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:

1. 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.
2. You can select and edit multiple objects at a time under the Touch Up Reading Order setting mode. To select multiple objects, Ctrl-click (i.e. hold down the Ctrl key as you click) multiple objects that are anywhere in the document, or Shift-click (i.e. hold down the Shift key as you click) two objects to select a contiguous group of objects between the first and the last object you click. 

Tag a region

1. Click Accessibility > Reading Order to open the Touch Up Reading Order dialog box.
2. Drag to select a region of the page content in the document area.
3. 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. 

4. Options in the Touch Up Reading Order dialog box: 

   Text – Chooses it to tag the selected region as text.

   Figure – Tags the selected region as a figure. 

   Form Field - Tags the selected region as a form field.

   Figure/Caption – Tags 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 – Tags the selected region as a first/second/third/fourth/fifth/sixth level heading. 

   Table – Tags the selected region as a table.

   Cell – Tags the selected region as a table or header cell. The option is often used to merge cells that are incorrectly split.

   Formula – Tags the selected region as a formula. You may need to set alternate text for formula tags for speech software to easily handle them.

   Reference – Tags the selected region as a reference.

   Note – Tags the selected region as a note.

   Background/Artifact – Tags 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: Enables 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 – Checks 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 – Checks 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 – Checks it to display adjacent squares with the same tag type in a single square with the common tag type.

   Show tables and figures – Checks 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 – Clicks it to remove the tagging structure from the page. 

   Show Order Panel – Clicks it to open the Order panel in the navigation pane.

5. Click Close. 

Change the tag for a region

1. Click Accessibility > Reading Order, the Touch Up Reading Order dialog box pops up.
2. 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.
3. Click Close.

Tips:

1. You can also press F2 to quickly modify tag types. 
2. 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.

1. Select Reading Order in the Accessibility tab.
2. Select the page element in document pane, and choose Background in the Touch Up Reading Order dialog box to tag the selected page element as Background.

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. 
• If text is incorrectly combined with a figure, drag to select the content and choose Text in the Touch Up Reading Order dialog box. 
• 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. 

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. 
• 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.