Editing Tables in Adobe Acrobat

In the previous lesson, you learned how to check a table for correct tag structure when imported from a source document. In this lesson, you will learn how to use the Reading Order tool to edit individual table cells.

Practice Document

Tagging Table Headers and Setting Scope Practice.pdf Download Tagging Table Headers and Setting Scope Practice.pdf 

Using the Reading Order Tool to check Header Scope and Span

Header Scope refers to whether its a column or row header or both. Row and column span refers to the number of rows or columns the data cell covers. Merged cells often cover multiple rows or columns, and this needs to be defined in Adobe Acrobat to ensure proper screen reader compatibility.

To check these values do the following:

  1. Open the practice document Download practice document for this lesson.
  2. Open the accessibility tool in Adobe Acrobat.
  3. Open the Reading Order tool.
  4. Select the Table icon that governs the table you are checking.
  5. In the Reading Order tool, click Table Editor to enter table editing mode.

example of reading order tool instructions.

Once you are table editor mode, the reading order tool will disappear and the table will have new formatting that should match what you see below. To ensure that you see the tag type in the table cells, do the following with table editor enabled:

  1. Right click any data cell in the table.
  2. Select Table Editor options from the menu.
  3. Under Label Option, check Show cell type (TH or TD). 

example of table editor mode showing alternative colors for headers and data cells.

Notice that table headers and table data tags are noted and their colors are different. These colors can be edited if you find them hard to read. To change Table Editor options, do the following:

  1. Select a single data cell (header or table data).
  2. Right click the cell and select Table Editor options.
  3. Use the color options menu to alter the color coding of the table elements.

Once you configure the Table Editor to your liking, you can use a similar procedure to check the scope of each table cell. Do the following:

  1. Select a table header or table data cell.
  2. Right click the cell and select Table Cell Properties.
  3. Configure the Type and Attributes for the table cell.

In the example below, the following is true:

  • Table header <TH> header 1 is selected (outlined in blue).
  • The type radio button is set to Header Cell and the Scope is set to Row because this header governs all the data in row 1.
  • Its attributes are set to row span 1 and column span 1 because the header only spans one cell of row and column data.

Table editor example showing cell type and attribute values.

Data cells won't allow you to set scope since scope is a value that only pertains to table header cells. Simple tables exported from Word usually have the correct scope and span defined already, but you should always check these values to ensure nothing was broken during export. Complex tables or tables that were manually tagged within Adobe Acrobat should always be checked in this manner. Scope and span will not be correct in these cases and will require that you to set their values manually.