Reading Order

The Reading Order functionality is a convenience extension of PDF tagging. Use it to have your page or document read out based on its tag structure.

The order of elements in a PDF depends on the order in which they were added to the page during PDF creation. This is not necessarily the same as the logical order intended for reading the document.

The Reading Order tools (found in the panel and context-sensitive tab of the same name) use the tag structure of a PDF document and enable you to do the following:

Review the tag order
Apply automatic tag detection
Visually mark elements
Set the types and order of these elements

If you change the tags of your document in the Reading Order panel, these modifications are reflected in the Tag panel, and vice versa.

Below is an outline of the operations you can perform using Reading Order:

Open the Reading Order panel.
Use the Tag PDF (Tag panel) or Retag page (Reading Order panel) command for an automatic retagging of the document.
Adjust the tagging manually using the Reading Order tab as needed.
1. Select a page or a document element whose tagging you want to change.
2. Draw a rectangle in the current area to refine your selection.
3. Select the appropriate tag for your elements from the Reading Order tab.
To change the reading order of a tagged element, simply drag and drop it to the intended location in the list.

Reading Order panel

Use this tool to open the panel:

Reading Order icon If you do not see it, do any of the following:

Type Reading Order into the Find a Tool box on the toolbar and select Reading Order.
Right-click an empty area on the Panel bar and select Reading Order.

The panel lists existing tags page by page. Click the page icon to open or close the listing for a page.

The Reading Order options list contains the following commands:

Remove whole document structure: Deletes all tags on all pages in the document.
Remove page structure: Deletes all tags on the current page of the document.
Retag page: Uses the automatic Tag PDF functionality (from the Tag panel) to retag the page.

For less complex pages, we generally recommend that you apply automatic retagging; use the Reading Order tab only to further refine the results.

Reading Order tab

Selecting the Reading Order panel also opens the Reading Order context-sensitive tab, which works together with the panel and the tags of the active document. The Reading Order tab provides the following two modes:

Reading Order (default): In this mode, you can tag the elements in the document according to their function.
Table Editor: In this mode, you can select and edit the table elements (such as cells, rows, and columns) of the current document.

Select a tag or a group of tags (such as Page 1) in the Reading Order panel so that the tagging structure is displayed and editable in the document window. You can switch between the two modes by clicking the preferred one on the tab.

You can only tag elements that are part of the current selection.

To manually select document elements in either of the two modes above, draw a rectangle around those elements. Select Info on the Reading Order tab for additional tips on refining your selection using keyboard keys. By default, only fully enclosed items are selected.

The Reading Order mode enables you to tag the following types of elements; each has its own command on the Reading Order tab:

Text: Contains flowing text.
Figure: Contains an illustration.
Form Field: Interactive area that accepts a response within an electronic form.
Figure/Caption: Contains an illustration plus a caption.
Heading: Contains a heading with an identifiable level in a hierarchy.
Table: Contains data in a grid and should be treated as a table.
Formula: Contains a scientific or mathematical formula.
Background: Area that encloses a colored or textured background.

The purpose of these element types is to preserve the document structure during reading. For instance, the numbering of heading commands shows their level in the hierarchy.

These commands are also available when you right-click an element in the Reading Order panel.

The Table Editor mode enables you to select table elements and to use the following commands on the Reading Order tab to edit the tagging of a table:

Merge Cells: Merges the tagging of the selected cells into a single cell tag that covers the selected cells.
Merge Rows: Merges selected cell tags vertically. Only cell tags occupying the same column or columns will be merged.
Merge Columns: Merges selected cell tags horizontally. Only cell tags occupying the same row or rows will be merged.
Delete Cell: Removes the tagging of the selected cell.
Add Cell before: Places a new cell tag that covers the cell on the left of the selected cell.
Add Cell after: Places a new cell tag that covers the cell on the right of the selected cell.
Cell Properties: You can manage the cell type, header assignments, cell spanning, and cell ID attributes in the Cell Properties dialog box.
Split Cell vertically: Cuts a cell tag in two pieces. The two pieces are positioned beside each other, covering the text together.
Split Cell horizontally: Cuts a cell tag in two pieces. The two pieces are positioned under each other, covering the text together.
Generate IDs to header cells: Fills ID attributes for the selected table header cells automatically.
Set as Header Cell: Turns the type of the selected cell tags to table header (TH). These tags are indicated with red.
Set as Data Cell: Turns the type of the selected cell tags to table data (TD). These tags are indicated with blue.

To remove the current tagging for an element, right-click the tag in the Reading Order panel and select Remove.

Click Close to finish editing the reading order and to exit the Reading Order tab and panel.