If you can read a PDF document, no matter how it is created, it means that it is in a character format. When you cannot read it and it reports an empty document, it means it is an image file, essentially a picture of a printed document.

If you scan a document into a PDF file, and you can read it, it means that OCR has been performed. It may have been automatic, and in the background so no announcement was made, but it happened. If you scan a document and it cannot be read, it means that no OCR has been performed and that you have created a picture of a printed document.

If you have an empty document, and either open it in Kertzweil or Open Book, or you print it from Adobe to one of these programs, then OCR is performed which is why you can read it. There is no mystery to this. If you can read it, it is either character based, or OCR has been performed. If you cannot, it is image based, and no OCR has been performed.

From: Visually Impaired Computer Users' Group List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Albert Ruel on Gmail
Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 9:59 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VICUG-L] Adobe

It's all about what the creator of the document allowed when producing it. If they don't provide access to OCR then JAWS sees it as an empty document, but if they click on one little check mark when creating the file you will have access to it. At work all of our faxes come in as PDF, and when I get one that isn't available I simply send it back to the admin staff and ask that they provide me with access to it. I don't really know what they do, but in seconds it's back and available.

I have also noticed that when I scan a document to PDF with my scanner it's good to go, however when my partner scans one with her machine it is seen as an empty document by JAWS. Again, I have no idea what the difference is between our two scanner settings, or what I might have done to make mine work as I need it to.

From: Visually Impaired Computer Users' Group List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Clark Friedrichs
Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 8:18 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [VICUG-L] Adobe

Why is it that sometimes I get "Empty Document" when attempting to open a PDF document with Adobe Reader X but it opens fine with Kurzweil 1000?

Send questions on list operation to [log in to unmask] No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 8.5.449 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/3571 - Release Date: 04/13/11 07:09:00