Desktop Software

When you create an Acrobat Document (PDF) from Word, the actual text of what was written is stored in that document.  This allows the user to select text so it can copied and pasted into another document.  It also allows newer versions of Microsoft Word to open that file so you can edit it.  (Side note: While this works, Word doesn’t do a great job of preserving the formatting).  However, when paper documents are scanned into a computer, the PDF file is created using an image, without the actual text. 

Without the embedded text, the you can’t copy and paste, you can’t open the file in Word for editing and, perhaps most importantly, the document can’t be searched.  Fortunately, Acrobat can analyze the picture, recognize the text and add it to the document. 

Here’s how…..

We’ll use a sample document that was printed out and scanned in.  The PDF document has been embedded so you can try it yourself. 

adobe-sample.pdf

Open the file and you’ll see the chart of numbers below.  If you try to select the text you’ll find that you can’t…..

Microsoft Office 2016 must be activated using a license key obtained from https://software.rutgers.edu

Connect to Rutgers VPN: 

VPN Installation and Configuration Instructions

Order License Key

1. Log on to: https://software.rutgers.edu
2. Under "License Types" to the left, click on "Microsoft EES Software"
3. Select the appropriate version of Microsoft Office
4. Click the "Items" tab at the bottom
5. Click Add to Cart
6. For "Delivery Method" select "Download"
7. Click Checkout
8. Verify your email and click Next
9. Click Submit Order
10. Select My Software from the main menu at the top
11. Select Microsoft Office 2016
12. Click License
13. Find the 25-character key from the "License Info" field

Activate Office

1. Open any Microsoft Office application (e.g. Excel, PowerPoint, or Word)
2. Click "File"
3. Click "Account"
4. Click "Change Product Key"
5. Enter the 25-character key from the "License Info" field found under "My Software" on software.rutgers.edu (see above)
6. After entering the key, click "Install"
7. Click Activate
8. Click "Yes" to allow "Windows Activation" to make changes to your device.

If you are still receiving messages that Office is no longer activated, please SUBMIT REQUEST.

Microsoft Windows 10 must be activated using a license key obtained from https://software.rutgers.edu

Microsoft Office 2016 activation steps are here.

Connect to Rutgers VPN: 

VPN Installation and Configuration Instructions

Order License Key

1. Log on to: https://software.rutgers.edu
2. Under "Operating System," click on Windows
3. Click the link for "Microsoft Windows 10 Enterprise Upgrade 32/64bitProduct Activation Required EES Agreement Rutgers-Owned Equipment Only"
4. Click the "Items" tab at the bottom
5. Click Add to Cart
6. For "Delivery Method" select "Download"
7. Click Checkout
8. Verify your email and click Next
9. Click Submit Order
10. Select My Software from the main menu at the top
11. Under "Microsoft Windows 10," click License
12. Find the 25-character key from the "License Info" field

Activate Windows

1. Go to System control panel (Windows Key + Pause/Break)
2. Under "Windows activation," click Change product key
3. Click Yes to allow "Windows Activation" to make changes to your device.
4. Enter the 25-character key from the "License Info" field found under "My Software" on software.rutgers.edu (see above)
5. After entering the key, click Next
6. Click Activate

If you are still receiving messages that Windows is no longer activated, please SUBMIT REQUEST.

Rutgers Mathematics Department

1 Instructions

 Use these step-by-step instructions to create a tagged PDF from an existing LaTeX file in Overleaf. (Rutgers has an institutional license for Overleaf; an account can be set-up using the steps described on this page: https://www.overleaf.com/edu/rutgers). 

• Step 1: Open or start a project in Overleaf. Click on ”Menu” in the top-left corner, scroll down to Settings and choose the following:
  
  – Compiler: LuaLaTex
  – Tex Live version: 2025
  
  These settings are necessary because LuaLaTeX and TeX Live 2025 are the only combination currently capable of generating native, machine-readable PDF tags and embedding MathML for equations.
  
  
• Step 2: In the .tex file to be compiled, paste the following code in the preamble of the document, before the \documentclass command:
  
  % ADD THIS BLOCK AT THE VERY TOP OF YOUR .TEX FILE
\DocumentMetadata{
tagging=on,
pdfstandard=ua-2,
lang=en,
tagging-setup = {math/setup={mathml-AF,mathml-SE}}
}
\tagpdfsetup{math/alt/use}
  
  
• Step 3: Add alternative descriptions for any included graphics using the following syntax:
  
  \includegraphics[height=4cm, alt={Portrait of Shakespeare}] {william-shakespeare.jpg}
  
  If an image is purely decorative and should be ignored by screen readers, then it should be tagged as an artifact using the following syntax:
  
  \includegraphics[height=4cm,artifact]{decor.jpg}
  
  
• Step 4: Compile and download the generated PDF.

2 Tips and Best Practices

• Use proper LaTeX syntax to structure the document. Do: use the title, section/subsection commands. Don’t: use visual effects (such as bolding the text or increasing font) to indicate structural aspects.
• Check that your document is accessible using Ally in Canvas: upload your file to any Canvas site, then launch the Ally Course Accessiblity Report. Ally will score each file and suggest fixes if accessibility issues are detected.
• Use Unicode math fonts to improve the tagging of equations. After the document class declaration, load the unicode-math package using
  
  \usepackage{unicode-math}
  
  
• At the moment, tagging is not compatible with all LaTeX packages and document classes, which may cause errors. The following page has a detailed list of compatible and incompatible document classes and packages: https://latex3.github.io/tagging-project/tagging-status/.