Anchored objects not tagged

In InDesign CC version 13.0, there are serious problems with tagging anchored objects and the use of the “Article” panel as described in “Defining logical reading order in InDesign”.

  • Anchored images are marked as Artifact
  • Anchored form fields are not within a <Form> tag
  • Anchored text frames appear not in the logical reading order

Issue detected in PDFs made from: #

  • InDesign CC 2018 (13.0)

PAC 3 warning/error #

There is no warning or error for the issue with the images marked as Artifact!

“Widget” annotation not nested inside a “Form” structure element

Failure Condition of the Matterhorn Protocol #

01-002 Real content is marked as artifact. (→ manual testing)

01-005 Content is neither marked as Artifact nor tagged as real content. (→ automatic testing)

09-001 Tags are not in logical reading order. (→ manual testing)


Automatic approach in InDesign #

You can avoid these problems by installing an update. In version 13.1 (CC 2018) the problems were solved. Excerpt from the official release notes:

Key issues resolved

  • Tag for anchored text frame is missing.
  • Anchored images are not exported when exported using the Articles panel.
  • Next anchored figure gets tagged instead of the actual anchored figure with effects applied.

Manual approach in InDesign #

If it’s not possible to switch to another InDesign version, the only manual solution is not to anchor objects. Whether this is realistic and reasonable must be decided on a case-by-case basis.