InDesign

Mapping InDesign Paragraph Styles to Heading Tags

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To setup heading styles in InDesign you’ll need to define Paragraph Styles in your InDesign document. Penn State has a good article about this. You basically create styles for the heading levels you want to use in your document, such as H1, H2, and H3. You can also setup a regular paragraph style for the <P> tag.

To open the Paragraph Styles panel in InDesign:

  • Go to the Window menu.
  • Choose Styles > Paragraph Styles.

To create a new paragraph style from existing text:

  • Select the text.
  • Choose ‘New Paragraph style’ from the hamburger menu in the ‘Paragraph Styles’ panel.

The font & size attributes of the text you selected become the basis of the new paragraph style.

To check which tag a style is mapped to:

  • Select the style in the ‘Paragraph Styles’ panel.
  • Go to in the ‘Paragraph Styles’ panel hamburger menu and choose ‘Style Options’.
  • Click on the ‘Export tagging’ area. Under ‘PDF’ you will be able to see which style your paragraph style is mapped to. If you want to map it to a Heading Level 1, then choose H1 from the list of tags. If there are not a lot of tags in the list you may need to load your standard paragraph styles from another document and use the ‘Map styles to tags’ function under the Structure area.

To see the tags structure of an InDesign document:

  • Go to the View menu.
  • Go to Structure > Show Structure.

To map your newly created heading paragraph styles to tags in the structure:

  • Go to the hamburger menu in the Structure panel.
  • Choose the ‘Map styles to tags’ option.

If you have a premade set of paragraph styles you want to reuse in the document, you can load them via the ‘Load’ button in the ‘Map styles to tags’ option. This could save time in setting up tags & styles. Some designers keep a separate .indd InDesign file with all their commonly used styles in it to load.

The document structure appears as in a panel on the left side of your screen.

How to create accessible data tables in InDesign

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There are a couple things to check to be able to export accessible data tables from InDesign:

  1. Make sure your table has a header row at the top. You can check if it has a header row in the Table Setup options.
  2. Ensure that you export your document as a ‘tagged PDF’.

Also, keep in mind that InDesign can only markup basic tables with column header cells in a top header row. If you need to do a more complex table that also includes row header cells on the left side, you’ll need to add the row header cell markup in Adobe Acrobat Pro.

To create a data table in InDesign:

  • Click in a text where you want the table to go.
  • Select Table > Create Table.

This brings up a dialog that asks how many rows and columns you want in the table. The important part for accessibility is that it asks you to designate one or more header rows. A typical basic table has one header row.

Inserting a table into an InDesign text box.

Be sure to include a header row when insterting a data table into your PDF document.

How to select a table in InDesign and adjust options?

  • Click in the table that you want to adjust.
  • Go to the Table menu in InDesign.
  • Choose Table Options > Table Setup.

A dialog box of table settings comes up where you can adjust settings like the number of rows and you’ll also have the ability to add a header row if your table doesn’t already have one.

Selecting a table and adjusting setup options

Selecting a table and adjusting setup options

How to add a row to a table in InDesign?

  • Click in the row where you want the new row to go above or below.
  • Go to the Table menu in InDesign.
  • Choose Insert > Row.
  • Choose if you want the new row to go above or below the current row and hit ‘Ok’.

The new row appears above or below the current row you were in.

Inserting a row in an InDesign table.

Inserting a row in a data table

How to delete a row in a table in InDesign?

  • Click in the row that you want to delete.
  • Go to the Table menu in InDesign.
  • Choose Delete > Row.

The current row is deleted.

How to delete a row in a table

How to delete a row in a table

To export your PDF document with accessibility features:

  • Go to File > Export and choose PDF format.
  • Hit Save and in the options that come up make sure ‘Tagged PDF’ is checked. This will ensure the tag structure for accessibility is included in the document.
  • Click Export and your tagged PDF is saved ready to review in Acrobat.
Make sure 'Tagged PDF' is checked when exporting.

Be sure sure ‘Tagged PDF’ is checked in the options when exporting your PDF document.

What’s the result in Acrobat tags of including a header row in a data table?

If you want to check that the header row exported made it into your PDF successfully you can:

  • Open the document in Adobe Acrobat Pro and find the table in the Tags panel.
  • Then open the <TR> rows of the table and verify that the first row uses true <TH> header cells instead of regular <TD> header cells.
When you look at the exported table tags in Acrobat, the first row will have true <TH> header cells instead of regular <TD> header cells. Normal rows below it will use regular <TD> header cells.

When you look at the exported table tags in Acrobat, the first row will have true <TH> header cells instead of regular <TD> header cells. Normal rows below it will use regular <TD> header cells.

Running the accessibility checker in Adobe Acrobat will also tell you if there’s a problem with your data tables.

To run an accessibility test in Acrobat Pro:

  • Find ‘Prepare for accessibility’ under ‘All Tools’
  • Click ‘Accessibility Check’, accept the default settings, and click ‘Start Checking’.

The test runs and the results pop up. Any table issues can be found under the Tables section.

How to delete a row in a table

Running the accessibility checker in Adobe Acrobat.

Resources about InDesign and accessibility

Videos about InDesign and accessibility

Other data tables in InDesign resources and tutorials:

More information about InDesign and accessibility:

Setting up a heading structure in InDesign for accessibility

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Something that’s different in InDesign from Word is that in MS Word you already have predefined Heading level styles in the Home ribbon whereas in InDesign you have to set up your own ‘Paragraph Styles’ and map them to a Heading structure. You can follow the directions found in this workflow for creating accessible PDFs from InDesign article to setup a template InDesign document with a structure. Here’s an example template exported to PDF. For an InDesign template for graphic designers, it might be good to have Paragraph Styles predefined and maybe have an XML document structure predefined based on text frames they most commonly use. Penn State also has some good information about accessibility and InDesign in this article: Accessibility at Penn State | InDesign Accessibility (psu.edu).

What you setup in the InDesign Structure panel becomes what you see in the Tags panel in Acrobat. The tags in PDF are very similar to HTML with a few odd differences. For example there’s a general <L> tag for all lists instead of <ul> and <ol> (unordered lists and ordered lists) tags. InDesign can also export to ePub format which is more like regular HTML.

Set the tab order in InDesign:

The structure created in the InDesign Articles panel is exported to the PDF file, but it is not automatically set as the order followed when tabbing through interactive elements like hyperlinks and form fields.

  • If the tab order fails in Acrobat, you can right-click on the issue and choose ‘Fix’. This sets the tab order to match the document structure that you set up in InDesign.
  • You can view and adjust the reading order in the Order panel (looks like a Z icon in the left panels).
  • If the panels aren’t there you can open them by going to: View > Show/Hide > Navigation Panes > Page Thumbnails
view and adjust the tab order in the tab order panel

To get to the Tab Order Panel in Acrobat, click the Z icon in the left panels.

 

How to Export to PDF:

In InDesign, when you are ready to export to an accessible PDF, go to: File > Export > PDF

  • Choose Adobe PDF (Interactive) if your document contains forms, buttons, audio, or video or Adobe PDF (Print) format if it doesn’t.
  • Check the Tagged PDF box to ensure you document structure and tags are exported.
  • Then save the document and open it in Acrobat Pro to check for any accessibility issues.
Export to PDF settings - create tagged PDF

In the export PDF settings in InDesign, check the Tagged PDF box to ensure you document structure and tags are exported in the PDF output.

 

Three things to do in Acrobat after you export your InDesign document to PDF:

  • Assign a document language
  • Set PDF tab order to ‘use document structure’
  • Run the accessibility checker
  • View and adjust the order in the Tab Order Panel
view and adjust the tab order in the tab order panel

Screen of the Tab Order Panel in Acrobat where you can adjust the PDF document tab order.

 

Find out more in the workflow for creating accessible PDFs from InDesign article.

 

Resources about InDesign and accessibility

Steps to better structure an InDesign document to promote accessibility

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Better structure in PDF documents helps readers with visual disabilities and also has SEO benefits. HTML document structural concepts are now pervasive across many formats like Word & PDF so it’s important for content authors/contributors to be familiar with methods of document structuring. Adding paragraph styles for headings and specifying heading tags can aid in better structuring an InDesign document to promote document accessibility. Adding alternative text descriptions to all photos in a document is another important practice to enhance accessibility.

The document accessibility related panels in InDesign are:

  • The Paragraph Styles panel
  • The Structure panel

  • The Object Export Options panel

See Figure F below to see what these panels look like.

Create Paragraph Styles:

Go to the ‘Window > Styles > Paragraph Styles’ panel to start setting up paragraph styles for your normal paragraphs and heading levels (such as H1, H2, and H3). There is typically just one heading level 1, H1, in a page as the page title. A normal paragraph is typically nested within one or more headings.

To create a new paragraph style for a heading:

  • Add a text frame with the size and font style you want for that level of heading. Heading 1s typical have the largest font size.
  • In the ‘Paragraph Style’ panel choose ‘New Paragraph Style’ from the arrow menu.
  • Give it a name like ‘Heading 4 Style’. It takes on the font style characteristics of the text frame you had select.

To give a normal paragraph text frame a heading style select that frame and click on one of the heading (paragraph) styles you created.

The Paragraphs style panel for setting up styles for headings

Figure A: The Paragraphs style panel for setting up styles for headings

Map your Paragraph Styles to structural tags

To map your Paragraph Styles to structural tags:

  • Double-click on the paragraph style that you want to assign to a structural tag
  • Click on the ‘Export Tagging’ tab.
  • Under PDF, choose the type of tag you want it to be. Choose H1-H6 for a heading. Choose P for a normal paragraph.
  • If by chance you are also exporting to HTML or ePub, choose the type of tag you want the style to represent such as a heading or paragraph.
  • Click ‘OK’ and your Paragraph Style becomes associated with that structural tag.

At a minimum you should probably setup structural tags for heading levels H1-H3 and the normal paragraph.

Mapping the paragraph style to an H2-tag

Figure B: Mapping a paragraph style to an H2-tag for PDF export

Turning regular text in a text frame into a heading (or to another tagged paragraph style)

Use this method after you have already setup tagged paragraph styles. To tag heading text in a text frame (text with a heading paragraph style applied):

  • Select the heading text in the text frame.
  • Click the heading tag style (such as H4) that you want it to be from the heading tags you created in the Paragraph Styles panel. You will be able to see which text frames have tags applied in the ‘View Structure’ panel. Use the arrows to open nested elements & tags in the structure.
Changing regular text into an H2 heading style

Figure C: Changing regular text into an H2 heading style.

Working with the tag structure panel

Structural tag-related tips:

  • Go to ‘View > Structure > View Structure’ to view the document hierarchy structure branching off from the ‘Root’. Use the arrows to open nested elements in the structure.
  • Go to ‘View > Structure > Show Tagged Frames’ to visually highlight your tagged frames.
  • To change an element (like figure) into another tag (like H4), go to the Struture Panel and right-click on the figure tag. Then choose ‘Tag Element’ and then ‘H4’ from the options. This method is useful if an element in the structure has the wrong tag.
The Structure panel and changing an element into another tag

Figure D: The Structure panel and changing an element into another tag.

Adding Alt Text to Images in InDesign:

It’s important for all photos in a document to have alternative text descriptions. You can add alternative text to images, graphics, or photos by using the ‘Object Export Options’ panel.

To add alternative text to an image in InDesign:

  • Select the object/photo that you want to add alternative text to.
  • Go to: ’Object > Object Export Options’
  • Enter alternative text for the object/photo you selected in the ‘Alt Text’ tab. It’s possible to set custom alt text for an image or choose text from a structural tag previously applied.
  • Choose ‘Custom’ from the menu to enter custom alternative text for the photo.

See Figure F below to see what the ‘Object Export Options’ panel looks like and where the ‘Alt Text’ tab is.

Document accessibility related panels in InDesign

Figure F: Document accessibility related panels in InDesign

Resources about InDesign and accessibility

Videos about InDesign accessibility:

Blog posts about InDesign accessibility: