Equidox User Guide

Equidox Overview

Equidox was designed to simplify and improve the PDF remediation workflow. The easy-to-use interface streamlines the conversion of inaccessible PDF to HTML, ePUB. Equidox is hosted in the Google Cloud (GCP) and can be accessed from any web browser for collaborative preparation of WCAG 2.0 and 2.1 AA documents. This user guide outlines the powerful functionality of Equidox.

Equidox First Look 

Equidox is a cloud based application. This means that all remediation will be done online. 

You will need an internet connection to work with your documents. 

You can access Equidox from any browser with an internet connection; the software is not tied to any single computer.

When you visit the Equidox site, you will be asked to sign in with your email and password. If you do not have an account, please contact sales@equidox.co to discuss acquiring a license. 

Let’s have a quick look at the Equidox Home Screen. These items will each be covered in more detail. Below is an overview. 

Home 

(Button 1) In the Primary Sidebar on the left side of the screen you see first the Home button. This will bring up a page that shows activities for Equidox. You can choose which Groups you’d like to see, and activity over a week, month or year. The actual data are listed below the graph. 

Documents 

(Button 2) The Documents menu item brings up a list of all uploaded documents to be remediated.

Import Document 

(Button 3) Below this is the Import Document menu item - this allows you to upload your documents for editing. 

Notifications

(Button 4) Notifications posts messages about your activity, such as when a document has completed uploading. Time-stamps allow the user to identify how new or old a notification is. Delete a notification by selecting the red cross icon . The user can delete all notifications by selecting the Trash icon at the top of the screen. Notifications are linked to the respective document. You can access the corresponding document by selecting the blue title link in the notification. Some large documents can take time to upload. Notifications appear when a document is finished importing or when the status of a document has changed.

Settings

(Button 5) Settings allows you to add Labels, Groups, and Accounts; and to set CSS. We will review Settings in the Administration video. 

Help

(Button 6) The Help button takes you to the User Guide and Training Videos. 

This portion of the interface is still under construction and will be coming soon. 

User Guide

(Item 2) This User Guide is designed to cover all aspects of Equidox functionality. For further information, view the Training Videos. 

Training Videos

Coming Soon.

Sign Out

The last button in the left-hand menu is Log Out. If your organization has a set number of permissible or concurrent users, it’s a good idea to log out when you are finished with your documents so you don’t take up a slot someone else might want to use. 

User Profile And Interface Settings

In the upper right, you will see a circle with your first initial in it. This opens some additional user options and provides the link to your profile . From here you can edit your profile, customize your user experience with interface level controls and log out. 

Language

Equidox now supports multiple languages for the interface. The default language is English, it can be changed to either Spanish, or French by expanding the language drop down and selecting the desired language.

Dark Theme

This toggle allows you to change your Equidox interface from bright white to dark mode and back. 

We will review the Documents, Import Document and Settings pages in greater detail further on. 

Administration/Settings

With an Equidox software license, at least one administrator will be assigned. Administrators have access to Settings functions. It is possible to have multiple administrators who all have access to all settings and documents. Non-admin users have access to any documents within any Groups to which they belong or that they have uploaded personally using their own account. Let’s take a closer look at the Settings screen. 

Labels

The first tab on this screen is Labels.

Labels can be added to Equidox documents to help you sort and manage your documents. These are customizable and you can create labels to suit your organization’s workflow. Examples of labels you might choose are: departments (perhaps you have documents from Accounting, Marketing and Human Resources. Labels allow account users to sort and quickly locate documents associated with those departments.) Other examples: labels might be “Read for Validation” or “Needs attention.” You can also customize the colors of these labels and delete any unneeded labels. 

To add a label, go to the bottom of the list and in the last item, choose the color of your label, type in the name of the label, and a description. The Global checkbox indicates the label is usable by all users. If you do not want other users to have access to specific labels you create, uncheck this box. Then click the plus sign in the Add or Delete column. Now your label can be applied to any uploaded documents on the document screen. 

CSS

CSS describes how HTML elements are to be displayed on screen, paper, or in other media. CSS can control the layout of multiple web pages all at once. External stylesheets are stored in CSS files. This allows you to use existing style sheets to quickly style both HTML preview and outputs.  These will not apply to PDF or ePub outputs. 

To add your CSS to Equidox, choose a name for your CSS file, type or paste in the URL, and decide if this is your default CSS. Then choose Add. You can also delete CSS by choosing Delete. 

Multiple CSS can be uploaded and stored. 

Groups

This feature allows administrators to manage Account access of documents to specific Groups. If your organization has multiple Equidox Accounts, you may wish to limit access to certain documents. Accounts can be assigned to Groups. Documents can also be assigned to Groups when they are uploaded by an administrator. Only Accounts that are part of a specific group can access documents uploaded and assigned to that Group. Documents that are uploaded and NOT assigned a Group can be accessed by all Accounts. Selecting Delete will unassign all documents to that Group. 

This is useful if you have confidential documents which should not be seen by all users, or if you have uploaded a large number of documents and you wish to segregate them within department groups so that fewer documents are visible to remediators. 

Accounts

If your Equidox Account has administrator privileges, under the Accounts tab can see a list of user accounts. Your personal user Account is indicated by this tab. Each user is listed, along with any Group to which each user belongs (if you are using Groups), and whether they have administrator privileges. You have the ability to change Account passwords and add or delete Accounts. 

Adding/Removing Users

To Add a user, go to New Account at the end of the list, fill in the user’s email, any group to which you’d like them added, and press Create. If the user has a Google account, you can check the box marked Google Account. This will allow the user to one-step sign in using their Google email account. An email will be sent to the new user at the email address you provided. 

It will provide an activation link to Equidox, and a link to our support page in case you have questions. To activate the new account click on the indicated link. This will open in a new window. The dialogue will ask the user to sign in. If you are using a Google email, once you create the account, Equidox will query the mail server to confirm that it is handled by Google or Gmail. The invitation email address must match the Google account used to sign in. If the email addresses do not match, activation will be denied by the server for security reasons.

Changing Passwords

If you wish to change your password, choose Settings, Accounts, find your Account on the list, and choose Password. Enter a new password, confirm it, and choose Change. You cannot change your password if you are using a Google email to sign in. Your password is your Google email password. Administrators can change user passwords in the same way. 

Forgot Password

If you have forgotten your password, non-Google account users can click Forgot your password? to send an email with password reset directions. Google account users can click Forgot your password? to send an email with password reset directions through the Google Password Manager. Equidox is not authorized to change or reset passwords for Google accounts. Click the Delete button on the Account Settings page to delete an account.

Logging Out

If your Equidox license includes a specified number of concurrent accounts, it’s important to have your users log out when they are done working in Equidox. If you have passed the limit of allowable concurrent users, you will be reminded to log out. 

Documents

The “documents” view shows all the documents that have been imported into Equidox. It is broken into two sections. 

Recent Documents: This top panel always contains the five most recent documents you have interacted with.

Document list: The document list shows all documents, and can be filtered, searched or sorted using the tools provided. By default they will be presented in the order in which they were last edited. 

Let’s have a look at the features of this page:

Sort By

(Arrow 1) This allows you to sort the list of imported documents by imported date, modified date, title, owner, filename or label. It can make locating documents faster and easier. 

Filter

(Arrow 2) Next you can filter the list of imported documents by any search term. Maybe you need all the documents that have the word “security” in the title. 

Label Filters

(Arrow 3) You can also filter by one or more labels attached to any of the imported documents. This will make it easy for you to see all the Human Resources documents, for example, or all the documents that are “Ready for validation,” or “Need Attention.” 

Grid/List Layouts

On the right are options to view the imported documents in a grid layout, or a list layout. Either view will provide a thumbnail of the document's first page, and the document’s file name, import date, title, owner and any labels. You can also add labels to these documents from this view. 

Editing Documents

To edit any document on the list, either click on the thumbnail or, in the list view, choose the Edit button. 

Document Detail

The Document Detail page provides information about your individual uploaded documents. 

Go To Page

In order to open the document editor on a specific page, type the number directly into this edit field and either wait for a few moments, or press the enter key to activate. 

Show Unchecked Pages 

This toggle allows you to decide whether to display all pages of the document, or only pages that require further editing. By Default the thumbnail list will display a thumbnail of every page in the document. Changing this toggle will hide all pages which are marked as validated from the thumbnail list, and allow faster navigation directly to incomplete pages. 

Export to PDF

This button will immediately run the export of the document to PDF format with the original document filename. In order to view the warning log from this export, select the history tab. 

Sharing a Document

Administrators can share documents with other users. Select a document. Click the Share button in the top right corner of the Document Detail page. Select Share with Others to choose from a pop-up list of other users with whom to share the document and grant editing permissions. Choose the Share with a Group option to select from a pop-up list of groups. Choosing a Group will grant editing permissions to all users within that group.

Properties

Under the Properties tab, we find the document title, which can be edited (Arrow 1). You can also see any Labels that have been applied, as well as add and subtract labels from your document. (Arrow 2) Examples of this might include adding a label that says “Completed” or removing a label reading “Needs attention” if the issue has been resolved. You can download your original document here. (Arrow 3) Note this is your original, unremediated document. To access the remediated document, you must go to Output. You can also view details about the uploaded document such as how it was created, when it was last modified, the number of images and pages. (Arrow 4)

At the bottom of the properties tab is the metadata subsection. Here you can view and edit the names and values pertaining to each piece of metadata. Click + to create and save or Delete to delete metadata.

Images

Next you will see a list of all images contained in the document. If there is no Alt text, the field will read Enter Image Description. You can add or edit Alt text on this tab (Arrow 1), hide zones and hide the image from view altogether. (Arrow 2)  Hiding the zone means it is not visible to a screen reader, and will be visible in the PDF output.  Making the zone “not Visible” will mean the zone is not visible on the preview or any output, but will still be properly tagged (or “artifacted”) so that it will not flag errors as an untagged element. Hiding the image completely removes the image from the PDF output. If you have hidden an image while working in the Page Detail view, you can make it visible again from the Images Tab. There is also a Save button.  (Arrow 3) You must save any changes you make before exiting this tab.  

History

This tab shows the history of edits made to the document within Equidox, and which users have done so. 

Page Notes

This panel provides a single location to view and interact with all notes that have been added to the notes field on pages within a document. 

Output

Lastly you can view output options. Once a document is remediated, you can output the remediated document from this tab. You can choose from HTML, PDF or ePub formats. This will be your remediated document. Depending on the size and complexity of your remediated document, this may take some time. To download the original file, go to the Properties tab and choose Download original document/PDF. Once the output is generated, it will open in a new window and you will need to download the file to your hard drive. 

HTML

Under HTML you can choose all pages or specific pages (Arrow 1), Generate Page IDs, insert the file name (Arrow 2) (perhaps you will want to add a suffix to your original file name such as MyDocument-EQ.pdf to help distinguish it from an unremediated copy. You can also specify any CSS files that have been uploaded by an administrator. (Arrow 3) There is a preview option here as well. (Arrow 4) This is useful for checking that your CSS is behaving as expected. Then choose Download HTML to create your HTML remediated document. (Arrow 5)

PDF

Under PDF you can again choose your file name (Arrow 1), and choose Generate PDF (Arrow 2) to create your remediated PDF document. 

ePub

For ePub, you can choose the page range (Arrow 1), insert your file name (Arrow 2) and Download your remediated ePub document (Arrow 3). 

Importing a Document

Documents can be imported from files on your computer or via urls. 

Upload

To upload a file from your computer, choose Upload, then drag files from a folder on your hard drive or click to access your hard drive. You can choose multiple files to upload at a time. Once the file(s) are chosen, you can choose “import” or remove the file. Larger files may take time to import. Once your documents are imported, they will appear on the documents page. If you are uploading a large volume of documents, you may wish to come back later to view your documents. The Notifications tab will show you when your documents are uploaded. 

Page detail

Once you've chosen your document and are ready to remediate, click on the document from the Document detail. You can choose any page, but naturally you’ll generally start at the beginning. 

From the Page detail, you’ll see lots of options along the top border. 

Home

Home returns you to the Documents page where you can choose a document to edit.  (Arrow 1)

Document filename

This shows your document name. (Arrow 2)

Page Advance 

This toggles you from one page to the next, or back. You can choose any page of the document from the Pages tab (below). The page advance will show you which page you are editing. (Arrows 3)

Go to Page

Using this edit field you can move directly to a page, type in the desired page into the edit field or use the up and down arrows to select a page to move to directly. 

Sensitivity slider

This is one of Equidox’s signature features and allows you to set the overall sensitivity of Equidox’s auto-detection of elements on your page. The default setting is “5.” You can adjust the way the zones are drawn on the page by sliding it forwards and back until the zones are as close to what is needed as possible. Choosing the correct sensitivity will vary based on the document and the elements displayed.

Page Level Reorder 

Once you’ve created zones on your page, you will need to be sure that all the elements are ordered correctly. You can select the most appropriate starting reading order for your content out of 1-3 column layouts using the drop down and click reorder to apply. 

New Zone Button

This button creates a new zone, its default position will be in the top left corner of the page with 100 x 100 dimensions. This zone can then be defined and moved as needed.

Undo

Sometimes you make a mistake and need to undo an action you just did. The undo button will reverse the most recent action taken. Dragging movements may require multiple clicks of the undo button to completely revert. 

Redo

The next button is the redo button, used for reversing an accidental undo. 

Toggle Zone Info

This toggle button has an icon with a half shaded circle. It rotates what information is displayed about a zone on the zone itself to allow for faster reviews that zone types and orders are correctly set. The options available with this toggle are as follows:

• No information - The zone has no data presented on the page. 

• Zone Type and reading order - Shows the type of zone in the top left corner and its reading order position in the top right. 

• Reading order only - Only displays the number of zones positions in the reading order in the top right corner of the zone. 

• Zone Type only. - Shows the type of zone in the top left corner of the zone. 

Save

In the upper right corner you have a save button. This saves edits you have made to the document. You will be reminded to save your changes before moving to another page, or before closing the document. (Arrow 4)

Mark page as validated

This toggle button allows you to mark a page as completed. (Arrow 5)

Preview 

This button opens your work in HTML format in a new window. This format allows you to see what remediation has been done and how it will appear to a screen reader. You can load a screen reader and use that to check your work. This HTML preview can also be used with any automated validation tools you would like to use. (Arrow 6)

Zoom in/out 

This allows your document to be zoomed for viewing in greater or lesser detail.  (Arrows 7)

Shortcuts

There are a number of shortcut keys for Equidox functions. This button brings up a list of programmed shortcuts. (Arrow 8)

Close 

This closes your document and returns you to the Document Detail page. You will be prompted to save if you have made any edits to your document.  (Arrow 9)

Top Menu Zone Controls

Once a zone has been selected or created, a secondary top menu will appear to allow for placement and ordering before selecting its zone type. 

Zone Name

This field allows you to manually define a name for your zone, this will make it easier to locate zones in the drop down zone selector, or identify the correct target for merges later. 

Order

This indicates the order the specific zone is found on the page. It is useful to be able to manually change this, and you can use decimal points to indicate the order. This is helpful if you do not want to re-order the entire page, but need to insert a zone. You can create a zone that should be read between zones 3 and 4, and designate it 3.5. 

Zone Source

You can change the source of data for any zone. After selecting a zone, click one of the four (4) options available.

PDF

This is the default zone source and will read the data within the boundary of the selected zone. You can view how your document will be read by a screen reader in HTML format by pressing the Preview button. This will open the preview in a new window. As PDF source will include any content that exists in the source PDF within the boundaries, you may encounter situations where unexpected content appears in the preview. For example, presentations where content was laid directly on placeholder text such as “put list here”. The words “put list here” will be detected by Equidox and included within this zone. 

OCR

Optical Character Recognition (OCR), is useful for scanned documents or graphics containing text. Select the zone and choose OCR from the Zone Type dropdown list in the Zone Tab, and press Convert to Text. The OCR function will convert the selection to text when text is detectable.  Results may vary depending on the quality of the image, the font, size, clarity, orientation, etc.  The user can make edits within the OCR text box once the OCR has finished processing.  Common examples of required edits are spelling mistakes, or “rn” being recognized as “m,” or “o” recognized as “0.” Once OCR has been selected from this top menu, an edit field will become available in the left hand menu under Zone Source

Custom

Custom Zone Source allows you to add new text zones or edit text in a reading zone.  This edit will appear in the HTML preview but will not change the way the PDF looks visually.  Remediators can add additional value to a page by giving an in-depth explanation of a complex graphic, or make edits to ambiguous text.  For minor edits to existing content it is recommended that a remediator use actual text. Instead of custom. Custom zone source will add entirely new lines of content directly into the PDF content tree and will not delete or remove from existing content the content tree. Content overwritten by custom will be artifacted in the output pdf. Once Custom has been selected from this top menu, an edit field will become available in the left hand menu under Zone Source. 

Actual Text

Actual text is used to modify what a screen reader will read instead of what is directly encoded. 

For example, a PDF might contain the text “L8er” which is a modern expression of “Later.”  A screen reader will not read this correctly.  The remediator has the ability to change the text in the Actual Text  from “L8er” to “Later,” so that a screen reader can accurately read the text.  The edit will visually appear in the original format (“L8er”) on the PDF export, but the tag tree will now be populated with the proper text.  There are many potential uses for actual zone source that allow the remediator to make choices on how to best convey the information visible on the page to the end user of the document. Once actual has been selected from this top menu, an edit field will become available in the left hand menu under Zone Source

Left Menu

To the left are two tabs with numerous functions. The Page Tab and the Zone Tab.

Page Tab

The first object on this tab is an (i) Icon, which can be used to expand or collapse an information panel within the tab. This panel contains details about the page, such as its number, details about its last save, when and if it was last marked as validated, and who by. And an open text field for page notes. 

Sensitivity slider

This is one of Equidox’s signature features and allows you to set the overall sensitivity of Equidox’s auto-detection of elements on your page. The default setting is “5.” You can adjust the way the zones are drawn on the page by sliding it forwards and back until the zones are as close to what is needed as possible. Choosing the correct sensitivity will vary based on the document and the elements displayed. 

This is the same feature that exists in the top menu, with an additional option to apply to all pages. If you want your current selection applied to the entire document, it can be done here. 

Fields

This checkmark toggles whether any detected form fields within the document are displayed. 

Reorder 

Once you’ve created zones on your page, you will need to be sure that all the elements are ordered correctly. You can select the most appropriate starting reading order for your content out of 1-3 column layouts using the drop down and click reorder to apply. 

This is the same feature that exists in the top menu, with an additional option to apply to all pages. If you want your current selection applied to the entire document, it can be done here. 

Zone Tab

Name 

Specific name of the zone and can be edited. (Arrow 1) This allows you to easily locate the zone later for merge operations. 

Type 

Specifies the type of zone (examples: Text, Heading, List, Link, Table, etc.)There is further detail on each of these item types under Dealing with Text. (Arrow 2)

Language

Specifies the language of the zone being edited. This allows you to individually set the language of zones when they differ from the default language of the document. For example, an English document with instructions on how to request a Spanish copy, written in Spanish. 

This must be set correctly for a screen reader to read the language correctly. If this is set incorrectly, the screen reader will read the zone in the wrong language. (Arrow 3)

Order

This indicates the order the specific zone is found on the page. It is useful to be able to manually change this, and you can use decimal points to indicate the order. This is helpful if you do not want to re-order the entire page, but need to insert a zone. You can create a zone that should be read between zones 3 and 4, and designate it 3.5.  (Arrow 4)

Remove Zone

This deletes the selected zone. (Arrow 5)

Properties

Next are the Properties of the specified type of zone. If the zone is a heading zone, it will show heading properties (such as heading level), if it is a link it will show link properties (such as the URL/Anchor and description). These various zone properties are specific to the Zone Types and change with the various Zones.  These Properties are discussed in greater detail for each zone type under Dealing With Text. (Arrow 6)

Pages Panel

The Pages panel is on the right hand side of the screen, and allows you to view page thumbnails and go directly to any of the various pages of your document (Arrow 1). If you’ve checked pages as validated, that notation will appear in this list of pages. 

This panel can be expanded and collapsed at will by clicking the expand/collapse arrows.

Images

Images are identified automatically by Equidox. These can be included as part of the output, or hidden from view if not needed. 

Page Detail View

To add alt text to images in the Page Detail View, select the image field (Arrow 1) and type your Alt text description into the Description field under the Zone Tab, with the Zone Type set to Image, under Image Properties (Arrow 2). You can add a Long Description as well. Complex alt text (such as that for an infographic or a diagram) can be pasted into the field from another source. 

Document Detail View

The Document Detail brings up a list of all images in the document under the Image tab (Arrow 1). There may be multiple pages of images. To go to the next page, choose Next at the bottom of the image list. To add alt text to the images from the Document Detail, choose the Images tab, then type your alt text into the Description (Arrow 2)  field. You can provide a Long Description as well. (Arrow 3) You can also choose to hide image zones, and hide the visual representation of the image as well (Arrow 4). By choosing the Hide Zone and/or All Visible buttons at the top of the list, you can mark all images on that page of document images at once (but not for the subsequent image pages - press Next to view the next page of images). Once images on the page are tagged, choose Save Image Properties (Arrow 5). You must save before going to the next page of images under the Image tab or your changes will be lost. Again, you can paste alt text into the description fields from another source if you choose. 

Dealing with text

Sensitivity slider

Under the Page Tab in the Page View, you will find the Sensitivity Slider (Arrow 1). This is one of Equidox’s signature features and allows you to set the overall sensitivity of Equidox’s auto-detection of elements on your page. The default setting is “5.” You can adjust the way the zones are drawn on the page by sliding it forwards and back until the zones are as close to what is needed as possible. Choosing the correct sensitivity will vary based on the document and the elements displayed. (Arrow 2)

Drawing Zones

To draw your own zone, click and drag  the mouse  around the text you’d like to include in your zone. A reading zone should encompass all of the text you need to be viewed in a single zone element. Avoid overlapping zones as the text will be read twice:  once for each zone that contains it.  You can check your work by choosing  the Preview button to see your text rendered in HTML. Zones can also be moved around the page by clicking and dragging in the center of the zone, resized by clicking and dragging the right or bottom border of the zone, or removed by selecting and pressing the delete key or red Delete zone button. 

Zone Position

Under the Zone Tab, the Left, Top, Width, Height elements show the distance between the edge of the zone and the respective edge of the page. Change by either manually typing in the field, using the arrows to increase/decrease the value, dragging the edge of the zone, or dragging the entire zone to the desired position. (Arrow 1) Editing the fields under Zone Position allows users to adjust their zone position without using the mouse.  Left indicates how far from the left margin the zone is positioned, Top indicates how far from the top margin the zone is positioned, Width indicates how large the zone is horizontally, and Height indicates the size of the zone vertically. (Arrow 2) Adjusting these values will place the zone in a specific location and assign it a specific size. 

Ignore

If you wish to remove or hide an item that is visible in the same location on all pages of a document (such as page numbers, or an unnecessary heading), draw a zone around the unneeded item (and its existing zone if there is one), and in the Zone tab, choose Ignore under the Type menu (Arrow 1). This will prevent a screen reader from reading content in this zone. You can apply this to all pages of your document by checking the box marked Enabled (Arrow 2).   You can also remove the underlying zone if you wish (Arrow 3).

Zoom/preview

On some documents text can be very small. You can use the Zoom in or Zoom out buttons to change the size of the page on your screen. This will not affect your preview of the page. This is also helpful to determine the location of several overlapping zones (often found with lists).

Reading Order 

Once you’ve created and edited the various zones on your page, you will need to be sure that all the elements are ordered correctly. If you look at the Zone Tab, each zone, when selected, will show its place in the reading order numerically. To add a zone into the order without reordering every single element, you can use decimal places. 

Additionally, on the Page Tab, there is a section called Reading Order (Arrow 1). This determines in what order the content is read on the page. You can reorder your zones automatically by choosing the reading style (top to bottom, or using several columns) by pressing Re-Order (Arrow 2). You can also re-order all subsequent pages in the document by selecting the Apply to All Pages Button. Text read top down will be read left to right, starting at the top of the page and proceeding to the bottom. Text re-ordered into columns will read the first column of text from top to bottom, then proceed to the next column and read top to bottom. (Box 3)

Merge

There are occasions when it is necessary to combine text from two different zones to be read as one zone or paragraph. An example would be a paragraph that starts in one column on the page and finishes on another. To combine these zones, select the SECOND zone (Box 3) and check the Merge box under Text Properties in the Zone Tab (Arrow 1). A drop down menu will be presented, providing options for the merge target. Merge with the previous zone, merge with a zone on this page, and merge with a zone on page…. Selecting either a zone on this page, or a zone on page…. Will present new drop downs for choosing the merge destination.

Break Lines

At times it is necessary for text to be read as separate lines within a single zone. This feature only applies to HTML outputs. An example would be three lines of an address (Box 2). To create break lines within a text zone, select the zone on the page, then go to Text Properties under the Zone Tab and select the Break lines checkbox (Arrow 1). 

Zone Source

You can change the source of data for any zone. From the Zone Tab, go to Zone Source and choose a source from the drop-down list.

PDF

This is the default zone source and will read the data within the boundary of the selected zone. You can view how your document will be read by a screen reader in HTML format by pressing the Preview button. This will open the preview in a new window. 

OCR

Optical Character Recognition (OCR), is useful for scanned documents or graphics containing text. Select the zone and choose OCR from the Zone Type dropdown list in the Zone Tab, and press Convert to Text. The OCR function will convert the selection to text when text is detectable.  Results may vary depending on the quality of the image, the font, size, clarity, orientation, etc.  The user can make edits within the OCR text box once the OCR has finished processing.  Common examples of required edits are spelling mistakes, or “rn” being recognized as “m,” or “o” recognized as “0.”

Custom

Custom Zone Source allows you to add or edit text in a reading zone.  This edit will appear in the HTML preview but will not change the way the PDF looks visually.  Remediators can add additional value to a page by giving an in-depth explanation of a complex graphic, or make edits to ambiguous text.  For example, a PDF might contain the text “L8er” which is a modern expression of “Later.”  A screen reader will not read this correctly.  The remediator has the ability to change the text in the Custom Zone from “L8er” to “Later,” so that a screen reader can accurately read the text.  The edit will visually appear in the original format (“L8er”) on the PDF export, but the tag tree will now be populated with the proper text.  There are many potential uses for the custom zone source that allow the remediator to make choices on how to best convey the information visible on the page to the end user of the document. 

Zone Types

Heading

To set a heading, select the zone designated as the heading (Arrow 1), and from the Zone tab and choose heading (Arrow 2) and the level (Arrow 3).  You can also merge headings with those from a previous page or zone, add line breaks to multi-line headings, and use the header structure as a template by checking any of the available, specified checkboxes.  The template will only apply to this and subsequent pages.  It will not apply to any previous pages. 

Tables

To create a table zone, select the content contained in the table and choose Table from the Zone tab. Then choose Table Editor and you will see the table contents auto-detected by Equidox in the next window. 

Table Tab

This tab allows you to choose a table name (Arrow 2), add a caption (Arrow 3), create a summary (Arrow 4). You can choose the column and row to assign as the table header (Arrows 5 and 6). There  are two table detection sliders Columns (Arrow 8) and Rows (Arrow 9) that adjust the table column and row detection. Adjust these sliders to find the ML model which provides the best results for your table before doing any manual adjustments. Manual adjustments can be completed by selecting the row or column divider, and moving its placement to correctly encompass the contents. (Arrow 1)

and options to OCR all cells (Arrow 9). You can manually adjust the table rows and columns by using the mouse and moving them to encompass the correct contents. (Arrow 1) 

Pictures of tables can be OCRd in one click using the OCR all cells button (Arrow 10).

Tables that require substantial manual adjustments to cell contents can be made more efficient using the custom all cells button. (Arrow 11)

Cells Tab

Under the cells tab you have the option to choose the source for each cell under Cell Source (PDF, OCR, Actual or Custom - see Zone source) (Arrow 2). Under Row Operations and Column Operations, you can Split Rows and Columns (Arrows 6, and 8), or Merge Down/Right (Arrows 7 and 9) to combine them. 

Save

This allows you to save the table edits. 

Preview

Preview opens in a new window in HTML format and shows you how your table will be interpreted by a screen reader. You may use any accessibility tool to check your table in HTML format using this preview. 

Zoom in/out

Enlarges or reduces the table on the screen. (Arrows 3)

Close

Closes the table editor and prompts you to save. (Arrow 4)

Links

Links are most often automatically identified by Equidox when a document is imported. You can check to be sure Equidox has done this correctly in the HTML by pressing the Preview button. Active links will show as such, and will convey the user to the correct webpage or open an email window when clicked. 

Should the link be inactive in your Preview, copy the link address from the Preview page to your clipboard and go back to the Page Detail. Select the link text zone (Arrow 1). Be sure the zone fully encompasses the entire text of the link. Then go to Type under Zone Properties in the Zone tab and choose Link (Arrow 3). Paste the copied URL from your clipboard into the URL/Anchor field (Arrow 4) under Link Properties. Then preview the page again to be sure the link is now active.  You can set the link name (Arrow 2), add a description (Arrow 5) and Merge the Link with text on a previous page or column (Arrow 6).  

List

The user can create a caption and summary for zones designated as List to help the text-to-speech tool describe the context of the list. To identify list items, draw a zone around the items that belong in the list (Arrow 1). You do not need to remove any existing text zones. Then choose List from the list of types under Zone Properties in the Zone Tab (Arrow 2). A zone with a left-hand margin will show over the list items. You should position this margin so that it does not overlap the text of the list item, but covers any list markers such as bullets or numbering. 

Unordered lists

For unordered (and bulleted) lists, once you have drawn your zone and chosen List, choose Unordered, and press the Detect button. Equidox will automatically assign list tags to each item and they will be presented as a list. You can check this by using the Preview button, which will show your unordered list items with bullets in a new window in HTML format. 

Ordered lists

For ordered (numbered or lettered) lists, once you have drawn your zone and chosen List (Arrow 1), choose Ordered (Arrow 2) and then select a Style Type (Arrow 3) from the dropdown list. If the list does not begin at “1”, choose the correct number and type it into the Start at box (Arrow 4). You will need to choose a number even if the list is lettered or uses Roman numerals. For example, a list beginning with item “C” would start at “3”. Then press the Detect button and Equidox will automatically number your list as indicated. You can check this by using the Preview button, which will show your unordered list items with bullets in a new window in HTML format. 

Merge list

If your list is made up of two groups of zones, you can merge them together by selecting the second part of the list and checking the Merge box. This will combine the two lists. This function is useful if you have a multi-column list that belongs together. Be sure that the two list zones being merged have subsequent numbering. 

Nested lists

For nested lists, first draw a zone around the entire contents of the table and choose List (Arrow 1) from the Zone Type dropdown list under Zone Properties in the Zone Tab. You will choose ordered or unordered and complete the details for any ordered items. Then press the Detect button. Equidox will draw zones around the list items (Arrow 2). Next, move the zone away from the list items so that the nested part of the list is exposed. Move the zone which has been drawn around the list item which contains the nested elements. Next, draw a new zone around the nested items, Then choose List (Arrow 3) from the list of types under Zone Properties in the Zone Tab. Choose ordered or unordered, and press Detect and Equidox will create the zones around the nested list items (Arrow 4). Now return to the list item zone for the item to which your nested list belongs. Move and adjust this list item zone so that it encompasses the text for both the parent list item AND the nested list. Then select the original list zone and move and adjust it so that it surrounds your entire list. You can then check that your list is nested properly by choosing the Preview button, which will show your nested list items with bullets in a new window in HTML format. This can be done for any number or level of nested items. You must ensure that your nested list and the text for the list item which contains it are both completely surrounded by the zone for the parent list item. 

Anchor

An Anchor zone is to be used with links. Copy the URL and paste it in the anchor field. Anchors can also be used for anchoring pages to a table of contents. See Links. 

Ignore

Select Ignore to hide zones, repeated, inaccurate or irrelevant content.  The ignore zone will also force Equidox to ignore any underlying zone it touches.

Blockquote

Select Blockquote to indicate a zone is a quote from another source. A blockquote is identified by an indentation of the quote and a blue line on the left side of the zone.

Graphic

Select Graphic to indicate that a zone is a graphic. The graphic zone type can be used on any logo, symbol, formula, diagram, etc. that does not qualify as an image. Add alt text or a long description to help text-to-speech tools explain the graphic.  See Images. 

Quote

Select Quote to indicate a zone is a quote defined by quotation marks at the beginning and end of the zone.

Cite

Select Cite to indicate the zone consists of a proper title of a work. This can be used to identify the title of a book, movie, piece of art, etc. Exclude the author’s name from the Cite zone type.

Footnote and Footnote Link

These fields work in tandem. To link footnotes to their footnote reference in the text, each item must be tagged. First, select the text of the footnote (Arrow 1) and choose Footnote from the Type field under Zone Properties in the Zone tab. Then select the footnote link text (Arrow 2) and choose Footnote link from the Type field (Arrow 3). This will bring up a Footnote Link Properties section in the Zone tab. Choose the correct Footnote from the list by To Footnote (Arrow 4). If you don’t see the correct Footnote in the list, recheck that you’ve properly tagged the Footnote. 

Form and Field

Select Form to indicate a zone consists of multiple field items. Select Field to indicate a zone is able to accept user input as content within a form.  Form and Field functions are still in beta (development) and are not fully supported in the current version.  

OCR

Select OCR to indicate a zone was generated via the optical character recognition tool. The OCR zone type is generally used for scanned PDF documents.

Div

This feature allows you to select a specific area of content and provide it with separate attributes. For example, you can select a list that is arranged in several columns within a normal page of text, and select Div from the Type drop-down box in the Zone Tab. You may edit the div without influencing the remainder of the page - for example you can re-order the contents of the div (select Reorder this div from the Sub-Reading Order section of the Zone Tab) in a different format than the rest of the current page. 

To change the sensitivity of ONLY the contents of the Div, create your Div, then go to Zone Properties in the Zone Tab and select Sensitivity. This will change to the Sensitivity Slider in the Zone tab and allow you to alter the sensitivity of only the content within the Div.