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Audrey22160143iu63
Participating Frequently
March 8, 2022
Question

Table regularity fails but same number of columns in each row/rows in each column

  • March 8, 2022
  • 2 replies
  • 11308 views

I have a 27 page table within a 164 page PDF, no source file. I tagged the table by tagging the top header row and artifacting other header rows in following pages so all pages under one Table tag. I have gone through every row over and over to count columns/rows and there does not appear to be a problem (all rows have 8 columns). Innitially there were a couple of pages that didn't include the last column as part of the table since no data--and I retagged by putting in "None" in some rows so that I could tag the tables to include the last column as all other pages. Under the top header row, all other rows have the first cell as TH and rest as TD.

 

I can't figure out after hours and hours why I still get a regularity failed error for this table. Of course when you click the error to go to show in tags panel it just pops you to the overall table so I can't tell where the error is coming from, thus the hours of combing through.

 

Any ideas how to figure this out?? I would be very appreciative.

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2 replies

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Legend
March 8, 2022

@Audrey22160143iu63, two of the most common regularity errors are:

  • Uneven number of rows and columns throughout the table. Looks like you reviewed your table and didn't find that problem.
  • Merged cells, either in the header or body.

 

Can you check that last one?

 

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |
A
Audrey22160143iu63Author
Participating Frequently
March 9, 2022

Thanks. No merged cells. I even extracted the pages of the table to a new doc, saved as word and added lines to separate columns that appeared to be missing (prob irrelevant because still columns but rest of table had lines), I saved back as PDF and retagged 3 pages of the table and an additional 1 page of another part of the table. I can understand if header issues would show as I do not have TH across the top row because artifacted the tippy top with column categories (TH in the first row of all TRs). I did try to just TH the top row in these extracted pages to see just in case but doesn't touch the table regularity issue. I'm pulling my hair out.

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Legend
March 9, 2022
quoteI even extracted the pages of the table to a new doc, saved as word and added lines to separate columns that appeared to be missing (prob irrelevant because still columns but rest of table had lines), I saved back as PDF and retagged 3 pages of the table and an additional 1 page of another part of the table.
By @Audrey22160143iu63

 

Let's examine this workflow:

  1. Did you run Word's built in accessibility checker when the copy was in Word? (And you're right, the borders have nothing to do with anything. Accessibile tables is all about the matrix of columns and rows.)  File / Info / Inspect Document / Check Accessibility.
  2. In Word, select the table: are the check boxes for Header Row (defines column headers) and First Column (defines row headers) checked? The checkboxes are in the Table Design ribbon when a table is selected.
  3. Export to accessible tagged PDF: either use the Acrobat ribbon, or File / Save As Adobe PDF, or File / Save As / PDF (Microsoft's conversion utility).

 

Does this method work or does it have errors?

 

And one more question: which versions of Word, InDesign, and Acrobat Pro are you using on which platform?

 

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |
Eric Dumas
Community Expert
Eric DumasCommunity Expert
Community Expert
March 8, 2022

Can you include screenshots to illustrate what you are experiencing and trying to achieve?

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Audrey22160143iu63Author
Participating Frequently
March 9, 2022

Not sure if this will help. First snip is ONE page of the very big table that shows table regularity error. Second snip shows one table row in tags panel. I can assure you that I have counted and counted and counted to ensure all TRs have same number of cells, etc. Thanks for offering to look!

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