Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional

Correct table tags with the Tags tab

Use the TouchUp Reading Order tool to make sure that tables are tagged correctly. If you need to structure figures and text within the cells of your table, you may prefer to re-create the table in the authoring application before you convert it as an accessible PDF. Adding tags on a cell level in Acrobat is a labor-intensive procedure.

Before you make any changes to table elements, use the TouchUp Reading Order tool to determine that the table is tagged correctly.

Check table elements

  1. In the Tags tab, expand the tags root to view a table tag.
  2. Select the table tag <Table> and verify that it contains one of the following elements:

    • Table Rows, each of which contains Table Header <TH> or Table Data <TD> cells.

    • <THead>, <TBody>, and <TFoot> sections, each of which contains Table Rows. (The Table Rows contain <TH> cells, <TD> cells, or both.)

  3. Do one or more of the following:

    • If the tag for the table doesn’t contain these elements, but rows, columns, and cells appear in the table in the document pane, use the TouchUp Reading Order tool to select and define the table or individual cells.

    • If the table contains rows that span two or more columns, set ColSpan and RowSpan attributes for these rows in the tag structure.

    • Re-create the table in the authoring application, and then convert it to a tagged PDF.

Set ColSpan and RowSpan attributes

  1. In the Tags tab, select a <TD> or <TH> element.
  2. Choose Properties from the Options menu.
  3. In the TouchUp Properties dialog box, click the Tag tab, and then click Edit Attribute Objects.
  4. Select Attribute Objects, and then click New Item to create a new Attribute Object Dictionary.
  5. Expand the new dictionary, select the Layout attribute, and then click Change Item.
  6. Change the Layout value to Table.
  7. Select the Attribute Object Dictionary, and click New Item.
  8. In the Add Key And Value dialog box, type ColSpan or RowSpan in the Key box, enter the number of columns or rows spanned in the Value box, choose Integer from the Value Type pop-up menu, and click OK.