5.13 PDF DOCUMENTS The PDF way of sharing documents is great but difficult for screenreader users. PDF files can be protected at various levels,unprotected PDFs being the easiest to deal with, and totally protected PDFs being very challenging. PDF files sometimes come as email attachments,or on websites often describing products. There are five ways of trying to read them: 1) Use WebbIE to read PDFs on the web 2) Copy PDFs into Word 3) listen to PDFs using Robobraille 4) Using Adobe 5) SCAN2TEXT 1) USE WEBBIE TO READ PDFS ON THE WEB When a PDF file comes on the web, using WebbIE, press ALT O and the top choice is "fetch PDFs from Google". Press ENTER and after a little time the file will appear, and you can read it. Not all PDFs are presented in this Google accessible format. 2) COPY PDFS INTO WORD When the PDF comes as an email attachment go into the attachment in the normal way. If you have Adobe installed you will hear that the document is being processed. This may take some time, and you may be able to press ALT S to speed this up. Pressing CAPSLOCK F will give you some information about the length of the document. When processed, press CONTROL A to select it . Press CONTROL C to copy it. Then go into MS Word and paste the document with CONTROL V. Unless your PDF was totally protected, you should get something if not full formatting. Sometimes you can only do the above a page at a time. 3) LISTEN TO PDFS USING ROBOBRAILLE Robobraille website can automatically translate PDFs for you. When you get an email with a PDF attachment or a file you can’t read, save it to a place where you can easily find it, such as in Documents. To save attachments amongst your documents,when you are in your inbox at the email with a PDF attachment, press ALT F,ARROW DOWN to hear "save attachments" and press ENTER. The attachments will be selected in the centre of the screen. press ENTER. You may have to press ENTER a third time depending on your settings. You will find the attachment amongst your documents under the title of the attachment which may be different from the subject of the email. You now have to forward this document to the following email address: Give it a subject which is meaningful to you -no need to write anything in your email. Follow the routine for sending attachments: Office 10 users press ALT RIGHT ARROW, other users press ALT I and Thunder will say "file". Press ENTER. Thunder will say "open insert". Press SHIFT TAB once for Outlook Express or SHIFT TAB twice for Windows Mail. ARROW DOWN your list of documents or type its first letter to get to it more quickly. If you have a lot of documents, they may be arranged in columns so if you don’t find your document when you ARROW DOWN, try ARROWING RIGHT as well. Press ENTER on the one you want to forward then press ALT S to send it. You will get an email from Robobraille within half an hour which gives you a website address where you can hear the document spoken. Copy the website address. Go into WebbIE, press ALT D, paste in the website address, and press ENTER. You may have to wait a minute before you hear the document.
4) USING ADOBE Adobe, the company making the PDF software, provides something called Adobe Reader so that you can hear their files. You may need help finding and downloading the Reader from: http://get.adobe.com/uk/reader/download/?installer=Reader_10.0.1_English_UK_for_Windows&i=McAfee_Security_Scan_Plus&a=Google_Toolbar_6.5&a=ARH&a=Air_Installer&os=Windows 7&browser=ie&type=active When you have Adobe Reader downloaded and installed on your computer, here are some hints to get you started: 1) Select the Adobe Reader in your Start menu or on the Desktop. 2) Agree the licence terms. 3) Agree the option which suits you best: Accessibility for Magnifiers or All Accessibility Options. 4) As you move through each page of options, you could overwrite normal options and choose to read your PDF files in WebbIE. Make sure that WebbIE is your default browser, ALT O then M with WebbIE on the screen. If you prefer not to use the WebbIE browser, the following keystrokes in Adobe Reader itself will help you: Activate Reader: ALT V then A before you can listen to anything. Read this page only: ALT V then P. Read to end of document: ALT V then E. Pause reading: ALT V then U. Stop reading: ALT V then S. You can change the way the reader speaks to you. Press ALT E then N (preferences). ARROW DOWN to Reader and Press TAB. You will find options here to change the speed, volume and the reading voice itself. To change the voice, untick the default voice setting and ARROW amongst any voices on your machine. TAB to hear "OK" and, next time you open the Adobe reader, you will be able to listen in your chosen voice. High quality voices are available to buy from Screenreader.net Tel +44 (0)1733 234441. There is much more to learn about Adobe Reader. Always make sure you have the latest version by pressing ALT H (help) then U (updates). Press ENTER and you will be given the opportunity to update or be told that updater is already running. 5) SCAN2TEXT Screenreader.net sells and supports a very useful software package called Scan2Text. It converts a number of files, including PDF files, into accessible Microsoft Word formats. It can also be used with a flatbed scanner enabling you to scan and read print. The price is £59 Sterling. See screenreader.net.
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