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tested, reliable, and highly accessible software solutions.
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of leading technology for accessible PDF from axes4.
axes4 / axesWord
Accessible PDF (PDF/UA) Simply Done
Solutions for making accessible PDF (PDF/UA)
We make PDF documents accessible to everyone
for a more accessible and better world
axesWord is "PDF/UA-Ready"
Create, show, read, share, publish and navigate in
PDF/UA compatible PDF documents
Accessible PDF
A fully PDF/UA compliant PDF can be just as
accessible as a WCAG compliant website.
Generate accessible PDFs from Microsoft Word
in just a few clicks
The purpose of axesWord is to fill in
where MS Word fails
axesWord creates accessible PDF documents
directly from Microsoft Word.
You don't need to be a PDF accessibility expert.
It's 100% automated.
Usually no subsequent reworking is needed.
Why axesWord is unique
PDF/UA and WCAG compliant
axesWord is a high-quality add-in for Microsoft Word
that creates accessible PDFs according to
PDF/UA and W3C/WCAG in just a few clicks.
It also works for elements like footnotes, tables,
hyphenation, captions, or headers and footers.
Productive and cost-saving
axesWord enables any MS Word user to create
a top-quality, accessible PDF in seconds.
No expert knowledge required.
Thus no costs for extensive PDF accessibility training
(short MS Word training in combination with
short training of axesWord is absolutely sufficient).
Remediation/Reworking is no longer necessary.
The time-consuming quality assurance process is eliminated.
This also eliminates the cost of outsourcing
the creation of accessible PDFs.
No additional licenses for PDF remediation software needed.
Well-proven application in large scale governmental usage.
Accessible PDF out of the box
Use MS Word as it is intended and then create
the accessible PDF document using axesWord.
Done!
The conversion creates a clean tag structure
based on the style sheets,
uses the accessibility features from MS Word,
embeds all fonts, and much more.
axesWord For All
- Comes with Accessible User Interface
Accessible PDFs enable everyone to have
equal access to digital information.
However, true inclusion also means that everyone
is able to create such accessible documents.
axesWord enables users with disabilities to
create accessible PDF documents with ease.
The user interface has been designed/implemented
barrier-free together with those affected and
according to the highest standards and has been
confirmed as barrier-free by the BITV software test.
Context sensitive assistance
The context-sensitive task area assists you in all the additional
required tasks, such as adding alternative texts,
assigning the correct role to special elements,
specifying the reading direction for layout tables
or marking decorative elements.
Flexible and controlled processing
You can set processing rules for any style sheet.
This gives you a lot of flexibility when creating your accessible content;
you keep control over the result and can find your own solutions.
The highlight:
You can preconfigure all this and save it in your templates.
Short introduction - How to get started (3:00)
How to create fully accessible
PDF/UA and W3C/WCAG compliant documents
in seconds in just a few clicks with axesWord
How to work with axesWord
Introduction
axesWord analyzes your document before converting it.
Depending on how you want to work,
axesWord offers you different options for
authoring accessible documents:
Option 1
Simply use MS Word features
This applies to all standard elements such as:
Headings
Image or table captions
Directories
Footnotes or endnotes
Decorative graphics
Hyphenation
Benefits
For the best possible results
when creating accessible PDF documents,
set the documents up correctly in MS Word.
This is the fastest and easiest way to start
your document accessibility journey.
Option 2
Use additional accessibility features
This applies to elements that you could not previously
make accessibly in MS Word, such as:
Table heading cells for columns and rows
- no matter what level or level of complexity
Connected table cells
Linearized layout tables
Formulas
Definition lists
(for example, for glossaries and lists of abbreviations)
Inline images and graphics
Relevant content in headers and footers
Benefits
In the source document,
you can also define all accessibility properties for elements
that you could not previously create in MS Word.
There is no need for any reworking.
And if you need to correct something,
you do it in the source document,
then create the accessible PDF again
with axesWord, and you're done!
Option 3
Work with preconfigured templates and modules
This applies to all standard elements, as well as to
elements that you could not make accessible in MS Word.
This includes templates and modules such as:
Simple and complex tables with all stored
assignments between data cells and header cells
Lists, nested lists, and list continuations
User-defined templates for
headings, paragraphs, captions, and quotations
Tables of contents, figures, and tables
Text artifacts
Complete document templates for
different document types with
preconfigured accessibility properties
Benefits
You enable your authors to perform even faster
Accessible Authoring and minimize potential sources of error.
Not to mention that you also ensure that your
corporate design guidelines are adhered to.
- Dax Castro:
"axesWord is a plugin for MS Word that allows you to
actually set up some styles inside your table.
I wish Adobe InDesign works this way, allows you to set up
your styles for different rows and use.
You can designate those kinds of split column headers
just like you would want them to be and they’ll be read
pretty close to the way you want".
"I’m telling you strictly from a one remediator to another.
If you haven’t seen this video, go watch it.
I promise you, it will open some doors for you to
the possibilities of how much time it can save."
Price Information
axesWord is available via prepaid annual subscription fee.
1-year, 2-years or 3-years subscription with one of 3 license types:
Single User License
- One user of MS Word
Team License/Concurrent User License
- Concurrent users of MS Word
Flat License/Volyme License
- All users of MS Word;
by far the cheapest way to
equip many users with axesWord
You can use axesWord without activation as a trial
with some restrictions like watermark on every page,
an annotation on the first page and random color
replacement of characters.
For a final accessibility assessment, however,
further checks are required that only a human can perform;
for example, whether the sequence of elements is correct,
the tags correspond to the visually recognizable semantics,
or alternative texts adequately reflect
the core message of an image.
More on How to work with axesWord
With axesWord,
you can create all accessibility properties in Microsoft Word,
then automatically create a PDF/UA and WCAG compliant PDF.
Rework is no longer necessary.
Time-consuming quality assurance is no longer required.
Simply use MS Word embedded functions
Use the Word functions to create many of the accessibility
properties, then axesWord automatically creates those
accessibility properties in the PDF.
This applies to:
Paragraph style sheets
Headings
Tables and enumerations (also nested)
Images, graphics, and diagrams
Captions for image or tables
Language markup
Conditional hyphens
Footnotes or endnotes
Tables of contents
Links including alternative descriptions
Use axesWord's special context-sensitive task pane
The axesWord task pane is based on
the selected element in your file and helps you
create accessibility properties where you need them:
Creating alternative text for images and diagrams
Tagging decorative elements
Specify reading order for layout tables
Creating accessible glossaries and
lists of abbreviations using definition lists
Making the contents of headers and footers accessible
Identifying additional roles such as formulas
Create the PDF/UA document
The magic happens in secret in the background:
You trigger the automated PDF/UA creation,
axesWord analyzes the document structure,
evaluates additional data, and uses the information
to create a lean structure tree in the PDF.
axesWord reminds you to add required settings:
enter a suitable document title and specify
the basic language of the document.
Optional:
Accessibility and archivability
do not have to be contradictory.
In addition to PDF/UA compliance,
you can with axesWord also create
an archivable PDF according to
the ISO Standard PDF/A:
PDF/A is the file format for long-term
archiving of digital documents.
PDF/A ensures that digital documents are readable,
presentable and reusable in the long run.
PDF/A is available in several conformity levels:
level a (Accessible)
level b (Basic)
level u (Unicode)
Level a is the highest level.
It contains the other levels and
requires the availability of tags.
Picture:
Relationship between PDF/A-a (a = Accessible) and PDF/UA.
PDF/A-b (Basic) and PDF/A-u (Unicode)
do not require a tag structure.
axesWord creates normally a document
that conforms to PDF/A-2a.
Only if there are characters available which
are not mappable to Unicode then axesWord
creates a document that conforms to PDF/A-2b,
which nevertheless contains the complete
logical structure tree.
The number "2" in PDF/A-2a or PDF/A-2b
stands for PDF-Version 1.7
Ready!
PDF Accessibility Checker (PAC)
confirms that the PDF file is PDF/UA compliant!
Finally, confirm the accessibility of the PDF document
you created using a checking tool, for example with:
If you have worked correctly, the automatic PDF/UA check
will show you lots of green check marks.
Don't forget the visual check, it's the only way to check
whether the additional information is included in your PDF
as intended and whether the logical sequence of
the content is correct.
High-quality semantics and the best user experience for screen reader users
Equal access to information for all
is only achievable if all visual information
is completely available in non-visual form.
It's not just about getting the seminar description
or the exact invoice amount.
No, it must be available in the same way:
equally fast, equally complete, equally trustworthy.
This is exactly where axesWord comes into play:
based on the information in MS Word,
the add-in axesWord enables high-quality semantics
to be transferred to the PDF/UA file.
This guarantees a comparable user experience
for screen reader users as for sighted people.
This is the only way to achieve inclusion in the digital world.
Creation of accessible PDF,
with only a few clicks,
from within Microsoft Word
that comply with ISO Standards
PDF/UA-1 (ISO 14289-1), PDF/A, and WCAG 2
Create a PDF/UA document with only a few clicks
axesWord, the add-in to MS Word,
changes the game of accessible PDF creation.
Just with a few clicks of a button you get a
PDF/UA-document without ifs and buts.
The formula for success is the use of templates and
styles which are optimized for accessibility.
All other tasks are done by axesWord.
Features
axesWord® offers a lot of powerful features:
Reliable conversion to accessible PDF
axesWord transforms all Word elements
into correct PDF tags:
Headings
Paragraphs
Images
- no matter which layout option you have chosen
Captions for images and tables
Lists
External and internal links
Tables - even complex ones
Table of content
Notes
Side notes
Text boxes
and more...
Proper tagging
axesWord has full control over the tagging.
This results in:
Rich semantics
High-quality tagging: 100% PDF/UA
Accessible hyphenation
Support of language settings
even for paragraphs and words
Correct tagging
even at page or column breaks
Accessibility settings by default
axesWord manages all the settings that
you had to do manually up until now:
Reliable transfer of the document language
that is set in Word
Determination of the tab order according to
the logical document structure
Document title as window title
Initial view with bookmarks
Nested bookmarks
All these settings are customizable.
Correction on the fly
axesWord optimizes the accessibility of
your document on the fly by:
Artefacting empty paragraphs
Transforming list labels into
the accessible standard bullet (Unicode)
Fully customizable tagging
axesWord provides possibilities to determine
the transformation process:
Determine the PDF role of Word elements
Mark decorative elements as artefacts
All PDF standard tags are supported
(even BlockQuote or Caption for example)
Layout tables are linearizable
Transformation of 2-column-tables
into definition lists
Footnotes and endnotes are transformed into
screenreader usable inline notes
Role-based workflow model
Document authors (ordinary users)
do not need deep accessibility knowledge
Special task pane for document authors
(add alternate text,
mark elements as decorative,
linearize layout tables)
Document templates with
predefined tagging rules
Document templates with
predefined accessibility settings
Understanding the concept of axesWord
From MS Word to accessible PDF
according to the PDF/UA Standard.
axesWord is not only a tool to create PDF documents.
The maximum benefit occurs if the MS Word documents
are already prepared for accessibility and
working with axesWord.
The key for this is to use styles and templates
that are optimized for accessibility.
Everything else is done by axesWord.
It is reasonable to save essential settings and
converting rules in the template so that the author
(the content creator) has only a minimum of tasks to do.
Author Tasks:
Use appropriate paragraph styles
Use appropriate MS Word functions for specific elements
- for example creating captions, footnotes,
table of contents, links, references or hyphenation
If necessary:
Add further information to the used roles
- for example alternative texts for figures or formulas
If necessary:
Change the standard role in case of specific elements
What does axesWord do when
converting a document to PDF/UA?
axesWord executes a multi-level process
when converting a document.
The process contains the following 3 levels:
Creating a PDF document on
the basis of an own conversion
Analyzing the MS Word document
Creating a logical structure in
the PDF (PDF structure tree) on the basis of
MS Word functions styles and role mapping
Role Mapping
To get the best result in terms of PDF accessibility
each element of the Word document must have
the correct role mapping.
Requirements on Word Documents
A Word document has to fulfill several requirements
so that axesWord can create a conformant
PDF/UA document:
Each element has an appropriate Role Mapping
Each element has a defined position in
the logical order of the document structure
(i.e. this corresponds to the Reading Order).
Figures have an Alternative Text or
are marked as decorative elements;
the latter is called Artifact in technical language.
Formulas have an Alternate Text,
which normally is the linearized form of the formula
Tables are data tables and not pictures
Column and Row Hearders in tables
are marked accordingly
Prepared Templates
You can use axesWord with each MS Word document,
also those based on the Word standard template
(Normal.dotx).
However, you will get the best result
if you work with prepared templates.
Such templates make the work for authors much easier
when creating accessible documents, as they just have
to use appropriate paragraph styles or quick parts.
Note!
If you do not convert your Word document
to a PDF with axesWord, you risk losing important
accessibility building blocks that you have created in
the Word document when converting it to the PDF file.
For example: Images may not display correctly as “Figure”
in the structure tree (tag tree) of your PDF file.
Supported MS Word versions
(axesWord installs as a plugin to MS Word):
MS Word for Microsoft 365 (Client version)
MS Word 2019 and later versions
MS Word 2013 and MS Word 2016 (limited support)
axesWord is technically compatible,
i.e. it can be installed and executed.
Due to technical limitations in MS Word,
the generated PDF documents are not
accessible in all cases.
