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From: McMorland, Gabriel
Date: Mon, Jul 29 2013 2:41PM
Subject: disrupting reading order when merging/splitting cells in PDF table editor
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A colleague and I are learning to reapir the accessibility of PDFs. We are having a consistent problem using the table editor, even after reading the manual and watching an instructional video on Adobe TV.

When merging or splitting cells in a data table, the new cell always appears outside the table in the document's reading order.The new cell should be nested inside the hierarchy of the table tag, but it always appears outside the table.
We use the mouse to select the borders of the new cell.
What are we doing wrong?

From: Olaf Drümmer
Date: Mon, Jul 29 2013 3:35PM
Subject: Re: disrupting reading order when merging/splitting cells in PDF table editor
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Hi Gabriel,

let me express my most sincere condolences - fixing tags for tables in Acrobat is more like a punishment than an avenue to successful work life. Nevertheless lets give credit where it is due - Adobe's Acrobat it is one of the extremely few tools let you do something about tags for tables to begin with… (and maybe, if more and more people keep asking for it, they improve it for the next Acrobat version?)

Now to you actual question:

First of all - could you define "document's reading order" for me, and how you determine the fact, that your manipulated table cell supposedly is out of sync?


Olaf



PS: Depending on how many tables you have to fix it might be worthwhile to look at a specialised tool, "CommonLook PDF" from NetCentric Technologies - see http://www.commonlook.com/CommonLook-PDF - I have only used very occasionally, but as far as I remember the table tagging or table fixing features were pretty good, and they assist you with all kinds of other tagging or fixing tasks. They have a free demo - so maybe just try it yourself (and report back what you found!).



Am 29 Jul 2013 um 22:41 schrieb "McMorland, Gabriel" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >:

> A colleague and I are learning to reapir the accessibility of PDFs. We are having a consistent problem using the table editor, even after reading the manual and watching an instructional video on Adobe TV.
>
> When merging or splitting cells in a data table, the new cell always appears outside the table in the document's reading order.The new cell should be nested inside the hierarchy of the table tag, but it always appears outside the table.
> We use the mouse to select the borders of the new cell.
> What are we doing wrong?
>
> > >

From: Chagnon | PubCom
Date: Mon, Jul 29 2013 3:38PM
Subject: Re: disrupting reading order when merging/splitting cells in PDF table editor
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Although the Touch-Up-Reading-Order tool (TURO) and its Table Editor have
been improved, Table Editor is still the most difficult tool to use in the
Acrobat toolbox. (I'm trying to be diplomatic here!)

After countless years of using it, I have all but given up! Here are my
solutions:

1) Go back to the original source document and fix the table there and
re-export it to PDF. Recent versions of Word + Acrobat XI plug-in, as well
as Adobe InDesign CS6 and CC, tag most tables correctly.

2) Use CommonLook to correct the table.

Would love to hear what solutions others use.

-Bevi Chagnon
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From: McMorland, Gabriel
Date: Tue, Jul 30 2013 9:52AM
Subject: Re: disrupting reading order when merging/splitting cellsin PDF table editor
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Thanks, -Bevi. We often cannot get the original documents because they are academic journal articles downloaded from databases. I feel like this must be a common challenge at universities.

From: McMorland, Gabriel
Date: Tue, Jul 30 2013 9:58AM
Subject: Re: disrupting reading order when merging/splitting cellsin PDF table editor
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Olaf,

I determine that it is out of reading order by navigating the PDF with JAWS screen reader. The contents of the newly defined cell cannot be read by navigating inside the table, and JAWS will read the cell contents before it enters "table navigation maode".

From: Lewis, Sunshine T.
Date: Tue, Jul 30 2013 2:49PM
Subject: Re: disrupting reading order when merging/splitting cellsin PDF table editor
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Hi Gabriel,

I've had some projects where I used the table editor to split the cells and then added the tags directly to the tag tree. Working directly in the tag tree is my preferred method for remediating PDFs. You can move things around, edit or delete existing tags and add new ones (make sure you only delete tags... not content nodes). It does helps to be comfortable with markup languages and to make sure the "Highlight Content" option is on in the tags panel.

1) If the cell is not tagged at all, you can go use the "unmarked content" option of the Find dialog from the tags panel menu.
2) If the cell is tagged incorrectly or in the wrong spot, you can use the "Find tag from selection" tool in the same spot or move the tag by (careful) dragging. Then if the reading order is set to match your tag order, it should work..

Here is an Adobe document on editing structure using the Content and Tags panels
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/acrobat/using/WS58a04a822e3e50102bd615109794195ff-7ceb.w.html#WS58a04a822e3e50102bd615109794195ff-7ce6.w

I think that link is for Adobe Acrobat X but the tools have been around since 8 (although possibly in different places).




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