297
USING ACROBAT 9 PRO EXTENDED
Accessibility, tags, and reflow
Last updated
9
/30/2011
For best results when tagging tables, use the application that you created the document with to add tags when you
create the PDF. If a PDF isn’t tagged, you can add tags by using the Add Tags To Document command. Most tables
are properly recognized using this command; however, the command may not recognize a table that lacks clear
borders, headings, columns, and rows. Use the TouchUp Reading Order tool to determine if the table has been
properly recognized and to correct recognition problems. To add specialized formatting to tables and table cells, use
the Tags tab.
You can use the Table Editor to automatically analyze a table into its components and apply the appropriate tags, but
you may still need to check and correct some of these tags manually. By viewing table tags, you can determine whether
columns, rows, and cells have been correctly identified. Tables that lack well-defined borders and rules are often tagged
incorrectly or contain adjacent page elements. You can correct poorly tagged tables by selecting and redefining them;
you can split combined cells by creating a tag for each cell.
To correct complex tagging problems for tables, you often must use the Tags tab.
1
Select the TouchUp Reading Order tool, and then click Show Tables And Figures.
2
If the table isn’t clearly labeled in the document pane, drag to select the entire table, and then click Table in the
dialog box.
3
Click Show Table Cells to make sure that all cells in the table are defined as individual elements.
4
If cells don’t appear as separate elements, do one of the following:
•
If one or more cells are merged, use the TouchUp Reading Order tool to select the area within a single cell, and then
click Cell in the dialog box. Repeat for each merged cell.
•
If cells aren’t highlighted, the table might not use standard table formatting. Re-create the table in the authoring
application.
5
If the table contains cells that are intended to span across two or more columns, set ColSpan and RowSpan
attributes for these rows in the tag structure.
Remove or replace document structure tags
If adding tags to a PDF in Adobe Acrobat results in a tagging structure that is overly complicated or too problematic
to fix, you can use the TouchUp Reading Order tool to remove or replace the current structure. If the document
contains mostly text, you can select a page and then remove headings, tables, and other elements to create a cleaner,
simpler tagging structure.
Acrobat can retag an already tagged document after you first remove all existing tags from the tree.
Remove all tags from a PDF
1
Open the Tags tab (View > Navigation Panels > Tags) and select the root (topmost) tag, Tags.
2
In the Tags tab, choose Options > Delete tag.
Note:
The Clear Page Structure command in the TouchUp Reading Order dialog box removes all tags from the currently
visible pages.
Replace the existing tag structure
This procedure works best in pages that contain a single column of text. If the page contains multiple columns, each
column must be selected and tagged individually.
1
Select the TouchUp Reading Order tool.
2
In the document pane, drag to select the entire page. The selection includes both text and nontext elements.