Making tables accessible is one of the biggest challenges in PDF remediation. Screen readers need properly defined headers, rows, and cells to interpret table content correctly. PDFix Desktop provides both manual tools and new automation features to make this process faster and more reliable.
Step 1: Open Your PDF & Review Table
- Open your file in PDFix Desktop
- Use the Tags panel to see if the table is already tagged
- If it’s missing or incorrect, switch to the Table Tool in the top toolbar
Step 2: Define Table Structure
- Draw a rectangle around the table with the Table Tool.
- Adjust rows and columns visually in the structure view.
- Fix issues by right-clicking:
- Delete row → remove unnecessary rows.
- Merge cells → fix split data cells.
Step 3: Add Table Headers
- Right-click a cell → Set Row Header or Set Column Header.
- Use Cell Properties to check each cell’s role (header vs data).
- For sub-sections, select rows → Add Associated Header → choose the correct top cell.
Step 4: Finalize the Tagging
- Right-click the structure → Tag as Table.
- Place it in the correct position in the Tag tree.
- Remove any empty tags created during editing.
- Your table is now correctly tagged and ready for screen readers.
What’s New in PDFix
- Generate Table Summary using PDFix and OpenAI – automatically creates short text summaries of tables for accessibility
- PDFix Layout Template – automate tagging for complex or repeated tables across thousands of documents
