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Guide

How to turn a Word document into a tagged PDF

Build the structure in Word first, then export with tags turned on, then check the PDF. The export can only carry the headings, lists, tables and alt text the document already has, and printing the document to PDF instead usually loses them.

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Word for Windows, Mac and the web; Google Docs; LibreOffice; Ada Editor

Before you export

A tagged PDF is only as good as the document it came from. In Word:

  • Headings: use the built-in heading styles (Heading 1, Heading 2…), in order, not bold or large text.
  • Lists: use the bullet and numbering buttons, not typed dashes or numbers.
  • Tables: mark the first row as a header. Microsoft’s steps use the Design tab (Table Design in current Word), then Header Row. Also set Table Properties, Row, “Repeat as header row at the top of each page”: that is the setting Ada Editor reads when it imports a table.
  • Images: give each meaningful image alt text that conveys its content and purpose, as Microsoft puts it, and mark purely decorative ones as decorative. For maps, site plans and charts, see our guide to describing complex images.
  • Title and language: give the document a title in its properties, and make sure its language is set correctly. WCAG asks for both (2.4.2 Page Titled, 3.1.1 Language of Page).
  • Check: in Word for Windows, choose Review, then Check Accessibility, and fix what it finds. Microsoft says to do this before making the PDF.

Our free agenda and minutes templates have these in place already.

Export, program by program

Word for Windows

  1. Choose File, then Save As or Save a Copy.
  2. Choose PDF as the file type, then Options.
  3. Make sure “Document structure tags for accessibility” is selected, then OK, then Save.

Microsoft improved what this export tags in Office 2024 and Microsoft 365 version 2408 and later: nested lists, alt text and text in more than one language read better, and decorative images are skipped. Our advice: on older versions, check the result more carefully.

Word for Mac

Choose File, Save As, then PDF as the file format, and select “Best for electronic distribution and accessibility (uses Microsoft online service)”. Microsoft says this makes a tagged PDF, and that the document is sent to a Microsoft service over the internet for conversion.

Word for the web

Choose File, Save As, then Download as PDF, which Microsoft lists among its ways to create an accessible PDF. Microsoft doesn’t say whether this PDF is tagged, so check it.

Google Docs

Choose File, Download, then the PDF option. In December 2024 Google said it had improved the tagging of exported PDFs for paragraphs, headings, links, image alt text and lists, with the rollout expected to finish by mid-January 2025. Tables aren’t on Google’s list, so check them in the PDF.

LibreOffice Writer

Choose File, Export As, then Export as PDF. On the General tab, select “Universal Accessibility (PDF/UA)”, which LibreOffice says follows the requirements of PDF/UA (ISO 14289), or at least “Tagged PDF (add document structure)”.

Ada Editor

Import the .docx file, and Ada Editor reads it in your browser: the file isn’t uploaded. It brings across the structure Word marked, never what only looks like structure, and tells you about anything it couldn’t bring, such as footnotes, nested tables and charts. It checks the document against its rules as you edit, then exports a tagged PDF that declares PDF/UA-1, also in your browser. PDF export covers Latin scripts only; HTML export works for every language. It won’t tell you the result is compliant: no tool can.

Whatever you use, don’t print a Word document to PDF, whether through Print to PDF or a Mac’s print dialog. In our sample of one agenda platform’s attachments, the files made by printing to PDF carried no structure at all.

Check the PDF

  • Run a checker. PAC (free, for Windows) checks PDF/UA and WCAG; veraPDF (open source) validates PDF/UA.
  • Have a person read it, ideally with a screen reader, for what software can’t judge: whether the headings make sense, whether the alt text says what the image is for.

Then post it

Some agenda and document systems strip tags when they publish a file. Our steps for posting a PDF to an agenda system say how to keep the copy people open the one you made.

Corrections and limits

Menus move between versions. These steps are from each maker’s documentation as read on the date below, not tested in every version. This guide isn’t legal advice.

Found a step that’s wrong or out of date? Report a correction to this guide (public, on GitHub).

None yet.

Sources

Read on October 12, 2026.