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CommonLook
PDF Accessibility: Problem Solved

Solutions for Compliance with Accessibility Standards:
ISO 14289-1 (PDF/UA),
W3C/WCAG 2.0/2.1,
U.S. Section 508 and U.S. HHS
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Accessible PDF


A fully PDF/UA compliant PDF can be just as
accessible as a WCAG compliant website



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CommonLook PDF - Optimizing of tables in PDF documents

Time-consuming task in Adobe Acrobat
is reduced to seconds in CommonLook PDF.

Creating Accessible PDF Documents Using CommonLook PDF


    CommonLook PDF - Optimizing of tables in PDF documents

    How CommonLook PDF does a better job than Adobe Acrobat to optimize PDF tables.

    Tables are an important component of any digital document (PDF, Word document etc.).
    But remediating a document that contains tables creates a
    great deal of confusion and frustration for PDF remediators.

    Why do tables in PDFs create so much confusion,
    frustration and anxiety for PDF remediators?

    The list of reasons is as long and confusing as some of the tables themselves.

    To clarify some of these issues we present below two highly effective
    methods to remediate and optimize Presentation/Layout Tables and Data Tables
    while remediating the PDF document.


    Difference between data tables and presentation/layout tables

    Data tables are used to organize data with a logical relationship in grids.
    Accessible PDF tables need tags that indicates header cells and data cells
    as well as tag attributes that define the relationship between the cells.

    In order to make data tables accessible, they have to fulfill the following prerequisites:

    • Built logically

      • A table that is built logically is always rectangular


    • Clear and unique relationship between header cells and data cells
      or between header cells


    • Understandable

      • Understandable first, making accessible second:
      An author or remediator must understand the table data and their relationships.
      Otherwise it is not possible to make the table accessible.


    In the perspective of semantics, presentation/layout tables are no real tables,
    but hacks for positioning elements. Presentation/layout tables have to be
    linearized in order to make their content accessible.


    Simple tables and complex tables

    A table is simple, if every header cell is valid for the complete column or row.

    A table is complex, if there is at least one header cell,
    that is not valid for the complete column or row.
    A complex table is a table with nested header cells.
    In nearly all cases one can divide the complex table into several simple tables.
    This needs normally more space in the document, but improves the comprehensibility.


    Caption and Summary

    Captions and summaries provide information that can
    help users find, navigate, and understand tables.

    A caption functions like a heading for a table.
    Captions help users to find a table, understad what it is about,
    and decide if they want to read it.

    A summary conveys information about the organization
    of the data in a table and helps users navigate it.
    For example, if a table has an unusual structure, information about what
    content can be found in which row or column can be provided to the user.
    A summary is usually only needed for complex tables.
    If both caption and summary are provided for one table,
    the summary should not duplicate information present in the caption.

Optimization of Presentation/Layout Tables and Data Tables

Optimization of Presentation/Layout Tables


    It is a lousy authoring practice (that happens quite frequently)
    to use a table to help with formatting/layout.

    The problem with this, in the final PDF, is that there will be a
    Table tag in the Tags tree and assistive technology users that
    identifies a data table in the document when, in reality,
    that is not the correct structure to convey.
    There are other complications, too, but from a tagging and
    structure standpoint, that is the issue.

    When this is the case, users have to either manually tag each paragraph
    that’s in a data/header cell or convert the table cells to tags, drag them
    out of the table and then delete the empty table tags within Acrobat.
    (If the cells in the table contain lists that need to be manually tagged,
    for example, then the nightmare escalates.)

    CommonLook PDF makes this process faster and easier.

    Select the Table tag in the Tags tree,
    right-click on it (or otherwise open the context menu)
    and choose “Linearize table.”
    Users select whether to linearize the table horizontally or vertically.

NetCentric Technologies - CommonLook PDF - Workflow - Remediation of Tables - Linearization of Table - Picture

CommonLook PDF - Linearize Table

    CommonLook then converts the table cell tags (TH or TD) to paragraph tags,
    move them out of the table, and will automatically clean up the empty
    Table and TR (table row) tags that would be left behind.

    A frustrating and time-consuming task in Adobe Acrobat
    is reduced to seconds in CommonLook PDF.



Optimization of Data Tables


    If you have a data table in a PDF document,
    your first step in testing and/or remediating is
    to make sure it is appropriately structured.

    In the Tags tree, open the Table tag.
    Does the TR (table row) have tags inside?
    What if you find THead, TBody, and/or Foot tags within the Table tag?

    Assistive technologies do not do anything with
    the THead, TBody and TFoot tags, so they are not necessary.

    In Adobe Acrobat, you would have to select the tags inside each of those,
    move them out and delete them when they are finally empty.
    Of course, be careful not to move something to the wrong spot
    because that can become very messy – and “Undo” is unforgiving in Acrobat.

    In CommonLook PDF, select the THead, TBody, and/or TFoot tags,
    right-click on them (or otherwise open the context menu) and choose
    “Level up children of tag” (or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+P).

NetCentric Technologies - CommonLook PDF - Workflow - Remediation Tables - Tables Level Up - Picture

CommonLook PDF - Table Level Up

    All of the TR tags are pushed out of the unnecessary tags.
    CommonLook automatically deletes those tags, too.

    Once again, a painful task in Adobe Acrobat
    is reduced to seconds in CommonLook PDF.

    After eliminating the unnecessary tags in the data table,
    right-click on any tag within the table (or otherwise open the context menu)
    and then choose “Show table editor” (keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+F1).

    Use the table editor to quickly and easily verify and fix the cell’s
    column and/or row span, convert to TH or TD as needed, and even,
    with the “click of a button” (or keyboard functionality),
    assign the correct scope to header cells.

    For more complex data tables, CommonLook PDF can
    automatically link the data cells to their header cells
    - another task that’s daunting, painful, error-prone,
    and tedious when working in Adobe Acrobat alone.

For more information contact NewFormat

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CommonLook PDF - Optimizing of tables in PDF documents