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Re: [EXT] does every one else ind tables are problimatic with your clients

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From: Duff Johnson
Date: Sep 24, 2021 4:45AM

> I know the PDF/UA-1 standard only requires column headers.

Not so. PDF/UA-1, clause 7.5 does not distinguish between column and row headers in terms of requirements.

> That's a shortcoming I'm hoping our ISO committee will be able to bring into the next edition, PDF/UA-2.

As of the current draft PDF/UA-2 does indeed require that header cells - if present - be unambiguous with respect to scope.

> Then, get our software manufacturers to automatically create the tools to do this. At this time MS Word and PowerPoint automatically set row headers as the programs' defaults, but Adobe InDesign fails here:

If they are "automatically" setting headers this is probably a mistake; many tables don't include row headers...

> First, the designer must manually designate the row headers — there isn't an automatic default setting for them like in Word.
> And second, there is no way for the designer to manually designate row headers.

Yes; most authoring tools are woeful in this regard.

> That means row headers must be added after the PDF is exported. It's a gruesome task to fix tables, especially given that InDesign is often used to create long data-intensive documents with multi-page tables. Imagine setting row headers by hand for a 50-page table. O M G.

Agreed!!

Duff.