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1. Preparing PDF Documents - General Tips
When composing a document try to use commonly known fonts such as Arial, Helvetica, Times, etc.
Open the PDF in Acrobat and Print to PDF. This allows your document to become readable/editable
text, or OCR (optical character recognition).
Important Note: Use the Print to PDF function only once per document. We have noticed that when
the Adobe printer driver is used more than once on the same document, the text in the PDF is no
longer text searchable (i.e., no longer OCR’d). When a PDF file is created from MS Word using
Print to PDF option, do not use PDF file to create another version of the file using Print to PDF.
Always use the original MS Word file to make updates.
Recommendations for specific file types
• Microsoft Word Documents
Print to PDF (use Adobe PDF, not Microsoft Print to PDF)
• If the PDF was created using Save as PDF from MS Word, hyperlinks in the document may
remain active. To flatten the file and remove links, open the PDF file and use Print to PDF.
o When you use the “Check File(s)” function in ACCESS, it will identify links and
comments in your document and will recognize them as errors or unauthorized
comment type(s).
• Excel Spreadsheets
Use Save as PDF and later Print to PDF (if hyperlinks or comments are present).
2. Make scanned image-only pages in PDF searchable (OCR)
• Open PDF document.
• Go to the page that contains scanned image.
• Select Tools -> Enhance Scans -> Recognize Text -> In This File
• Select All pages, current page, or input the page range (for several image-only pages) to be
OCR’d .
• Choose Settings -> Select output as Searchable Image (Exact). Click OK. Click Recognize
Text.
PDF Preparation and Troubleshooting Guide for PDF E-file Errors
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• Save the document. Perform a search (Ctrl-F) to ensure text can now be found on the
page(s).
• If you are able to locate text on the page(s), use the ACCESS “Check File (Beta)” feature.
• If no errors are found using the ACCESS Check File feature, then your document is ready to
e-file in ACCESS.
3. Convert pages containing prohibited items (picture, scan, screen shot, or foreign characters)
into searchable/readable text.
There are times when a PDF page contains only foreign characters, a picture, a scan of graph, or it
was scanned in low resolution. In these cases, it is not possible for this page to be searchable. In
these instances, add a Watermark to the pages that contain only an image.
• Open PDF document
• Select Tools -> search for Watermark. The Edit PDF icon will appear.
Select Watermark -> Add.
• In the Text box, add the case number or other relevant information about the page e.g. Form,
Exhibit, etc.
• Select font size of 8.
• Under Position -> Vertical Distance select 0 Inches from Top.
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• Select Page Range Options and enter the from and to pages, click OK twice.
• Save the document. Then, check the file using the ACCESS “Check File” feature.
• If no errors are found using the ACCESS Check File feature, then your document is ready to
e-file in ACCESS.
4. Correcting pages with “Renderable Text” error using the “Print as Image” function
(Note: Correcting these problems may result in a larger file size. You may need to split up the
document.)
Renderable text (i.e., searchable text) is created when you create a PDF document from a MS Word
document that contains text. When the PDF document is modified and saved using the Print to PDF
option twice on a document, the original text in the document is no longer searchable. It will look like
searchable text (you can easily form a box around it), BUT, when you copy and paste the text into
Notepad or another Word document, you will quickly see only blank boxes and no text. When you try
to submit such a document, you will get an “Image only page” error – ACCESS is finding text that is
not searchable. Below is a method to correct the problem.
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a. Choose File -> Print, select Adobe PDF as printer and then click Advanced
The location of the Advanced button depends on the version of Reader or Acrobat.
b. Select “Print as Image”
Select 150 dpi (for higher resolution file size goes up). The location of the Print as Image options
depends on the version of Reader or Acrobat.
c. Click OK to close the Advanced Print Setup dialog box, and then click “OK” to print
d. OCR and Save the file
As always, if you encounter any additional issues, please contact access@trade.gov. Please provide
the source file and steps used to create the PDF in your email message.
