Tagging and formatting for proper reflow

Question

It seems to be a general rule of thumb that how well a PDF reflows depends on how well it is tagged.
Forgive me if it's blatantly obvious, but I can't find anything relating to tagging other than accessibility tagging. That seems to be more about ordering blocks of text in Acrobat so that handicapped users can listened to a properly ordered voice read out of the document.
Is this the tagging that affects reflow?
I suppose the reflow depends on formatting like paragraph marks, breaks, and other formatting characters (in Word speak). Is there a way to view all these - an Acrobat version of Word's "show formatting button", and touch them up?
This is something I've been confused about for a time.

Answer 1

Bill -
Discarding reflow? For you, that may be appropriate to your needs/wants.
However, as Tagged PDF is integral to making use of PDF logical structure it is essential if one's output PDF is to be effectively used by users of mobile devices, to users who have visual impairments and make use of AT, or for providers of PDFs who desire to support adequate export of PDF content,format, layout, & font information to an application such as MS Word.
~~~ ~~~
ghumdinger -
While Tagged PDF, from an Accessibility perspective, is well discussed in related Adobe documents, the PDF files span discussion from Acrobat 5 (Full release with Accessibility feature installed from OSM's "extra stuff" directory) to Acrobat 9.
Perhaps the best was documentation published when Acrobat 7 was "new" (Adobe's Greg Pisocky's "how-to").
However, all these are no longer readily available out in blue waters of web space.
Too, bad because having them makes it easier to "get it" vis-a-vis Accessible PDFs.
But, to your question.
The sole definitive sources of "Tagged PDF" start with Adobe's PDF References and ends with the ISO Standard.
It is Tagged PDF that provides:
--| Reflow functionality
--| Export to other applications with format-layout-font data-etc.
--| Copy-Paste to other applications with some fundamental retention of content format.
and, of course
--| Accessibility
Tagged PDF was introduced with PDF Version 1.6 (Acrobat 5.x)
Each PDF Reference, from Version 1.6 to 1.7 provided the discussion and description of Tagged PDF.
(Although there are a few documents that have some relevance tucked away in the Acrobat SDK(s).
PDF became an ISO Standard mid-year of 2008.
So, from then on the foundation document for anything PDF became ISO 32000 (currently "ISO 32000-1:2008".
The Adobe extensions to the ISO standard describe fundamentals to what Acrobat 9.x adds to PDF.
A free Adobe version of the ISO standard is available.
See Leonard Rosenthol's Blog post at Acrobat User Community to learn how to obtain the Adobe version of the ISO 32000 Standard.
http://www.acrobatusers.com/blogs/leonardr/adobe-posts-free-iso-32000
As to mastering content in source application authoring files; implementation of an appropriate logical hierarchy is and is not "obvious".
Well-formed tagged output PDF requires well-formed authoring files mastered in an application that has adequate Tag management.
Currently, there are three choices that are "adequate".
--| Adobe FrameMaker
--| Adobe InDesign
--| MS Word
(n.b., It is my understanding that the Open Office community  is making strides to provide adequate, up front tag management & I suspect the Corel-Nuance collaboration may put WordPerfect in "the circle".)
From MS Word, in Office 2007, SP2 or better, Microsoft provides a Save as to PDF that incorporates tag management; or, with Acrobat installed there is Adobe PDFMaker.
Two critical characteristics of an authoring file:
--| For Headings (chapter, section, etc.) - Only the built-in Headings are used.
--| Tables must be configured such that they comply to the discussion the <Table> PDF mark up element.
There are more. However the Headings and Tables issues are often what is overlooked by content authors.
Typically, to "get it right" in the authoring file a major "make over" of existing templates is needed.
Often, what is used came from the "make paper" days &, with some tweaks, became the "make PDF".
Often, template authors, content authors, management, etc. are unaware of what must be done in the authoring environment in order to reach an end game of properly Tagged PDF.
With that said, "getting it" requires making a study of what was in the PDF References and, now, the ISO Standard.
The "how-to" comes from the "Accessibility" documents I alluded to above and a fair dinkum of "theory-to-practice" application.
In summary, it starts with the authoring file and the content mastering.
Done right (typically it isn't) with an application that has adequate tag management (often, it is not) the output PDF is a well-formed Tagged PDF -- that still will require post-processing by someone of competence via Acrobat Professional.
The resultant PDF will then fulfill the Tagged PDF facilities discussed and described in the ISO 32000 Standard.
With this you have reflow for mobile devices, accessibility for users of Assistive Technology applications and really rather good "export" of content/layout/format.
If a PDF does not "cut it" with respect to this then one or both of these are the "root cause":
--| Authoring application is not up to the task
--| Content owner(s)/author(s) are not up to the task.
Be well...
Message was edited by: CtDave