One of the reasons MS Word is so well known and not just a little respected amongst its competitors is, its versatility. PDF files, XML files and even HTML files can be created from Word documents. There are many methods of improving the accessibility of Word-based documents or files. One of the things that can be done is to make documents that are structured. The right method of structuring in MS Word is the usage of Word styles, instead of merely performing formatting changes such as bold, font-size increase, etc.

The versions of MS Word, over the years, have had varying but not dissimilar methods of getting structured. For example, in MS Word 2000-2003, you can make true headings from the styles list, and you also get to work with any custom style you might have fashioned. So why does a Word file need true structure in the first place? That’s because of its usefulness – if you export the file to HTML, the structure will remain unchanged, allowing people to read it online, as it was created. The same holds true when it comes to exporting .doc files as PDF. Now, in Word 2007, you’ll find an improvement, in that, more than adequate attention has been given to appropriate styling.

Let’s consider the case of Word 2004 for the Mac. Word 2004 for Mac thankfully has a dropdown list of styles quite like the one in Word 2000 and 2003 for Windows. In the 2004 version for Mac, styling can be performed through the formatting palette. Now let’s shift pay attention to the method of providing alternate text in all the versions of Word for Windows mentioned above. In Word 2000 – 2003, you need to right-click the image and choose ‘Format Picture’, then select the Web tab in order to provide the alternate text you want. Unfortunately, it’s more complicated with Word 2007. If you want to add alternate text, you’ll have to begin by right-clicking on the image and selecting ‘size’. After which you’ll select ‘Alt Text’. What happens here is, the filename of the image gets entered into the field by default, and this is a problem owing to the fact that the image filename is not the right alternative text. You can remedy this if the filename is replaced with the correct alternative text.

Moving on now to data tables and issues with accessibility, you should know that it is not possible to assign the table header element to table-cells in MS Word. It’s possible to specify that a row must ‘repeat as header on the top of each page’ in ‘Table Properties’, you won’t get the correct table headers.