Converting Your Document to PDF

Converting Word Documents to PDF

When you convert your document to a PDF from Word, required features can be lost if you use 3rd party plugins or print your document to PDF. Additionally, certain versions of Word do not convert to PDF correctly. While we generally recommend converting your document to PDF using Word's built-in PDF exporter, you may need to download Foxit or Adobe's PDF converter plugin.

Determine Your Version of Word

First, open Word and navigate to File -> Account (Windows) or Word -> Account (Mac).

• Word 365: your document can be safely converted to PDF with Word's built-in exporter.
  • Word 365 can be downloaded from IT and is offered to all students, staff, and faculty. Additionally, Word 365 is what runs in your browser, such as via Sharepoint, Teams, and OneDrive.
• Office LTSC: you will need to download Foxit or Adobe's PDF converter plugin and use it to export your document.
  • Office LTSC is commonly installed on NDSU-operated PCs, such as those in offices, computer labs and laboratories.

Export Your Document in Word:

1. Navigate to File -> Export -> Create PDF/XPS Document.
2. Click the Investigate Accessibility button to perform a preliminary check for issues like missing alt-text.
3. If there are no items listed under "Errors" in the Accessibility Checker pane, return back to File -> Export -> Create PDF/XPS Document and click the Create PDF/XPS button.
   1. If you are using Office LTSC, you will need to download the Foxit or Adobe PDF conversion plugin, and you can export via this plugin from the same File -> Export menu.
4. In the Publish as PDF dialog box, click Options.
   1. Set "publish what" to "document". Do not export your document with markup enabled. Note that "document showing markup" is enabled by default and you may need to set this option whenever your export to PDF.
   2. Enable both "create bookmarks using headings" and "document structure tags for accessibility".
5. Click Publish to save your document in your desired location.

Once exported, check your PDF's accessibility readiness with the PDF Accessibility Checker or a PDF editor.

Converting from LaTeX to PDF

At this time, we do not recommend using LaTeX to draft your disquisition. While the platform offers many advantages, PDFs produced from LaTeX currently lack requisite accessibility features.

For example, if your document includes display or in-line equations, you will be required to create alt-text for each item tagged as <formula>. While these restrictions can be somewhat circumvented in Word by using Unicode characters to create equations, no workaround is available yet for LaTeX.

Additionally, the PDF engine in your LaTeX platform may not generate structure tags for your document; LuaTex is recommend by the LaTeX Tagging Project, but your template or packages may not be compatible. If you are unsure whether your template produces tagged PDFs, download the PDF Accessibility Checker and use it on a sample PDF. Another option is using Overleaf's proprietary tagging package, though compiling your final document will require a subscription. You can also tag your PDF manually in a PDF editor; see our knowledge base entry on digital accessibility for our full guidelines, including a list of computers with licenses for Adobe Pro and links to video tutorials.