Before distributing documents, it’s considerate to redact certain document contents to avoid possible legal consequences of exposing such sensitive information. The redaction tool lets you permanently black out a specified area or certain text, such as name, dates, or numbers, or images, so that the sensitive contents are kept from leakage. You may further use the Search and Redact tool to search and remove specified words or phrases in one or multiple PDF documents.

The text or images you mark for redaction, by default, are outlined with red lines and will be blacked out when the cursor moves over the redacted areas. To change the default look of the redaction marks, you can change the settings in the Redaction properties dialog box before you use the tool.

Optionally, you may set redaction code to overprint an overlay text on the redacted area. Then you use Apply Redaction to permanently make all redacted contents unreadable. Since this command cannot be undone, make sure you save a copy of the document in case you need to access the original content of the document. 

Mark for redaction

Redaction tools are able to remove visible sensitive contents from a PDF file. You can change the color of the redaction marks and the text that appears over the redacted area before you actually mark items for redaction.

  1. (Optional) To edit the appearance of the redacted area, choose Security > Redaction > Redaction Tool Properties.

  2. Choose Security > Redaction > Mark Redaction > Mark Redaction. The pointer changes into I-beam over text and cross over images.

  3. Do any of the following to mark redaction:

To mark text for redaction

    • With the I-beam pointer, click-drag to mark the words to remove.

    • Double-click to mark a single word.

    • With the cross pointer, click-drag to mark a rectangle area that includes the content you want to remove from the PDF file.

To mark an image for redaction

    • With the cross pointer, double-click on an image to mark an entire image for redaction.

    • With the cross pointer, click-drag to mark a rectangle area that covers the entire image or just a part of it.

  1. (Optional) To duplicate a redaction mark, right-click it and choose Repeat Mark across Pages. This feature comes in handy when a particular header, footer, or watermark appears in the same location on many pages.

  2. To permanently remove all marked content, choose Security > Redaction > Apply Redaction. At the prompt, check Apply marks visually only, preserving marked content to black out only the marked text, without erasing the marked content. Click Apply.

  3. At the prompt stating the redaction has been successfully applied, click OK and proceed to inspect the document to remove hidden document contents.

  4. In the Inspect Document dialog box, specify the items to remove from the document and click Remove. Note that to remove hidden data, please check Embedded non-display data. Click OK and then save the document to make all the changes permanent.


The marked area is outlined with red lines.(Left)   /   The marked area is blacked out when the cursor moves over it.(Right)

 


A. The text marked for redaction. B. Check to allow setting Overlay Text. C. Determine the text to display on the redacted area D. The result

Note: after redaction is applied, all marked contents will be permanently removed and the operations cannot be undone.

Redact entire pages

  1. (Optional) To edit the appearance of the redacted area, choose Security > Redaction > Redaction Tool Properties.

  2. Choose Security > Redaction > Mark Redaction > Pages….

  3. In the Mark Page Range dialog box, you can do the following:

    • Select Mark current page for redaction to mark the current page. Click OK.

    • Select Mark specific page range for redaction, and enter a range in the field below. Click OK.

  1. To permanently remove all marked content, choose Security > Redaction > Apply Redaction. See point 4 to 6 in the Redact content section above for additional instruction.

Whiteout

  1. Choose Security > Redaction > Whiteout.

  2. A pop-up dialog box will show. Click Yes to proceed. The pointer changes into cross .

  3. Click-drag to mark a rectangle area that includes the content you want to erase from the PDF file. The whiteout effect will be applied immediately and cannot be restored by the Undo function. Don’t save the document if you have applied whiteout by mistake.

Search and remove text

The Search and Redact tool searches multiple documents that contain searchable text for certain keywords or phrases and marks the matched results for redaction.

  1. Open a PDF file that contains searchable text.

  2. Choose Security > Redaction > Search and Redact.

  3. In the Search dialog box, specify whether you want to search the current document, portfolio, or all documents in another folder. Next, select one of the following from the Search For options to define the scope. For more information, see Find text in PDFs.

    • Select Single word or phrase to search for only one word or phrase. Type the word or phrase in the What word or phrase would you like to search for text field and then click Search and Redact.

    • Select Multiple words or phrase to search for multiple words and then click Select Words…. In the Words and Phrases to Search dialog box, do any of the following to add the words or phrases to the Word and phrase list box and then click OK.

      • Enter each word in the New word or phrase text field and then click Add.

      • Click import… to import a text file that contains a list of words or phrases.

    • Select Patterns to search for a pattern, such as SSN, phone numbers, credit card numbers, email address, and date. Select one from the drop-down menu and then click Search and Redact.

    • Select Arbitrary mask to change the format category to custom and make another text field available, in which you can type a custom format and then click Search and Redact. See Find text in PDFs.

  1. All occurrences are listed in the search results dialog. If you search documents in a specified folder, you can click the plus sign next to each document name to see all occurrences within each document. Then do any of the following to select the occurrences you want to mark for redaction and click Mark Selected Results for Redaction.

    • Individually check the box for each occurrence you want to mark for redaction. You can click the text next to the checkbox to view the occurrence on the page.

    • Click Select All to select all occurrences in the list.

    • Click New Search to start over.

    • To mark whole words or partial words (characters) for redaction, select the option under Redaction Mark Options. For partial words, select Mark Partial Word(s) For Redaction and the Settings dialog box will automatically appear, in which you can specify the number and location of the words for redaction.

  1. The selected items are shown marked for redaction in the PDF file they belong to. If you search documents in a specified folder, you will enter the Output Options dialog box, in which you can set the destination folder, file naming and output format options, enabling you to keep the original files redaction-free.

  2. To permanently remove the selected items, choose Security > Redaction > Apply Redactionand then click Apply and OK. The items are not permanently removed from the document until you save it.

  3. You may use the Inspect Document tool to permanently remove specified content or hidden data from the document.

  4. To save the file and let redaction take effect, you can click Save on the Quick Access Toolbar, choose File > Save, or press Ctrl+S on your keyboard. Specify a file name and location. If you do not want to overwrite the original file, give it a new name, location, or both and then click Save.

Change the look of the redaction marks

  1. Open a PDF file and choose Security > Redaction > Redaction Tool Propertiesto set the default look of all marks before applying redactions.

  2. In the Redaction Tool Properties dialog box, on the Display tab, select the options you want to change and then click OK:

    • To change the color of the marks that cover the redacted contents, click the Mark Color colored square and then select a predefined color from the color palette.

    • Select Use Overlay Text to overprint custom text or redaction code on the redacted items. You can click .. to edit font, size, color, and alignment, and determine whether to auto-size text to fit redaction area in the Font Editor dialog.

    • Select Repeat Overlay Text to fill the redacted area with as many instances of the custom text as possible.

    • Select Custom Text and then specify the text to appear in the redacted area.

    • Select Redaction Code to overprint a type of code entry on redacted areas from a collection of entries called code set. Select a code set from the Code Sets drop-down menu and then, in the Code Entries box, select an entry as the overlay text on the redacted contents from the list. You can click on the Edit… button to define a new code set or an entry.

Redaction codes

You can select Use Overlay Text to overprint either custom text or redaction code on the redacted areas. For redaction code, Right PDF provides two predefined code sets, U.S. FOIA and U.S. Privacy Act you can use. Each code set has a collection of code entries you can choose one from. You may also import code set (*.XML) or save and export existing code set (*.XML) to a specified location.

 

Create code sets and redaction codes

  1. Open a PDF file and choose Security > Redaction > Redaction Tool Properties.

  2. In the Redaction Tool Properties dialog box, on the Display tab, select Use Overlay Text, Redaction Code, and then click Edit….

  3. In the Redaction Code Editor dialog box, click Add Set. You can click Rename Setto give the set a new name.

  4. Click Add Code. Click Rename Code and type the text to appear as overlay text.

  5. Repeat the previous steps to add additional code entries to the code set.

  6. Click OK.

 

Edit code sets and redaction codes

In addition to renaming and deleting code sets, you can also import a previously saved code set or export a code set to a XML file that you can reuse in other PDFs.

  1. Open a PDF file and choose Security > Redaction > Redaction Tool Properties.

  2. In the Redaction Tool Properties dialog box, on the Display tab, select Use Overlay Text, Redaction Code, and then click Edit….

  3. In the Redaction Code Editor dialog box, do the following to rename, delete, import, and export a code set:

    • To rename a code set, click on one and click Rename Set. Type a new name for the selected set.

    • To remove a code set and the code entries thereof, select the code set and click Remove Set.

    • To import a previously saved code set (*.XML), click Import…. Select a (*.XML) file and click Open.

    • To export a code set to a XML file containing a collection of code entries that can be reused in other PDF files, select the code set and click Export…. In the Save As dialog box, specify a file name and location and then click Save.

  4. Code Entries

    • To rename an entry, click on one and click Rename Code. Type a new name for the selected entry.

    • Click Remove Code to remove the selected entry from the code set.

  5. Click OK.

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