General Software Functionality" section for more related articles that may help!