The Settings Tab
On this page: The Selection Group I The Selection Order Group I The Text Direction Group I The Selection Tool Group I Highlight Color I The Business Group I The User Tags Group I About I Next Pages
The “Selection” Group
This Group controls the content in the document that may be selected for tagging.
Exact – Allows the user to select and work with exactly what content, tag, etc. is clicked on or highlighted.
Pro Tip: This is the option you’re going to want to go with, most of the time!
The rest of the Selection Group is organized into three columns. You can choose selection criteria from the first column OR the second column. For example, Text, Images, and Annotations may be chosen in any combination with each other. However, “Text” (in the first column) cannot be chosen along with “Tags” from the second column. The third column, containing “Tagged” and “Untagged,” allows you to control from where the content can be selected (from the Tag Tree, the Untagged Content panel, or both).
- Text – With this option chosen, text may be selected. If the checkbox is unchecked then text cannot be selected, even if there is text in the section of the Physical View that’s being highlighted.
- Images – With this checkbox chosen, images may be selected. If the checkbox is not checked then images can’t be selected, even if there are images in the section of the Physical View that’s being highlighted.
- Annotations – With this checkbox chosen, annotations may be selected. If the checkbox isn’t checked then annotations can’t be selected, even if there are annotations in the section of the Physical View that’s being highlighted.
Tip: Turning on and off the options listed above can be very helpful. For example, in the Physical View of the document, a link can contain text (the website target, for example), an image (the blue underline), and an annotation (the “clickable” part of the link that makes it go to the actual target). By turning off “Images” and then selecting the link, the text and the annotation will be correctly tagged and the image will not be brought into the structure of the <Link> tag.
The second column contains two options, “Tags” and “Artifacts.” The explanation of this functionality follows:
- Tags – Will select the tag that the text, image, or other highlighted portion of the document is in as opposed to selecting the text elements (or text runs) or images themselves.
- Artifacts – Turning on or off this checkbox will allow the user to control whether or not artifacts are also selected when highlighting content or choosing tags in the Tags Tree. In addition, turning off the other checkboxes and leaving “Artifacts” checked makes it easier to set the properties of artifacts (layout, pagination, attached attribute, etc.) or to tag them to be read.
The last column with options for “Tagged” and “Untagged”
- Tagged – Turning on or off the “Tagged” checkbox controls whether or not tagged content may be selected. This can be helpful, for example, when you want to select only tagged content on a page that contains both tagged and untagged items.
- Untagged – Turning on or off the “Untagged” checkbox controls whether or not untagged content may be selected. This can be helpful, for example, when there is untagged content on the page that should be tagged. Switch the selection to Untagged only, select the content, and then tag it accordingly.
The “Selection Order” Group
There are two options for selecting content in a document.
When using the first choice, Physical Order, to select and move content, the text, images, etc., will be ordered in the Tags tree as they appear in the Physical View (reading top to bottom and left to right).
The second option, Logical Order, will cause content to be selected, moved, and reordered according to how it is currently organized in the Tags tree.
The “Text Direction” Group
When tagging languages that read from right to left, change the text direction accordingly so that, when selecting and tagging content, the text runs get ordered correctly.
Note: While the text runs will be placed in “right to left” order, the characters inside the text runs will still be arranged left-to-right. To remedy this, place the text inside a “ReversedChars” tag. (Check out the Insert and Convert Tag tab webpage for more details.)
The “Selection Tool” Group
In CommonLook PDF, there are two different ways to select content.
The first option, Text Selection, will allow you to select text from the PDF document. This could be useful, for example, when assigning Alternative Text to a tag. Choose “Text Selection,” highlight the text that you’ll use for the Alt. Text, and copy it to the clipboard (right-click or use the context menu keys on your keyboard to copy). Then, paste the text into the Alt Text field of the appropriate tag.
The second option, CommonLook Selection, allows for selecting the text runs, tags, and other items necessary to remediate the document. This is, in fact, the default setting for CommonLook PDF. So, unless you want to copy text from the PDF, this setting rarely needs to be changed.
The “Highlight Color” Group
Use the drop-down menu to change the color that highlights content in the Physical View when something has been selected.
The “Business” Group
The Business Group in the Settings Tab on the Ribbon contains a User Preference menu and a button to Reset the Panels’ Locations.
In the User Preferences menu, users may choose settings to:
- Check a checkbox to “Consider elements containing only empty spaces to be empty.” If this checkbox is checked, then when a clean-up of the document is run, tags with empty text runs (blank spaces) will be deleted and those spaces will be placed in Artifact containers. Tip: Use this option! When people use Enter, Space, and Tab to format content in their documents, those spaces often get tagged. With this checkbox checked, when you run a clean-up, all of the tags that contain only spaces will be removed from the Tags tree.
- Check or uncheck the box to “Copy Contents of Selected Tags to Find Text” (useful in Find and Replace).
- Generate Bookmarks up to a specific Heading Level by choosing from a drop-down menu.
When selected, the “Reset Panels Location” moves all of the panels (table tools, Tags, Untagged Content, etc.) back to their default positions.
The “User Tags” Group
While the tag types that are most commonly used are readily available in the ribbon of the Insert and Convert tag tabs, many people often use tags that aren’t on the ribbon. You can add them here in the “User Tags” group and then they’ll be on the ribbon in the Insert and Convert tag tabs.
To add tag types to the ribbon, click on the “User Tags” icon and then, in the box, type the desired tag type (up to nine tags can be added here). When finished, click “Close.” To remove them (or change them) select the tag name in the table and delete it. Or, choose “Clear All” to remove all of them at once.
The “About” Group
Select the button in the “About” group to check on version and licensing information. (You may need this, for example, when contacting our Support team.)
Next Pages
Follow the links below to view other pages in the User’s Guide:
Page 1- Welcome, Getting Started
Page 2 – The Toolbar and Ribbon
Page 3 – Insert Tag and Convert Tag Tabs
Page 7 – The Tag Properties Panel
Page 8 – The Integrity Validator