What’s in a Table Heading?
Table headings help readers understand how tables are organized into columns and rows. While many authors try to indicate a heading row by changing its appearance (e.g., font and background color), a change of this type provides little or no information about the structure of the table. A document that relies entirely on visual formatting will, when converted to HTML or PDF, lack the structural information needed by readers who use assistive technology. Fortunately, Word offers a setting for table headings that does indicate table structure. This tutorial shows you how to set this property for table headings.
Assigning “Heading” Status to a Row (Word 2007)
(The following instructions apply to Word documents saved in the Word 2007 or .docx file format.)
To specify a table heading row, follow these steps:
- Select the table row that contains the column labels (the selection must include the first row of the table).
- Right Click on this row, or press the Context Key and select "Table Properties..." (Figure 1).
- Select the "Row" tab of the Table Properties dialog (Figure 2-a).
- Select the checkbox, "Repeat as header row at the top of each page" (Figure 2-b).
Figure 1: Specifying a Table Heading Row
Select the row containing the column headings, then choose Table Properties... from the context menu.
Figure 2: Specifying a Table Heading Row
From the "Row" tab, select the checkbox, "Repeat as header row at the top of each page."
Assigning “Heading” Status to a Row (Word 2003)
The following instructions apply to Word 2003 documents, as well as Word 2007 documents saved in the "Word 97-2003 Document" or .doc file format (also called Compatibility Mode).
To specify a table heading row, follow these steps:
- Select the table row that contains the column labels (the selection must include the first row of the table).
- With the row selected, choose Table > Heading Rows Repeat (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Specifying a Table Heading Row
Select the row containing the column headings, then choose Table > Heading Rows Repeat.
The Effect of Table Rows Repeat
The Table Rows Repeat feature was designed primarily to assist with the printing of long tables that span multiple pages. Once applied, the selected rows appear as headings on each printed page. They can also be viewed on-screen in Print Layout View.
But table headings created using Table Rows Repeat will also transfer to other document formats, such as HTML and PDF. Once converted, table heading rows will be tagged for accessibility.
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