Zoning & Marking Text

Manually modify PDF after tagging

After running the Add Tags to Document function, it may be necessary to manually modify the document content. For example, a two-column document may be recognized incorrectly as one single content zone when in fact it is actually two separate content zones. Additionally, information that may be relevant to the page content may not have been recognized during the tagging process, resulting in relevant content that is not part of the document’s logical reading order. It is also possible that content was added to the document reading order, when in fact it does not belong
Adobe Acrobat’s Reading Order tool allows authors to manually zone page content and either add or remove this information to the document’s reading order. The Reading Order tool also allows authors to classify content as various heading levels (i.e., Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3) as well as Figures, Tables, or other structural markup. 

Zone & mark text tutorial 

Step 1

To zone and mark text, enable the Reading Order tool  (Advanced > Accessibility > Reading Order...). It is recommended to add tags to the document before using the Reading Order tool.

Step 2

The mouse pointer will turn into a set of cross-hairs. Click and drag a box around the content you wish to zone. Draw the zoning region larger than the actual region of the content (in some cases, you may have to overlap into other content regions to zone correct content).

Step 3

The content you have “zoned” will have a blue outline around the characters or words.

Screenshot of zoned text in a PDF highlighted in blue.

Step 4

Choose the appropriate content type in the Reading Order tool.

Step 5

Save the document in order to retain the changes. Content that has been zoned and marked will appear as in a gray box with a number in the upper left corner.

Screenshot of a zoned text region now part of the document reading order.

The Reading Order tool can also be used to reclassify content after performing the Add Tags to Document function. Tables and images may be classified incorrectly and the Reading Order tool allows to reset the content to the correct structure type. More information about classifying images and tables is provided in the next section.