Working With Tables in Adobe Acrobat

Working With Tables in Adobe Acrobat

Defining the Header Cells in a Table

• Tags pane > select header cells > right click > properties > type: “table header cells”.
• Accessibility tool > reading order > table editor > click first cell of header row > shift click and select all header cells > right click > table cell properties > scope: row / column (chose the correct one for your table).

Tables the Span Multiple Pages

• If the header repeats, artifact the repeated headers.
• Do the same with footers (keep the last footer, artifact the ones before it).

Tagging Tables with Merged Cells

• Delete empty cells.
• “Save As” before editing tables.
• Add spans when there is an irregularity in column / row amounts (one cell spanning two cells).
• It’s better to put “not applicable” rather than leaving a cell empty in a non-header cell.
• A blank header cell is never okay.

What Makes a Bad Table?

• Tables should be clear and not use alternate fonts / symbols to communicate information.

Creative Table Solutions

• When graphs are tagged as figures you have to describe them with alt text.
  • This is compliant but not ideal (alt text can portray graph information unclearly).
  • It is better to retag the graph as a table. (This can be done without visually affecting the graph!).
• Content pane > container: figure > CTRL Click all text tags > drag text out of (below) container.
• Open tags pane > artifact shapes left within figure tag > delete figure tag.
• Accessibility tool > reading order > tag all text in graph as separate cells > content pane > double check all elements.
• In tag structure right click and insert table rows > organize content into the proper rows > create tag for table > move row tags into the table > move table into document tag.
• Mark proper tags as column / row header cells.

Creating Heading and Data Cell Associations

• Delete any empty cell tags within tables.
• Add column spans after deleting empty cells.
• When a subheading is beneath another header, mark the above headings as “associated header cell IDs” on the sub heading’s table cell properties.
• This process is much faster in axespdf.

Alternative Solution to Header Associations

• You can set up subheadings as row headings in the structure.
• Delete any empty cell tags > open the subheading’s tag as well as the row below > move the heading into the row below > change the first cell in the new row to a “row header” cell.
  • Highlight row header cell > right click > properties > edit attribute objects > new item > scope: “row header”  > new entry > row span > set row value according to how many rows are under that header > Value type: “integer”.

Linearizing Tables

• When tables are only used for formatting, you can edit the structure and take the content read as text outside of a table structure.
• Open table tag within the tags pane > pull out all text (<p>) tags within the table > delete the empty table tag.