How to access the Table Editor in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC

Today’s blog post explores a faster way to access the Table Editor in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC when working on PDF table accessibility.

The Table Editor helps you adjust table structure so assistive technologies can read tables correctly. You can use it to set header scope, update cell properties, and repair table issues that affect accessibility.

Video Guide

Why the Table Editor Matters

Accessible tables need more than clean visual formatting. They need a structure that tells screen readers how headers and data cells relate to each other.

The Table Editor lets you make those changes inside Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. It gives you access to important settings for table remediation, including header rows, data cells, scope, and irregular table rows.

The Traditional Way to Open the Table Editor

I’ve always opened it the long way, for lack of a better way, like this:

Select All Tools
Choose Prepare for Accessibility
Open Fix Reading Order
Right-click inside the table
Select Table Editor

This method works, but it’s a LOT of clicks. When you work with tables often, those extra steps slow down the process.

The Shortcut

You can open it much faster from the tags panel. Right-click the table tag and select Table Editor.

That shortcut takes you straight into the Table Editor view. You can right-click to open the Reading Order tool from the table tag, as well!

Set Table Header Scope

Once you open the Editor, you can complete a host of accessibility tasks. In our companion video, we adjusted the scope of the table header cells.

The steps we took:

Select the header cells
Right-click the selected cells
Choose Table Cell Properties
Change the scope from None to Column
Select Okay

This setting helps screen readers identify those cells as column headers. It also helps users understand how each data cell connects to the table heading above it.

You can also use the Table Editor to:

Set header rows
Change data cells
Repair irregular table rows
Review how Acrobat interprets the table structure

A Faster Accessibility Workflow

This right-click shortcut removes a lot of friction from the PDF remediation process. Instead of moving through several tool menus, you can go straight to the Table Editor from the tags panel.

Let me be your champion for inclusion. I offer tailored solutions (and self-paced courses!) to ensure your documents meet and exceed compliance expectations. For more detailed insights, tutorials, and in-depth discussions on accessibility and related topics, don’t forget to check out my YouTube channel: The Accessibility Guy on YouTube. Subscribe for regular updates!