Complex tables

Transcript

Thanks for joining us today to learn about making complex tables accessible in Acrobat. We covered how to tag a simple table in the Basics of Tagging tutorial, so today I am covering how to set table editor options, how to identify the cell type, table heading cell or table data cell, how to set the header cell scope and span, how to create a table summary, how to generate header cell IDs, how to associate data cells with header cell and how to artifact a repeating header row.

As mentioned in the Basics of Tagging tutorial, if you start with a table in Word, you can use the Table Design tab to create header cells by checking Header Row to tag column headers. And, if applicable, check the box for First Column to Tag Row Headers. Then use the PDF Maker add-on in Word to create your PDF file.

To start, open the Tag Tree in Acrobat, select the table tag, right-click and select the header, or use the keyboard shortcut Q. Next, right-click on any cell in the table and select Table Editor Options. Check Show Cells with Missing Header and give it a distinct color so you can quickly identify missing header cells. You can also turn on Show Cell Type, but sometimes these identifiers can get in the way, so I’m going to leave them off for now.

Column and row headers in a table need to be tagged with the TH tag and data cells with the TD tag. In addition, all TH cells require scope, and merged cells also require span. When no scope is set, Assistive Technology assumes that the first row is column headers. I’ll be working on the top table. The bottom table shows the cells outlined in blue that need to be changed to header cells. I’ll start with the top left cell, and right-click to select Table Cell Properties. This particular header cell is a header cell for both the row and the column, so I need to select both in the scope. The header cell spans two columns and two rows.

I’ll select Yes to proceed, but if this is your first time working on a table, you might want to save a copy of the original file first. Notice how the color changes and identifies the cell as merged. Moving to the right, select the next cell. Select Column under the Scope dropdown and 6 under the Column Span. Moving down you can see by the gray color that five of these header cells have not been correctly identified. So you can hold down the shift key and select all six cells. Right-click and open the cell properties and just set the scope to column. The spans are one and one. Moving down on the left, I’ll select all the rows under Product by again holding down the shift key.

In the Properties dialog, select Row for the scope and 2 and 1 for the spans. Moving to the right, since these are all single cells, you can hold down the shift key to select. Right-click and select the table cell properties and choose Row from the Scope dropdown. Now you can clearly identify all the header cells in red and data cells in gray and span cells in pink. Although a table summary is not required to meet the accessibility standards, adding one to a table is helpful for complex tables. When a user encounters the table, that information is read to the user and is sent to the table user and helps them understand the overall design. To create a table description, select the table tag and select Reading Order. Select the box that says Table and right-click to select Edit Table Summary. Here is where you can provide an overview of the table. For this one, I’ll add. This financial table has multiple header rows and columns. It contains information about three products. In the first column and their performance in the second column, and then six years of data. This next example requires cell IDs for the assistive technology to correctly interpret the relationship between the header and data cells.

For example, the $23 million data cell has five header cells associated with it. These are by year 2020 Asset Management Ultra and Revenue. If the table isn’t tagged correctly, unfortunately, the assistive technology does not know when to stop saying banking systems and start saying Asset Management. So, we need to add header cell IDs to associate data cells with the proper headings. Here’s another tip. Make sure that all the header cells are properly tagged with their scope and span before you add the IDs. To add IDs, select any one of the cells in your table, right-click, and select Auto-generate header cell IDs. When I select a header cell and open the properties, you can see the ID. Auto-generated IDs use the row number, R10 column number C1, and the start of the text, Asset MA from the cell to identify them. When you select a data cell’s properties, and click the plus, you can see all of the header cell IDs that were generated. So, to associate all of its header cells with this data cell, add in hierarchical order. By year, 2020 Asset Management and Revenue. Now, when a user clicks in that cell, Acrobat passes the hierarchy to the assistive technology to help the user understand where they are in the context of the table. If you have the opportunity to edit the original table, small changes can save you the extra work of adding IDs. For example, I moved banking systems and asset management into their own column, and now I just need to tag these all as regular header cells.

Our final topic is about how to remediate repeating headers across multiple pages. This two-page table has the header row, rank state, and population. And it repeats that row across all the pages in the document. This was also a Word document, and the repeat header rows was enabled on the first row so that it will repeat across the pages. That’s super helpful to readers if the table spans many pages. But if you’re designing for accessibility, and you have access to the source, you can disable that before you convert to Adobe PDF. However, if you want to design for both audiences, here’s what to do. Create the PDF from Word with the repeating header rows. Then, in Acrobat, we’ll want to tag the repeating header rows as artifacts. They’ll still be there for sighted readers, but assistive technology will skip right over them. I could walk down through all the table rows until I find the correct row, or you can jump to the second page and highlight the word rank. Under the three dots in the accessibility tree, select Find Tag from Selection, and you’ll jump right to the spot in the accessibility tree where this row needs to be artifacted. Expand and select each of the header text content. Right-click and select Change Tag to Artifact. And here’s another tip. If you use Acrobat’s cloud-based auto-tagging, it’s smart enough to know this is a repeating header. And it will take care of the artifact for you. Notice here how it jumps right from Alabama to Kentucky. Here’s a quick check-in on complex tables. A header row cannot be created in a Word table. True or false? This is false. You can set the header row in Word under the Table Design tab. And that’s it. Now you’ve learned a bit more about tagging complex tables in Acrobat Pro.