1. Choose the hamburger Menu (Windows), or the View menu (macOS) > Show/Hide > Side Panels > Content.
Use the Content panel to correct reflow problems in a PDF that can’t be corrected by using the Reading Order tool. Because you can damage a PDF by editing content objects, make sure that you’re familiar with PDF structure before you change anything. For comprehensive information about PDF structure, see the PDF Reference Sixth Edition: Adobe Portable Document Format Version 1.7, on the PDF reference page (English only) of the Adobe website.
The Content panel provides a hierarchical view of the objects that make up a PDF, including the PDF object itself. Each document includes one or more pages, a set of annotations (such as comments and links), and the content objects for the page. The content objects consist of containers, text, paths, and images. Objects are listed in the order in which they appear on the page, like tags in the logical structure tree. However, PDFs don’t require tags for you to view or change the object structure.
1. Choose the hamburger Menu (Windows), or the View menu (macOS) > Show/Hide > Side Panels > Content.
Drag it to the location that you want.
Choose Cut from the Options menu, select the tag above the location you want to paste the cut tag, and choose Paste from the Options menu.
Container elements can’t be pasted directly to page elements. To move a container to another page, cut the container you want to move. Then select a container on the page that you want to move the container to and choose Paste from the Options menu. Then, drag the container out one level to the location that you want.
In the Content panel, use the Options menu or right-click an object to choose from the following options:
New Container Adds a container object at the end of the selected page or container.
Edit Container Dictionary Specifies the dictionary for the container. Errors in this dialog box may damage the PDF. Available only for containers that include dictionaries.
Cut Cuts and copies the selected object (not the related page content).
Paste Pastes content directly below the selected object at the same hierarchical level.
Paste Child Pastes content into the selected object as a child content item.
Delete Removes the object (not the related page content) from the document.
Find Content From Selection Searches for the object in the Content panel that contains the object selected in the document pane.
Find Searches for unmarked (untagged) artifacts, content, comments, and links. Options allow you to search the page or document, and to add tags to found items.
Create Artifact Defines selected objects as artifacts. Artifacts are not read by a screen reader or by the Read Out Loud feature. Page numbers, headers, and footers are often best tagged as artifacts.
Show In Tags Panel Switches automatically to the Tags panel, and selects the tag corresponding to the content element.
Remove Artifact Removes the artifact definition from the selected object.
Highlight Content When selected, highlights appear in the document pane around content that relates to a selected object in the Content panel.
Show Metadata Allows viewing and editing of image or object metadata.
Properties Opens the Touch Up Properties dialog box.
The Tags panel allows you to view and edit tags in the logical structure tree, or tags tree, of a PDF. In the Tags panel, tags appear in a hierarchical order that indicates the reading sequence of the document. The first item in this structure is the Tags root. All other items are tags and are children of the Tags root. Tags use coded element types that appear in angle brackets (< >). Each element, including structural elements such as sections and articles, appears in the logical structure ordered by type. It's followed by a title and the element’s content or a description of the content. Structural elements are typically listed as containers (parent tags). They include several smaller elements (child tags) within them.
For more information on logical structures, see the PDF Reference Sixth Edition: Adobe Portable Document Format Version 1.7, on the PDF reference page (English only) of the Adobe website.
Though you can correct most tagging issues by using the Reading Order tool, you must use the Tags panel to address detailed tagging of tables and substructure items, such as paragraphs, lists, and sections that require multiple languages. Add tags manually to a document in the Tags panel only as a last resort. First consider using the Add Tags To Document command.
1. Choose the hamburger Menu (Windows), or the View menu (macOS) > Show/Hide > Side Panels > Tags.
Expand the tag for the section that you want.
Ctrl-click the plus sign (Windows) or Option-click the triangle (macOS) next to the Tags root to show all tags in the logical structure tree.
You can edit a tag title, change a tag location, or change the tag type for an element. All page content must be tagged, marked as an artifact, or removed from the logical structure tree.
Drag the tag to the location that you want. As you drag, a line appears at viable locations.
Choose Cut from the Options menu, and select the tag that appears above the location you want to paste the cut tag. From the Options menu, choose Paste to move the tag to the same level as the selected tag. Or choose Paste Child to move the tag within the selected tag.
In the Tags panel, use the Options menu or right-click a tag in the logical structure tree to choose from the following options:
New Tag Creates a tag in the logical structure tree after the currently selected item. Specify type and title of the new tag.
Cut Removes the selected tag from its current location and puts it on the clipboard.
Paste Places the tag that’s on the clipboard into the location specified, replacing the selected tag.
Paste Child Places the tag that’s on the clipboard into the location specified, as a child of the selected tag.
Delete Tag Removes the selected tag.
Find Tag From Selection Searches for the tag in the Tags panel that contains the text or object selected in the document pane.
Create Tag From Selection Creates a tag in the logical structure tree after the item selected in the document pane. Specify type and title of the new tag.
Find Searches for artifacts, OCR suspects, and unmarked (untagged) content, comments, links, and annotations. Options allow you to search the page or document and add tags to found items.
Change Tag To Artifact Changes selected tags to artifacts and removes the tagged content from the structure tree.
Copy Contents To Clipboard Copies all content contained within the selected tags.
Edit Class Map Allows you to add, change, and delete the class map, or style dictionary, for the document. Class maps store attributes that are associated with each element.
Edit Role Map Allows you to add, change, and delete role maps for the document. Role maps allow each document to contain a uniquely defined tag set. By mapping these custom tags to predefined tags in Acrobat, custom tags are easier to identify and edit.
Tag Annotations When selected, all new comments and form fields are added to the tag tree after the selected tag element. Existing comments and form fields aren’t added to the tag tree. Highlight and Underline comments are automatically associated and tagged with the text that they annotate and don’t require this option.
Document Is Tagged PDF Flags the PDF as a tagged document. Deselect to remove the flag.
This option doesn’t necessarily indicate that the PDF conforms to PDF guidelines and should be used judiciously.
Highlight Content When selected, causes highlights to appear around content in the document pane when you select the related tag in the Tags panel.
Show Metadata Opens a read-only dialog box that contains reference information about the selected tag.
Properties Opens the Object Properties dialog box.
Some tagged PDFs might not contain all the information necessary to make the document contents fully accessible. For example, if you want to make a document available to a screen reader, the PDF should contain alternate text for figures. It should also include language properties for portions of the text that use a language that is different from the default language for the document and expansion text for abbreviations. Designating the appropriate language for different text elements ensures that the correct characters are used when you repurpose the document and that it's spell-checked with the correct dictionary.
You can add alternate text and multiple languages to a tag from the Tags panel. (If only one language is required, choose the language with File > Properties instead.) You can also add alternate text by using the Reading Order tool.
Keep alternate text descriptions as concise as possible.