Getting the Best from Our Instructions
Every set below is available in two formats, and both contain the same words:
- a PDF, and
- a Word file (.docx).
Both are structured with real headings. The set title is a level 1 heading, each part of the build is a level 2 heading, and every individual step is a level 3 heading. That means you can jump from step to step with your screen reader rather than listening straight through, and you can move back a step without hunting for it.
If heading navigation is not working for you, it is almost certainly the program you are reading in, not the file. The most common cause is opening the PDF inside a web browser. The rest of this page explains how to fix that.
The short answer
Google Chrome is the one place our headings do not work. Everywhere else we have tested, they do. If you are a Chrome user, open the file in Microsoft Edge or Firefox instead, or use the Word file.
What works with what
| How you are reading it | Headings work? |
|---|---|
| PDF in Adobe Acrobat Reader (downloaded) | Yes |
| Word file in Microsoft Word, Windows or Mac | Yes |
| PDF in Microsoft Edge | Yes |
| PDF in Firefox | Yes |
| PDF in Safari on Mac or iPhone, with VoiceOver | Yes |
| PDF in Google Chrome | No — no headings are found at all |
In Chrome, the document opens and reads normally, but the heading list comes up empty and the H key does nothing. This is a limitation of the PDF viewer built into Chrome. The headings really are in the file — every other program finds them — and there is nothing we can change in our documents to make Chrome see them. It is not something you are doing wrong.
Edge is worth knowing about if you are on Windows: it is already installed, and since 2023 its PDF reader has used Adobe’s engine rather than Chrome’s, which is why it handles headings properly.
If you use Chrome
Any of these will work.
Option 1 — open the file in Edge or Firefox. Nothing to install if you are on Windows, and this is the quickest fix.
Option 2 — use the Word file instead. It is the same content, and headings work in Word.
Option 3 — tell Chrome to download PDFs instead of opening them. A one-time change that applies to every PDF from then on:
- Open the Chrome menu and choose Settings.
- Go to Privacy and security, then Site settings.
- Open Additional content settings, then PDF documents.
- Choose Download PDFs instead of Open PDFs in Chrome.
You can go straight there by typing chrome://settings/content/pdfDocuments into the address bar. After that, clicking one of our PDF links saves the file, and opening it from your downloads launches Acrobat Reader, where headings work.
Option 4 — download the file by hand. On the download link, use your browser’s “save link as” command rather than activating the link, then open the saved file from your downloads folder.
Moving around by heading
Once the file is open in Acrobat Reader or Word:
- JAWS — press H for the next heading, Shift+H for the previous one. Press 1, 2 or 3 to move by that heading level, so 3 steps through the build one step at a time. Insert+F6 brings up a list of all headings.
- NVDA — press H and Shift+H the same way, with 1 to 3 for levels. Insert+F7 opens the elements list, where you can choose Headings.
- VoiceOver on Mac — use the rotor, VO+U, and select Headings.
Our longest sets have a heading for every step, and there can be a lot of them. The Douglas DC-3, for instance, has 1,312. Pressing 3 repeatedly walks the build; the heading list is the faster way to jump somewhere specific.
If hearing “heading level 3” on every step is too much
Because every step is a heading, a screen reader set to announce heading levels will say so on each one. If you would rather hear just the step, you can turn that announcement down without losing the ability to navigate by heading.
- JAWS — press Insert+F2, choose Settings Center, and search for web verbosity. Setting it to Low stops most structural announcements while leaving heading navigation working. Insert+V opens Quick Settings for the current document if you would rather change it just this once.
- NVDA — go to Preferences, then Settings, then Document Formatting, and turn off Headings. The H key still works.
Turning the announcement off does not remove the headings. They are still there to jump between.
Tell us how you get on
If something still does not read properly, we would like to know. It helps enormously if you can tell us:
- which screen reader and version you are using,
- which program or browser you opened the file in, and
- what you heard, as closely as you can describe it.
That level of detail let us find and fix a real bug in an earlier version, so it is genuinely worth the trouble. Thank you.