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Re: Q: Table footnotes in Word

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From: Chagnon | PubCom
Date: Mar 15, 2015 1:19AM

Thanks, Cliff. That's a somewhat workable solution.

But it does mean that the tables footnotes will appear after the end of the
table, and with a 23-page table in this document, then that means the
footnotes appear on page 23, and only on page 23 rather than repeated at the
bottom of each page like most software programs do and users expect to
encounter.

Although AT users can click the hyperlink and view the footnote several
pages away, sighted users are hampered. Even though they could click the
hyperlink, they generally don't. And in the printed version, there are no
hyperlinks to click.

What's needed is a better solution for tables from W3C and WAI. Right now
they don't address that tables have footnotes or extend over many pages (one
of our government clients publishes a 350-page table every quarter --- one
continuous table).

Just as we have repeating headers on every page of a table, we also need its
complement, repeating footers on every page that hold the table's footnotes
and source information.

Adobe InDesign's latest table tools in CC:2014 allow both table headers and
footers to be designated and repeated on each page. When exported to PDF,
the tag structure looks like this:
<table>
<thead>
<TR> <TH><TH> etc.
<tbody>
<TR> <TD> <TD> etc.
<tfoot>
<TR> <TD> etc.

Very easy to set up and it creates a logical structure. However, its use of
tfoot as a table footer seems to be in violation of WC3's standards, where
tfoot isn't a footer at all but instead is only a column total, not a table
total/whatever, and it can't repeat. And because, by definition, tfoot can
have more tbody after it, it can also be a column subtotal. Why this tag is
called tfoot is beyond my wildest dreams! It isn't like any footer in any
software or media anywhere.

So we have a huge disconnect between what our software tools do, what
publishers need to have done, and what accessibility tags/techniques we have
to publish content in multiple formats.

Sure makes life interesting, doesn't it.

--Bevi Chagnon