Accessibility

• Accessibility Check and Fixes
  • Check Accessibility with Full Check
  • Full Check Results and Accessibility Report
  • Fix Accessibility Problems
  • Accessibility Issues
• Accessible Reading and Navigation through Accessibility Preference Setting and Shortcut Keys
  • Set Accessibility Preferences
  • Change Reading Options for the Current Document
  • Read and Interact with PDF with Screen Reader
  • Shortcut Keys
• Create Accessible PDFs
  • Tag PDF Documents and Form Fields
  • Set Alternate Text for Figures
  • Check Reading Order and Edit Tags with the Reading Order Command
  • Change Reading Order
  • Edit Document Structure with the Content and Tags Panels

Accessibility Check and Fixes

Check Accessibility with Full Check

Use the Full Check command to check whether a PDF is compliant with accessibility standards of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. You can choose which kinds of accessibility items to check for and how to view the results.

To check accessibility with the Full Check command, please do as below:

• Click Accessibility > Full Check.
• In the Accessibility Checker Options dialog box, select options you need to check for. See also the Accessibility Issues.
• In Report Options section, specify how you would like to create the accessibility report:
  • To save the accessibility report as an HTML file, check Create accessibility report option, and click Browse to specify the save path.
  • To add the accessibility report as an attachment of the PDF document, check Attach report to document option.
• By default, Foxit PDF Editor will show the Accessibility Checker Options dialog whenever you run the Full Check. To bypass the dialog box and start full check with default settings directly in the future, uncheck Show this dialog when the Checker starts option. You can also go to File tab (or Foxit PDF Editor menu) > Preferences > Accessibility to change the setting.
• By default, Foxit PDF Editor will run full check on all pages. To run full check on specified pages, click Options button to show Page Range options. Then check Pages option, and input the page number in the Pages field.
• Click Start Checking.

Full Check Results and Accessibility Report

View Full Check Results and Accessibility Report

You can view the full check results and accessibility reports in the following ways:

• When the check is completed, the Accessibility Check panel automatically expands in the navigation pane to display the check results.
• Click Accessibility Report in the Accessibility tab, or directly click the Accessibility Report panel in the navigation pane to open the Accessibility Report. You can also open the accessibility report file (if any) in a web browser.
• If you have attached the accessibility report in the PDF file, you can open the report from the Attachments panel.

Note: Because some content types are difficult to be distinguished clearly by the checker, some issues reported may not affect readability. It would be better to review all issues to definitely decide which ones are not accessible.

About the Accessibility Report

The report includes the name of the PDF document, Summary of the result, and Detailed Report for each checking option.

Summary lists one of the following statuses for each item check:

• Needs manual check – The Full Check feature couldn't check the item automatically. Please verify the item manually.
• Passed manually – The item status was changed to Passed Manually by users from Needs manual check.
• Failed manually – The item status was changed to Failed Manually by users from Needs manual check.
• Skipped – Users chose Skip Rule when verifying the items manually. Or the item was skipped because the corresponding option was not selected in Accessibility Checker Options dialog box when users ran the Full Check.
• Passed – The item passed the Full Check.
• Failed – The items didn’t pass the Full Check.

Detailed Report clearly lists the rule name, status, and description for each checking option. You can click the links in the report to view the online Help. For more details, please refer to "Accessibility Issues".

Fix Accessibility Problems

In the Accessibility Check panel where the Full Check results are listed, right-click an item and choose one of the following options from the context menu:

Fix: Fix the issue automatically, or prompt a dialog box where you need to fix it manually.

Skip Rule: Change the item status to Skipped.

Explain: Open the online Help on the accessibility issue.

Check Again: Check all the items again.

Show Report: Open the Accessibility Report panel in the navigation pane.

Options: Open the Accessibility Checker Options dialog box for you to select options.

Pass: Change the item status to Passed Manually if you believe the item meets the accessibility standard.

Fail: Change the item status to Failed Manually if you believe the item doesn’t meet the accessibility standard.

Accessibility Issues

After the accessibility check based on the options you specified in the Accessibility Checker Options dialog box with the Full Check command, you can view the check results in the Accessibility Check panel and the detailed report in the Accessibility Report panel. The following part on accessibility issues provides explanations and instructions to help you better understand each accessibility rule and easily make a decision on how to deal with the accessibility problems in your document.

Document

Accessibility permission flag

Some documents may be protected by the document authors and no content can be copied, printed, extracted, annotated, or edited. This permission setting could interfere with a screen reader's ability to read the documents because screen readers need to copy or extract the documents' text to convert it to speech.

The flag reports whether the setting is turned off to allow accessibility. If your document failed to pass the rule, to fix the issue automatically, right-click the rule in the Accessibility Check panel in the navigation pane and choose Fix from the context menu. You can also fix the issue manually by choosing No Protection in File tab > Properties > Security to turn off the permission setting.

Image-only PDF

The rule check reports whether the document is an image-only PDF with non-text content that is not accessible. To fix the issue automatically, right-click the rule in the Accessibility Check panel in the navigation pane and choose Fix from the context. Or, you can use the OCR tools in the Convert toolbars to recognize text in images to fix the rule check manually.

Tagged PDF

This rule check reports whether the document is a PDF with tags to specify the reading order, which is important for an accessible PDF. If the check failed, right-click the rule in the Accessibility Check panel in the navigation pane, and choose Fix from the context menu. Or, you can tag the PDF manually by doing any of the following:

• Re-create the PDF from a file that has been tagged in the authoring application.
• Use the Autotag Document/Form Field commands under the Accessibility tab.
• Use the Reading Order command under the Accessibility tab to create the tags tree for the document manually.
• Directly create the tags tree manually in the Tags panel in the navigation pane.

Logical Reading Order

Check the rule manually to make sure that the reading order in the Tags panel is in accordance with the logical reading order.

Primary language

Some screen readers read the text in the language specified for the document. This rule checks whether the primary text language for the document is specified. You can set the language by right-clicking the rule in the Accessibility Check panel in the navigation pane and choosing Fix from the context menu, then choose a language in the Set Reading Language dialog box. You can also set the language manually by doing either of the following:

• Set the language for text in a subtree of the tags tree in the Tags panel. Right-click an element, choose Properties, and select a language in the Object Properties dialog box.
• Set the language for a block of text in the Content panel. Right-click the text element or container element, choose Properties, and select a language in the Object Properties dialog box.

Title

This rule is to check whether the document contains a title in its document properties. If the check failed, right-click the rule in the Accessibility Check panel in the navigation pane, choose Fix from the context menu, uncheck Leave as is and enter the document title in the Description dialog box. Or, add the title manually in the Title box in File > Properties > Description, and then select Display document title in Window Options in File > Properties > Initial View. 

Bookmarks

If the document contains 21 or more pages, but doesn’t have bookmarks that correspond to the document structure, this rule check will fail. To add bookmarks to the tagged document, right-click the rule in the Accessibility Check panel in the navigation pane, choose Fix from the context menu, and select the elements you want to use as bookmarks in the Structure Elements dialog box.

Color contrast

The check may fail if the document contains content that isn't accessible to people who are color-blind. To fix the issue, ensure that the document's content conforms to the guidelines in WCAG section 1.4.3.

Page Content

Tagged content

The rule check reports whether all content in the document is tagged or marked as an artifact.

Artifacts are graphics objects that are typically not part of the author's original content but rather are generated by the PDF producer application in the course of pagination, layout, or other strictly mechanical processes. Artifacts are not read by a screen reader. Page numbers, headers, and footers are often tagged as artifacts.

To fix the issue, do any of the following:

• Mark the content as an artifact by right-clicking it and choosing Create Artifact in the Content panel in the navigation pane.
• Tag the content using the Reading Order command in the Accessibility tab.
• Assign tags for text contents by selecting the text contents with the Select Text and Image command, and then right-clicking the element in the Tags tree and choosing Create Tag from Selection in the Tags Panel.

Tagged annotations

The check reports whether all annotations in the document are tagged or marked as an artifact. To fix the issue, do either of the following:

• Mark the content as an artifact by right-clicking it and choosing Create Artifact in the Content panel in the navigation pane.
• Tag the content using the Reading Order command in the Accessibility tab.

Tip: You can enable Tag Annotations in the Tags panel by right-clicking any tag so that all new annotations will be tagged automatically as they are created.

Tab order

The check reports whether the tab order parallels the document structure. To fix the issue automatically, right-click the rule in the Accessibility Check panel in the navigation pane and choose Fix from the context menu. You can also click the Pages panel in the navigation pane, right-click the pages that failed in the rule check, choose Properties and select Use Document Structure in the Tab Order tab to set the tab order manually.

Character encoding

A correct character encoding is required to display readable text in software/hardware. To fix the issue, you need to check whether the necessary fonts have been installed on your system or re-create the PDF from a file that uses a proper font (preferably OpenType).

Tagged multimedia

Checks whether all multimedia objects in the document are tagged or marked as an artifact. To fix the issue, do one of the following:

• Mark the content as an artifact by right-clicking it and choosing Create Artifact in the Contents panel in the navigation pane.
• Tag the content using the Reading Order command in the Accessibility tab.

Screen flicker

Document content, like animations and scripts that can make the screen flicker, is not accessible for people who have photosensitive epilepsy and can be difficult to see when the screen is magnified. To fix the issue, you need to remove or modify the content that can make the screen flicker.

Scripts

If the document contains scripts, the scripting shouldn't interfere with keyboard navigation or prevent the use of any input device. To fix the issue, you need to remove or modify the script or content that doesn't meet the accessibility rule.

Timed responses

If the document contains forms with JavaScript that requires timed response, the check fails. To fix the issue, edit the scripts to give users enough time to read and use the content, or remove the scripts.

Navigation links

The check reports whether the URLs in the document are active links that are correctly tagged. To fix the issue, check navigation links manually and make sure that the content doesn't have too many identical links.

Forms

Tagged form fields

The rule check reports whether all form fields in the document are tagged. If the rule check passes, you can also use the Tooltip in a form field’s properties to provide users with more information.

If it fails, do either of the following to fix the issue.

• Tag form fields with the Autotag Form Field command in the Accessibility tab.
• Right-click the rule in the Accessibility Check panel in the navigation pane and choose Fix from the context menu.

Field descriptions

The check reports whether all form fields have a text description in the document. All form fields need a text description for an accessible PDF. You can add a text description (tooltip) to a form field in its properties by doing any of the following:

• Right-click the form field and choose Properties to add the tooltip for the form field.
• You can also click Form > Add Tooltip to add tooltips automatically for all form fields which does not have descriptions. By default, the text near the form fields or the names of the form fields will be used as the tooltips.  
• Right-click the rule in the Accessibility Check panel in the navigation pane and choose Fix from the context menu.
• Click Accessibility > Reading Order to enable Touch Up Reading Order setting mode. Right-click the form field and choose Edit Form Field Text. Then type text in the pop-up Form Field Text dialog box.

Alternate Text

Figures alternate text

For accessibility, images in the document either have alternate text, or are marked as artifacts. If the rule check fails, do any of the following:

• Right-click the rule in the Accessibility Check panel in the navigation pane and choose Fix from the context menu. Add alternate text in the Set Alternate Text dialog box.
• Open the Tags panel and right-click the image that you want to add alternate text, choose Properties, and add alternate text in the Object Properties dialog box.
• Click Accessibility > Reading Order to enable Touch Up Reading Order setting mode. Then right-click the image that you want to add alternate text, choose Edit Alternative Text, and add alternate text in the Alternate Text dialog box.
• Mark the content as an artifact by right-clicking it and choosing Create Artifact in the Contents panel in the navigation pane.

Nested alternate text

The check fails if the document contains nested alternate text that screen readers don’t read. To fix the issue, right-click the nested element in the Tags panel, choose Properties, and remove the alternate text in the Object Properties dialog box.

Associated with content

Alternate text is always associated with the corresponding content on the page. If not, there’s no way to determine which page the alternate text is on. To fix the issue, remove the alternate text from any nested item that has no page content by right-clicking the nested elements in the Tags panel and choosing Properties.

Hides annotation

The rule checks whether there is any annotation in the document is hidden by alternate text. For an annotation that is nested under a parent element with alternate text, screen readers don’t see it. To fix the issue, right-click the nested element in the Tags panel, choose Properties, and remove the alternate text from the Object Properties dialog box.

Other elements alternate text

The content except figures like multimedia, annotations, and 3D models, also requires alternate text for accessibility. And make sure alternate text is always associated with the corresponding content on the page. See also Associated with content.

Tables

For the table structure, which can be complex, Foxit PDF Editor recommends that users check them for accessibility manually.

Rows

If the check fails, open the Tags panel, and make sure that each Table Row in a table is a child of Table, THead, TBody, or TFoot. 

TH and TD

For accessibility, Table Header <TH> and Table Data <TD> are children of Table Row <TR>. If the check fails, verify it in the Tags panel. 

Headers

For accessibility, all tables must have a header. If the check fails, verify it in the Tags panel. 

Regularity

Tables must contain the same number of columns in each row, and rows in each column. If the check fails, verify it in the Tags panel. 

Summary

A table summary is not a must, but it can make the document more accessible. The document author can add or edit the table summary.

• Choose Accessibility > Reading Order.
• Right-click on the table, and select Edit Table Summary.
• In the pop-up Table Summary dialog box, input a summary, and click OK.

Lists

List items

The rule check reports whether the list structure in the document is correct. Lists must have the following structure: A list element must contain list item elements; a list item element may have a label element (optional) and a list item body element (required). To fix the issue, do the following steps:

• Right-click the failed element in List items in the Accessibility Check panel and choose Show in Tags Panel from the context menu.
• Create elements, change the types of elements, or reorganize the existing elements by dragging them to the proper position.

Lbl and LBody

See also List items.

Headings

Appropriate nesting

The check reports whether headings are nested properly. If the check fails, do the following steps:

• Right-click the failed element in Headings in the Accessibility Check panel and choose Show in Tags Panel from the context menu.
• Create elements, change the types of elements, or reorganize the existing elements by dragging them to the proper position.

Accessible Reading and Navigation through Accessibility Preference Setting and Shortcut Keys

Foxit PDF Editor allows you to set accessibility preferences that control the document colors, document display and reading order, and provides keyboard shortcuts, which are good for visually impaired and motion-impaired users to better read and navigate PDFs with or without assistive software/hardware.

Set Accessibility Preferences

Set Accessibility Preferences with Setup Assistant

• Click Accessibility > Setup Assistant.
• In the Accessibility Setup Assistant dialog box, choose options that you need or are suitable for your assistive software/hardware.
• If you click Cancel in any step, all the options you have chosen will be discarded and the original setting will be used.

Tip: You can set more accessibility preferences from File in the Ribbon (or Foxit PDF Editor in the menu bar) > Preferences > Accessibility or Reading.

Set Accessibility Preferences in the Preferences Dialog Box

To set accessibility preferences, choose File in the Ribbon (or Foxit PDF Editor in the menu bar) > Preferences > Accessibility. 

• Document Color Options
  • Replace document colors: Check to activate other options to change the document colors.
    • Use High-Contrast colors: Choose the high-contrast color combination for page background and document text to improve readability.
    • Custom color: Change the color of Page Background and Document Text.
    • Only change the color of black text: Change only the black text and leave the colored text unchanged when you replace document colors.
    • Change the color of text or black line art: Change the color of text or black line arts when you replace document colors.
• Override Page Display
  • Always use Page Layout Style: Set a page layout as default for all PDF documents and override other page display settings.
  • Always use Zoom Setting: Specify a default zoom setting for all PDF documents and override other page display settings.
• Other Accessibility Options
  • Use document structure for tab order when no explicit tab order is specified: Improve the navigation of form fields and links in documents that don’t specify a tab order.
  • Always display the keyboard selection cursor: Select this option and the Select Text and Image command will be selected automatically when you open a PDF. If you are using a screen magnifier, it’s recommended to select this option.
  • Show Portfolios in Files mode: Display PDF Portfolio component files and file details in a list. Please note that if you set the default view for PDF portfolios in Portfolio > Default view setting, that default view setting will prevail over this accessibility setting.
• Accessibility Checker Option

  Show accessibility checker options dialog when the checker start: check this option to show the Accessibility Checker Options dialog box when you run Full Check.

To set reading preferences, choose File in the Ribbon (or Foxit PDF Editor in the menu bar) > Preferences > Reading. 

• Screen Reader Options
  • Page vs Document: This preference determines how much of a document is delivered to a screen reader at a time. If a PDF isn’t tagged, Foxit PDF Editor may analyze the document and attempt to infer its structure, which can take a long time for a long document. You may want to set Foxit PDF Editor to deliver only the currently visible page so that it analyzes only a small piece of the document at a time. This consideration will vary depending on the size and complexity of the document and on the features of the screen reader.
    • Only read the currently visible pages - This option is usually best when using a screen magnifier. It improves performance by eliminating the need for the software to process parts of the document that aren’t visible. When Foxit PDF Editor sends only the currently visible pages of a PDF to the memory buffer, the assistive technology has access to those pages only. It cannot go to another page until the next page is visible and Foxit PDF Editor has sent the page information to the memory buffer. Therefore, if this option is selected, you must use the navigation features of Foxit PDF Editor, not those of the assistive technology, to navigate from page to page in the document. You should also set the Default Page Display option in preferences to Single Page if you choose to have Foxit PDF Editor send only the currently visible pages to the assistive technology.
    • Read the entire document - This option can be best if you use a screen reader that has its own navigation and search tools and that is more familiar to you than the commands in Foxit PDF Editor.
    • For large documents, only read the currently visible pages - This option is selected by default and is usually best if you use a screen reader with long or complex PDFs. It allows Foxit PDF Editor to deliver an entire small document but revert to page-by-page delivery for large documents.
  • Minimum number of pages in a large document: When the “For large documents, only read the currently visible pages” option is selected, it allows you to set this minimum value.
  • Enable assistive technology support: Check this option to allow assistive technology products, such as screen readers, to provide information about the UI and document to end users.
  • Confirm before preparing untagged PDF for reading with assistive technology: Select the option, and if any assistive technology is detected in your system, a dialog box pops up when you open an untagged PDF to ask you whether to set the reading order options for the PDF for reading with assistive technology.  
• Reading Order Options
  • Reading Order: Set reading order as appropriate for your assistive software and devices.
    • Infer reading order from document (recommended): Interpret the reading order of untagged documents by using an advanced method of structure-inference layout analysis.
    • Left-to-right, top-to-bottom reading order: Deliver the text according to its placement on the page, reading from left to right and then top to bottom. This method is faster than “Infer reading order from document”. This method analyzes text only; form fields are ignored and tables aren’t recognized as such.
    • Use reading order in raw print stream: Deliver text in the order in which it was recorded in the print stream. This method is faster than “Infer reading order from document”. This method analyzes text only; form fields are ignored and tables aren’t recognized as such.
  • Override the reading order in tagged documents: Use the reading order specified in the Reading preferences instead of what the tag structure of the document specifies. Use this preference only when you encounter problems in poorly tagged PDFs.

Change Reading Options for the Current Document

While using a screen reader to read PDFs, users can change the reading settings for the current document like reading order and mode.

• Click Accessibility > Reading Option.
• Choose the desired reading options and click Start.

Note: The preferences set here are only valid for the current document, whereas the settings with Setup Assistant are the default for all documents and remain in effect until you change them with Setup Assistant.

Read and Interact with PDF with Screen Reader

Foxit PDF Editor enables visually impaired users to read and interact with PDF using VoiceOver. While reading and interacting with PDF, you can use the Setup Assistant command in the Accessibility tab to improve how Foxit PDF Editor interact with your screen reader, or change your reading settings for the current document by choosing Accessibility > Reading Option in Foxit PDF Editor.

Shortcut Keys

Foxit PDF Editor provides users with single-key accelerators for accessibility to navigate PDF. 

Create Accessible PDFs

Accessible PDF documents have content and elements including searchable text, alternate text descriptions for images/interactive form fields, reading order, and document tags, to enable people with disabilities to work on them with or without screen readers or other assistive software/hardware. Foxit PDF Editor provides commands to help make your PDF accessible by tagging PDFs and form fields, setting alternate text, and editing tags.

Tag PDF Documents and Form Fields

In PDF files, tags indicate the structure of documents and define the logic that binds the content together including the correct reading order, and the presence and meaning of figures, which can work better with the assistive technology like screen readers. To check whether a PDF is tagged, navigate to File > Properties > Description > Tagged PDF.

It is recommended that you tag a document when converting it to PDF from an authoring application, but if you do not have access to an authoring application that can generate a tagged PDF, you can tag a PDF any time with Foxit PDF Editor.

To tag a PDF, open the document and click the Autotag Document command in the Accessibility tab. Then the tags of the document are created and you can view the tags in the Tags panel in the navigation pane. If the document already has tags, you’ll be prompted whether to re-tag the document.

To tag form fields in PDF, please click the Autotag Form Field command in the Accessibility tab.

After the tagging completes, a tag recognition report is generated in the Recognition Report panel in the navigation pane. You can use the report as a guide to repair tagging problems.

Tip: In the Tags panel, Command-click the plus/minus sign next to a tag to expand/collapse all the child tags that are nested under it; Command-click the plus/minus sign next to the Tags root to expand/collapse all tags in the tags tree.

Set Alternate Text for Figures

Alternative text for figures will be displayed when you hover your mouse over the figure to help you understand the figures better.

To set alternative text for all the figures in your PDF one by one with the Set Alternate Text command:

• Click the Set Alternate Text command in the Accessibility tab.
• A dialog box pops up to tell you Foxit PDF Editor will detect all figures in the document and display associated alternate text.
• Click OK and type descriptive alternate text for the figure in the Set Alternate Text dialog box. If the figure is used only for decorative purposes, check Decorative figure.
• Click the arrows at the top of the Set Alternate Text dialog box to set alternate text for the next figure or previous figure.
• After completing setting for all figures, click Save & Close.

To set alternative text for a specific figure in your PDF:

• Click Accessibility > Reading Order to enable Touch Up Reading Order setting mode.
• Right-click the figure that you want to set alternate text on the document pane, and choose Edit Alternate Text.
• In the pop-up Alternate Text dialog box, input the information, and click OK.

Check Reading Order and Edit Tags with the Reading Order Command

Reading order and document structure tags are two important characteristics of accessible PDFs. The Reading Order command helps you easily check the reading order and edit tags for PDFs. However, the command is used to fix basic tagging problems for PDFs that were tagged with Foxit PDF Editor, not for PDFs that were tagged during conversion from an authoring application. If possible, try to return to the source file and add accessibility features in the authoring application.

Check the Reading Order for a Tagged PDF

• Open a tagged PDF document and click Accessibility > Reading Order, or right-click any tag in the Tags panel and choose Reading Order.
• The Touch Up Reading Order dialog box pops up, with options including different tag types and the way to show page content groups.
• In the document area, you can see the page content displays in separate regions highlighted with gray blocks.
• If you choose Page content order under the Show page content groups option, the regions are ordered with numbers. Choose Structure types, then the regions are labeled by structure tag types, like “P” for paragraph, “H2” for Heading 2, or “Figure”.
• If the numbered regions don’t follow one another, click Show Order Panel in the Touch Up Reading Order dialog box, and reorder them in the Order panel.

Edit Tags with the Reading Order Command

You can tag a selected region, change the tag type for a region, as well as remove some useless page elements, with the Reading Order command. Since editing tags with the Reading Order command doesn’t create the same level of details to the tagging structure as the tools in the Autotag group, you can use this manual tagging if you don’t have any better method to edit the tags.

Notes:

• Editing tags with the Reading Order command can’t be undone, so it is recommended that you save a backup copy of this document before you edit tags.
• You can select and edit multiple objects at a time under the Touch Up Reading Order setting mode. To select multiple objects, Command-click (i.e. hold down the Command key as you click) the tags of objects, or hold down the Shift key and drag a rectangle to select the objects.  

Tag a Region

• Click Accessibility > Reading Order to open the Touch Up Reading Order dialog box.
• Drag to select a region of the page content in the document area.
• Choose the desired tag type in the Touch Up Reading Order dialog box to tag the selected region, or right-click the selected region and choose the desired tag type from the context menu.
• Options in the Touch Up Reading Order dialog box:
  • Text – Choose it to tag the selected region as text.
  • Figure – Tag the selected region as a figure.
  • Form Field - Tag the selected region as a form field.
  • Figure/Caption – Tag a selected figure and caption as a single tag. Then all the text content in the tag is the caption, which is useful to tag photos and captions, preventing caption text from being incorrectly added to the text around. For the figures, alternate text may be required.
  • Heading 1/ Heading 2/ Heading 3/ Heading 4/ Heading 5/ Heading 6 – Tag the selected region as a first/second/third/fourth/fifth/sixth level heading.  
  • Table – Tag the selected region as a table.
  • Cell – Tag the selected region as a table or header cell. The option is often used to merge cells that are incorrectly split.
  • Formula – Tag the selected region as a formula. You may need to set alternate text for formula tags for speech software to easily handle them.
  • Reference – Tag the selected region as a reference.
  • Note – Tag the selected region as a note.
  • Background/Artifact – Tag the selected region as a background element or artifact. Background elements and artifacts neither appear in the tags tree nor in the reflowed document, and screen readers don’t read them.
  • Table Editor: Enable table editing mode to edit table cell properties. You can use this command on a table which has been tagged as a table before.
  • Show page content groups – Check the option to show the page content by the page content order or the structure types. If you choose Page content order under the Show page content groups option, the regions are ordered with a number. Choose Structure types, then the regions are labeled by structure tag types, like “P” for paragraph, “H2” for Heading 2, or “Figure”. You can click the color swatch to change the highlight color.
  • Show table cells – Check the option to highlight the content of individual table cells. You can click the color swatch to change the highlight color.
  • Display like element in single box – Check it to display adjacent squares with the same tag type in a single square with the common tag type.
  • Show tables and figures – Check the option to outline each table and figure with a crossed-out box. The crossed-out box will also indicate whether the table or figure includes alternate text. You can click the color swatch to change the box color.   
  • Clear Page Structure – Click it to remove the tagging structure from the page.
  • Show Order Panel – Click it to open the Order panel in the navigation pane.
• Click Close.

Change the Tag for a Region

• Click Accessibility > Reading Order, the Touch Up Reading Order dialog box pops up.
• Draw a rectangle in the page content or click the number of a highlighted region, and choose a tag type from the Touch Up Reading Order dialog box that you want to change to. Or right-click the selected region, and choose Tag as <tag type> (e.g. Tag as text) from the context menu.
• Click Close.

Tips:

• You can also press Fn + F2 to quickly modify tag types.
• To retag content, you can right-click items in the Order panel and choose a tag type from the context menu.

Remove Page Elements from the Tag Structure

Some page elements that don’t contain useful or illustrative information and shouldn’t be read, like decorative lines, artifacts, or background elements, can make the structure layout untidy and cause some chaos when they are reflowed or read by screen readers. You can remove these page elements from the tagging structure by changing them to the Background tags.

• Select Reading Order in the Accessibility tab.
• Select the page element in document pane, and do one of the following:
  • Choose Background/Artifact in the Touch Up Reading Order dialog box.
  • Right-click the selected page element, and choose Tag as background/artifact from the context menu.

Check and Correct Figure Tags

Figures tags should identify image content that is meaningful to the document. Sometimes background elements that are not necessary to be read are incorrectly tagged as figures, and you need to redefine them as background. You can use the Reading Order command to check and correct tagging problems for figures.

Select Reading Order in the Accessibility tab, make sure that you have checked the Show tables and figures option, and then do one of the following:

• If a figure isn’t tagged as a figure, drag to select the content and choose Figure or Figure/Caption in the Touch Up Reading Order dialog box. Or right-click the selected content, and choose Tag as figure or Tag as figure/caption from the context menu.
• If text is incorrectly combined with a figure, drag to select the content and choose Text in the Touch Up Reading Order dialog box. Or right-click the selected content, and choose Tag as text from the context menu.
• If a figure and a caption are separated, drag to select the content and choose Figure/Caption in the Touch Up Reading Order dialog box. Or right-click the selected content, and choose Tag as figure/caption from the context menu.

Check and Correct Table Tags

Tables can be a challenge for screen reader or other assistive technology since they may contain complex lists, form fields or paragraphs. You can use the Reading Order command to check if a table has been properly recognized and to correct recognition problems. Also, the Table Editor tool can help you edit table cell properties to make it more accessible.

Select Reading Order in the Accessibility tab, make sure that you have checked the Show tables and figures option, and do the following:

• If a table isn’t tagged as a table, drag to select the content and choose Table in the Touch Up Reading Order dialog box. Or right-click the selected content, and choose Tag as table from the context menu.  
• Make sure that the Show table cells option is checked so that all cells in the table are defined as individual elements. Click Table Editor in the Touch Up Reading Order dialog box, or right-click the table on the document pane and select Table Editor. Alternatively, if you have opened the Tags panel, you can also access the Table Editor tool by right-clicking a table tag and choosing Table Editor from the context menu. All the table cells will be highlighted in the color set in the Table Editor Options.
• If you want to change the highlight color and display option for table cells, right-click the table cell on the document pane and choose Table Editor Options.
• (Optional) Right-click the table cell on the document pane and choose Auto Generate Header Cell IDs to generate cell IDs for all the header cells automatically. If you haven’t generated header cell IDs automatically, when you try to associate any header ID to any cell, Foxit PDF Editor will prompt you to generate IDs for header cells if any header cells don’t have an ID.
• Right-click the table cell on the document pane and choose Table Cell Properties to edit the type and attributes of the table cells. You can use Shift-Click to select multiple cells and bulk edit the table cell properties.   

Remove Tagging Structure from the Pages

If the existing structure for a PDF contains too many problems, you can clear it to create a new one. To clear tagging structure from the page, please do one of the following:

• Click the icon  in the navigation pane to open the Order panel. In the Order panel, right-click on the root element and select Clear page structure to clear the tagging structure of all pages. Or right-click on the page element and select Clear page structure to clear the tagging structure of the currently selected page.
• Select Reading Order in the Accessibility tab, click Clear Page Structure in the Touch Up Reading Order dialog box, or right-click on the document pane and choose Clear page structure from the context menu to clear the tag structure from currently visible page.

Change Reading Order

The reading order for a document can be readily apparent when you use the Reading Order command. You may need to change the reading order if page content groups shown are not correctly numbered. To change the reading order, you can move desired items in the Order panel or set area reading order directly in the document pane.

Change Reading Order in the Order Panel

Click the icon  in the navigation pane to open the Order panel where you can view the reading order. When you click a page in the Order panel, you will be switched to the corresponding page in the document view; when you select a tag in the Order panel, the corresponding content in the document view will be highlighted. In the Order panel, you can also change the reading order of a tagged PDF file without changing the actual appearance of the PDF file if the permission allows. To change the reading order, please do either of the following:

• Select the tag that you want to move and drag it to the desired location.
• Right-click the tag that you want to move and choose Cut from the context menu. Then right-click a destination tag after which you want to move to and choose Paste.

After you drag a tag to a new location, the highlighted regions will be renumbered to show the new reading order.

Tips: In the Order panel, you can use Command-Click to select multiple tags as you click, or Shift-Click to select a listed group of tags between the first and the last tag you click. Then you can move them or right-click them to do more actions.

Set Area Reading Order

Foxit PDF Editor provides a visual and more efficient way to change reading order directly in the document view. You just need to draw areas around the desired content in the document pane and reset the reading order for them. For documents with multiple columns or other complicated structure, this feature improves the productivity to set reading order, instead of dragging and dropping tags in the Order panel.

To set area reading order, do the following steps:

• Choose Accessibility > Set Area Reading Order, and click OK in the prompt telling you to draw areas and set the reading order. You can click Don’t show again in the prompt so that you won’t be bothered the next time you set area reading order.
• The cursor changes into a cross . Drag a rectangle where you define it as a page content group. You can resize the rectangle by dragging the handles.
• After you finish drawing areas where you want to change the reading order, click Accessibility > Change Area Order. You can see each area is numbered in an order that you drew them.
• You can adjust the order as needed by clicking on the areas. As you click on the areas, numbers and arrows appear in red, indicating the order you set.
• When you complete setting the order, click Accessibility > Apply Area Order to apply the order.
• In the Content and Order panels, you can also see the changes of the reading order.

Edit Document Structure with the Content and Tags Panels

For the content reflow and tagging problems that cannot be fixed by the Reading Order command, the Content and Tags panels provide you with more options to handle them.

Check and Correct Reflow Problems with the Content Panel

In the Content panel in the navigation pane, you can view pages and objects, and correct reflow problems in a PDF. The panel provides a hierarchical view of objects including pages, annotations (like comments, form fields, and links), and containers. In the panel, objects are listed in the order in which they appear on the page. You can move objects in the panel to adjust the content order by dragging and dropping objects.

In the Content panel, you can perform actions as below:

• You can move a container or object by selecting it and drag it to the desired location.
• Right-click a page or an object and choose an option from the context menu.
  • New Container – Create a new container object at the end of the selected page or container.
  • Cut – Cut and copy the selected object(s).
  • Paste – Paste content below the selected object at the same hierarchical level.  
  • Paste Child – Paste content into the selected object as a child of the selected object.
  • Delete – Remove the object(s) from the document.
  • Save Selection As – Export the selected object(s) to PDF.
  • Find Content from selection – Find the object in the Content panel that corresponds to the selected content in the document pane.
  • Find – Search the page or document for artifacts, OCR suspects, unmarked comments/links/annotations/content, and add tags to found items.
  • Create Artifact – Set the selected object as artifact. Page numbers, headers, and footers are often best tagged as artifacts, which are not read by screen readers or the Read Out Loud feature.
  • Show in Tags Panel – Switch to the Tags panel with the tag corresponding to the current content selected.
  • Highlight Content – Check the option, and the content in the document corresponding to the selected content in the Content panel will be highlighted with a box around.
  • Edit Container Dictionary – Change the dictionary for the container. If the container has no dictionary associated with it, this option is unavailable.
  • Edit Document Catalog – Change the document catalog. This option is available for the root of the document’s object hierarchy in the Content panel.
  • Edit Page Dictionary – Change the dictionary for the page. 
  • Audit Space Usage – Get space information used (bytes) by different types of objects.
  • Show Metadata – Show the metadata information for the selected image. If the image has no metadata associated with it, this option is unavailable.
  • Properties – Open the Object Properties dialog box.

View Tags in the Tags Panel

You can view a logical structure tree of tags in the Tags panel that represent the organizational structure of the document and define the reading order. The tags tree shows the document content as page elements (such as headings, paragraphs, and tables) nested at various levels. Assistive software determines how to present and interpret the document content according to the tags tree.

To view tags in the Tags panel, click the Tags panel in the navigation pane. While viewing tags in the Tags panel, you can click  at the top of the Tags panel to expand top-level tags, or click  to collapse the expanded top-level tags, if necessary. You can also click the  or  icon to enlarge or reduce the text size of all the tags.  

Edit Tags with the Tags Panel

You can move a tag, and edit the properties (such as title and type) of a tag in the Tags panel. By right-clicking a tag, you can choose the following options:

• New Tag – Create a new tag after the selected item in the tags tree. Then specify the type and title of the new tag.
• Cut – Cut and copy the selected tag.
• Paste – Paste the copied tag below the selected tag at the same level.
• Paste Child – Paste the copied tag as the child tag of the selected tag.
• Delete Tag – Remove the tag from the tags tree. If you remove the root (topmost) tag, all tags in the document will be removed.
• Delete Empty Tags – Delete all empty tags from the subtree of a selected tag, except for valid empty tags such as TD, TH, and Link - OBJR.
• Reading Order – Open the Touch Up Reading Order dialog box.
• Table Editor – Enable table editing mode to edit table cell properties. This option is available when you right-click on a table tag.
• Find Tag from Selection – Find the tag in the Tags panel that corresponds to the selected text content in the document pane.
• Create Tag from Selection – Create a tag in the logical structure tree for a selected text content in the document pane. Or from the selected tags in the Tags panel, create a tag to be a child tag under the focused tag.
• Find – Search the page or document for artifacts, OCR suspects, unmarked comments/links/content, and add tags to found items.
• Copy Contents to Clipboard – Copy the contents of the selected tags to clipboard.
• Edit Class Map – Choose this option to add, change, and delete class maps for the document. Class maps store properties or attributes that are associated with elements.
• Edit Role Map – Choose this option to add, change, and delete role maps for the document. For a document with a uniquely defined tag set which some screen reader or other assistive technology cannot read, you can map its custom tags to predefined tags in Foxit PDF Editor so that these custom tags are easier to identify and edit.
• Tag Annotations – Check this option, and all new comments and form fields will be automatically added to the tags tree after the selected tag. The option is not available for the existing comments and form fields.
• Document is Tagged PDF – Flag the PDF as a tagged document. If unchecked, the flag will be removed.  
• Apply Role Mapping to Tags – Check this option to switch to the source tag view to show the role mapped tags.
• Highlight Content – Check this option, and the content in the document corresponding to the selected tag in the Tags panel will be highlighted with a box around.
• Properties - Open the Object Properties dialog box.

Move a Tag

To move a tag in the Tags panel, do either of the following:

• Select the tag that you want to move and drag it to the desired location.
• Right-click the tag you want to move and choose Cut from the context menu. Then right-click a tag that you want to paste and choose Paste or Paste Child.

Edit the Tag Properties

To edit the tag properties, do the following steps:

• Right-click the tag you want to edit and choose Properties.
• In the Object Properties dialog box, change the information as needed.

Tips: In the Tags panel, you can use Command-Click to select multiple tags as you click, or Shift-Click to select a listed group of tags between the first and the last tag you click. Then you can move them or right-click them to do more actions.

Find and Tag Unmarked Elements

If a PDF document contains untagged or unmarked elements, you can locate them in the logical structure tree and tag them by using the Find command. Steps are as follow:

• Click the icon  or  on the navigation pane to open the Content panel or Tags panel.
• Right-click on an element in the panel, and choose Find from the context menu.
• In the Find Element dialog box, do the following:
  • Choose the element you want to find in the Find drop-down list.
  • Select where you want to search the element: page or document.
  • Click Find Next to search for the unmarked elements.
  • Click Tag Element to tag the unmarked element. And then click Close upon completion.

Add Alternate Text to Tags for Links, Figures, and Abbreviations

Alternate text, which is often used to make a document more accessible, is a description for document contents like images and interactive form fields. Screen readers cannot read these document contents, but can read the associated alternate text. For accessibility, you need to add alternate text and other supplementary information (like specific language) to tags for links, figures, and abbreviations in the document. With Foxit PDF Editor, you can add the information to a tag in the Tags panel.

• Right-click the <Link> tag, <Figure> tag, or the abbreviated term in the tags tree in the Tags panel, and choose Properties.
• In the Object Properties dialog box, click the Tag tab.
• Type text in the Alternate Text box. You can also edit other information as needed in the dialog box.
• Click Close.

Tip: For figures, you can also set alternative text by using the Edit Alternative Text tool while in Touch Up Reading Order setting mode. Please refer to “Set Alternate Text for Figures” for details.

Check and Correct Table Elements

You can view the table elements in the Tags panel and correct elements that are not correctly tagged with the Reading Order command.

• Find the table tag <Table> in the Tags panel.
• Check whether it is a correctly structured table which should meet either of the following structuring of table elements:
  • Each Table Row contains Table Header <TH> or Table Data <TD> cells, or both.
  • For <THead>, <TBody>, and <TFoot> sections, each of them contains Table Rows.
• If the table’s rows, columns, and cells appear in the document, but the table tag doesn’t contain some of the elements mentioned above, tag the related element with the Reading Order command. Alternatively, re-create the table in the authoring application and then convert it to a tagged PDF.

To set ColSpan and RowSpan attributes for table elements, please do as the following:

• Right-click a <TD> or <TH> element in the Tags panel and choose Properties from the context menu.
• In the pop-up Object Properties dialog box, click Edit Attribute Objects in the Tag tab.
• In the Attributes dialog box, select Attribute Objects and then click New Item to create a new Attribute Object dictionary.
• Expand the created dictionary, select the Layout attribute, and click Change Item.
• Change the Layout value to “Table” and click OK.
• Then click the created dictionary and click New Item.
• In the Add Key and Value dialog box, type “ColSpan” or “RowSpan” in the Key box, enter the number of columns or rows spanned in the Value box, choose Integer from the Value Type menu, and click OK.