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.

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 is available to students and employees at no charge; see the IT knowledge base entry for installation information and instructions. Note that the browser version of Word 365 does not support necessary features in our templates and should not be used to export your disquisition to PDF.
• Office LTSC: if your document contains images or equations, you will need to install Word 365 or find a PC with it installed already. Word 365 is available to students and employees at no charge; see the IT knowledge base entry for installation information and instructions.
  • Office LTSC is commonly installed on NDSU-owned PCs, such as those in offices, computer labs, and laboratories.
  • Disquisitions without images or equations should be safe to export to PDF from Office LTSC.
    • If your disquisition contains images, you will need to open it within Word 365 and export it to PDF.
    • If your disquisition contains equations, they will need to be removed and recreated within Word 365.

Export Your Document to PDF

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.
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.