Tagging References, Footnotes, and Endnotes
- Daniel LaGrow
Instructions
Overview: Footnotes and endnotes have two parts, the note reference mark, and the note text. They are used for explaining, commenting, or providing references for text in a document. Footnotes are often used for detailed comments and endnotes for citation of sources.
Footnotes go to the bottom of the relevant page, endnotes appear on the last page of the document. If the footnote is very short, you may want to tag it to be sure it is read without interrupting the flow.
To tag notes in Acrobat, you’ll use these tags:
<Reference>
<Note>
The callout is marked as a <Reference> within the parent tag that contains it, such as a paragraph. Then, apply the Actual Text attribute to the <Reference> tag to provide a label for screen reader users (see the example below for more details). The note itself is tagged with the <Note> tag.
To create a hyperlink that allows users to jump to the note, use link tags within the <Reference> tag.
<Link>
<Link - OBJR>
Section 5.24: How to Link a Footnote to be Recognized by a Screen Reader
Go to the All Tools Tab and click on the Prepare for Accessibility Tool.
In the Prepare for Accessibility Tool, click Fix Reading Order.
Draw a box around the small superscript callout number.
Click the Reference button, a Reference Tag will appear in your Accessibility Tags pane. There the superscript number 1 should also appear inside it. Sometimes the one does not appear, but our next step helps with that issue.
Close the Reading Order box, and go to the Options Menu in the Accessibility Tags pane and click Find.
The Find Element box will appear. In the Find drop-down menu, select Unmarked Links, then check Search Document. Click Find. The first superscript callout will be highlighted in pink. Click Tag Element. The Link - OBJR Annotation will be created.
Go to the Accessibility Tags Pane and look at your tags. Right now, you should have a Document Tag, a Reference Tag with a 1 inside it, and a Link with a Link - OBJR tag inside it. Place the Link tag inside the Reference Tag. Tags should be arranged like this:
Tags on top
<Documents> tag is the child of the tag root.
<Reference> tag is the child of the document tag.
<Link> tag is the child of the reference tag.
Link - OBJR is the child of the link tab. The endnote is in the Link - OBJR.
Click the Selection Tool. Highlight the sentence, not the footnote number.
Open the Options Menu, Select Create Tag from Selection, and create a Paragraph tag. Select Paragraph from the drop-down menu and click OK. You may have some empty containers and need to rearrange the hierarchy.
Delete any empty containers and arrange everything else like this:
Tags on top
<Documents> tag is the child of the tag root.
<Paragraph> tag is the child of the document tag.
Within the Paragraph tag, your text is displayed.
<Reference> tag is the child of the paragraph tag.
<Link> tag is the child of the reference tag.
Link - OBJR is the child of the link tab. The endnote is in the Link - OBJR.
Now reopen the Reading Order Tool. Scroll down to the footnote and draw a box around it. Include all of the text and the superscript number.
Click the Note Button in the Reading Order Tool.
Drag and drop the Note Tag if needed to the right place in the tag tree. (Make it a child of the document tag, but place it under every tag under the Paragraph Tag.)
