My name is Dan Tuleta, sales engineer for Equidox PDF accessibility solutions,
and this is a demonstration of our Equidox PDF remediation software.
Equidox makes PDF remediation up to 90% faster and easier using AI-powered smart detection tools
to make your documents accessible, usable, and ADA compliant. Let's get started!
When importing documents, the user has two options. PDFs can be uploaded from the hard drive
or imported directly from the URL. The ability to import from URLs is especially helpful if a
website accessibility scanner audit has located various PDFs scattered across the website.
Those URLs can be quickly copied and pasted which eliminates the
need to individually search for and download all of the inaccessible PDFs.
In this instance, I'm going to upload a file from my hard drive by dragging and dropping it into
this gray area. When the document finishes uploading the blue import button will appear.
While the document is importing Equidox analyzes the source file to help us in our remediation
workflow. If there is existing tag structure, Equidox will import those existing tags.
If there is no existing tag structure, Equidox will automatically detect
text links and image elements in the document to give us a head start on the remediation.
Equidox will also check for form fields pages requiring optical character recognition
commonly referred to as OCR and metadata that is embedded in the source document.
When we return to the main document list the file we just imported appears at the very top
and is ready to be worked on at any time. When I select a page to work on in Equidox, the first
thing I notice is the large yellow reading zone that is covering all of the content on the page.
Because this document was previously tagged, this reading zone indicates that the entire page was
grouped together as one single P-tag which is very difficult for an end-user to work with.
To help the remediator better understand the structure that they are building, we have a
Preview button that opens in a separate tab an HTML rendering of the page that you are currently
working on. When I open the Preview for this page I can see that all of the content, including the
text, headings, and the list are grouped together as a single paragraph, which is unacceptable.
If I return to the document editor, I will navigate to the Page Tab on the left-hand side. On
the Page Tab is one of the most important features in Equidox. And this is the Zone Detection slider.
If I move this slider back and forth, I am indicating that I do not want to rely on
the existing tag structure and I would prefer Equidox to redetect the structure of the page
automatically. This will reset my reading zones with a layout that is much more consistent with
the design of the page. And if I return to the HTML preview, I will see that I now have
individual paragraphs instead of the single large cluster that I previously had.
The next step for this page is to adjust the zones that do not classify as the default
text zone. I have headings and a small list that need to be identified.
First I will select the zone that contains my Heading level 1.
I can set this to a heading through the drop-down menu or by using my keyboard shortcut
by pressing the “1” key. I have changed it from a text zone to a heading level 1,
and I will apply the same shortcut to these other zones that contain my heading level 2s,
by pressing the “2” key. I have now identified them as heading level 2.
When I return to my HTML preview, I will see that the font size has increased
to help confirm that my headings have been identified for this page. If a
document is consistently formatted and designed, a heading template can be set with this checkbox
to automate the process of setting the headings throughout the entire document.
The last remaining element on this page that requires my attention is this list. In order
to properly tag this list, I can change the zone to a list through the drop-down menu or again by
using my keyboard shortcut. Hitting the “L” key will change the zone to a list and present me with
another slider tool that is used for automatic list detection. If I move this slider from left to
right, the list items will be instantly detected by Equidox, which can be seen by these grid lines.
When I return to the HTML preview, I will see that instead of a single paragraph grouping
together the list items I now have a single list that contains six individual items.
Nested lists typically take a lot of additional effort to remediate compared to standard lists.
But luckily we have Equidox and our artificial intelligence-powered List Detector to make this
fast and easy. My first step is to change the zone from a text zone to a list by hitting “L” on my
keyboard. Then I can move my List Detection slider from left to right to trigger the artificial
intelligence to analyze the zone and locate the list nested inside of the main list items. When I
check the HTML preview, I can confirm that I have created a nested list in just a couple of seconds.
The same process can be applied to larger and more
complex nested lists thanks to the power of artificial intelligence.
Another critical element in PDF documents that can be notoriously difficult and time-consuming
to remediate are tables. Equidox has a drastically improved way of generating table tags
which can save remediators countless hours of struggling with complex table tag trees.
To begin I will click and draw a zone covering the entire table.
I can then change the zone to a table through the drop-down menu or by using my keyboard shortcuts
and pressing the “T” key. Once the zone has been changed to a table I can then press the blue Table
Editor button which will isolate the table and present me with additional table editing features.
For simple tables such as this, I can use my AI-powered smart Table Detection sliders
to instantly identify rows and columns.
All that's left to do now is a quick check of the HTML preview which will show a perfect HTML table.
For more complex tables, the process is very similar but may require a couple of additional
but simple steps. For example, this table contains two levels of column headers and the
top row also requires spanning to join the four corresponding columns to create a single cell.
I will use my AI-powered Detection sliders to instantly create my rows and columns.
My next step is to change my column header from the default 1 to 2 to indicate that there are two
rows of column headers. Lastly, I will complete the span by clicking in this cell, holding Shift
on my keyboard, and clicking in this cell. I can then press the Span button or “S” on my keyboard.
When I check the HTML preview I will see a perfect table.
Once I am finished with the remediation, the final step is to export the document from the Document
Detail page. I will navigate to the Output tab. I have three options for export formats: HTML, ePUB,
and most popular PDF. When I click “Generate PDF” Equidox will compile a new PDF document for me
which will be automatically tagged based on the reading zones I have structured during my
remediation process. If there are errors in the document, such as illogical heading structure
or an image without alt-text, Equidox will give me a warning message and a link to the page
where the error has been located, so that I can correct the mistake and re-export the document.
Since there are no errors in my zone structure, no warning messages will appear
and I now have generated an accessible and compliant PDF document using Equidox.
These are some of the most time-saving AI-powered features of Equidox PDF remediation software.
We also offer expert PDF remediation services. Our team uses Equidox software and a rigorous
validation process to remediate your PDFs and ensure that they are accessible and usable.
For more information about how Equidox Software Company can help you with PDF accessibility Email us at EquidoxSales@equidox.co
Or give us a call at 216-529-3030 Or visit our website at www.equidox.co