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Celebrate 150 Years

PDF Documents in Cascade

PDFs are often used to share marketing materials or as a way to collect form data.

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A PDF is a versatile file format that allows you to share documents that look the same regardless of the software, hardware, or operating system being used to view the file. PDFs are often used to share highly-designed, non-editable marketing materials or as a way to collect form data using interactive form fields.

PDF documents must be tagged for accessibility.

Read documentation on making PDFs accessible

Uploading a PDF Document

  1. Open the _files > _documents folder in the preview pane
  2. Click Add Content in the upper left corner of the Cascade navigation bar
  3. Click Images and Files > PDF
  4. Fill out the required information:
    1. File Name: The file name must contain no spaces, special characters or capital letters.
  5. Select whether or not you have verified the PDF document’s accessibility in Acrobat Pro
    1. Honest assessments will help Texas A&M conduct accessibility audits over time.
  6. Upload your PDF by dragging and dropping it into the file selection area or clicking choose to find the file on your computer.
  7. Click Preview Draft
  8. Click Submit
  9. Enter version comments that will be saved in the asset’s version history.
  10. Click Submit

Updating an Existing PDF Document

Sometimes you may need to make changes to a PDF after it has been added to your site. If you do this, we recommend updating the PDF you already uploaded as a new version of the existing file instead of creating a new PDF from the Add Content menu. This can help reduce the number of files uploaded to your site, making it easier to find specific files.

How to Update an Existing PDF

  1. Open the file you want to replace in the preview pane
  2. Click Edit
  3. Upload the new file file by dragging and dropping it into the file selection area or clicking choose to find the file on your computer.
  4. Click Preview Draft
  5. Click Submit
  6. Enter version comments that will be saved in the asset’s version history.
  7. Click Submit

Recommendations for Regularly-Updated PDFs

For documents that get updated on a regular basis, such as forms that are updated annually, we recommend strategically creating one file that you will upload new versions to over time. This will preserve links to the file across your site, which can be especially useful for forms or other documents that are linked to in numerous places. When using this strategy, avoid including years in the file name, as that will stay the same when you update the document with new versions.