Redaction is the process of removing text or areas from a document containing any sensitive or confidential information. Redacted content appears blacked-out for users.
💡 Only full administrators and users with Upload permission to the selected documents can redact them.
You can redact PDFs and a number of other supported file types:
TXT | DOC | DOCX | PPT | PPTX | RTF | HTM | HTML | MHT | JPG | JPEG | JPE | GIF | BMP | PNG | SVG | TIF | TIFF | DWG | XML
To redact a document, right-click on it, and select Redact in the dropdown menu.
There are two redaction modes available: Search & redact and Redact area.
Q&A attachments cannot be redacted. It is recommended to remove any sensitive content from such files before uploading them to the data room.
Redact area
There are 2 available options:
ℹ️ The option "Redact area on one page" is enabled by default upon opening the document for redaction.
Redact area on one page
This option allows you to select and redact any area in the document, whether images, text phrases, or the whole paragraph or page. To redact areas in your document:
Click and drag your cursor to select an area for redaction.
To edit the selected area size or position, just drag the rectangular to fit the right area.
Redact area on entire document
This option allows redacting specific areas on each page of the document without going through each page manually. To do so:
Click Redact area
Select Redact area on entire document.
Select the area to be redacted.
Redaction marks will be automatically applied to each page of the document in the selected area. You can remove redaction marks from the specific pages if needed.
Search & redact
This option allows searching and redacting certain words or phrases across the whole document. To find and mark specific text:
Click Search & redact.
💡 Use hotkeys for search: ctrl+F on Windows or command+F on Mac.
Enter the word or phrase you'd like to redact.
Once matches are found, click Mark for redaction.
Redacting emails
In the Search & redact, you can also automatically find all email addresses in your document and mark them for redaction in bulk. To do so:
Click Emails.
Once matches are found, click Mark for redaction.
💡 All documents are scanned for optical character recognition (OCR), and its accuracy depends on the document's original quality. We highly recommend reviewing all redaction marks to ensure all items were found and marked correctly.
Reviewing and applying redaction marks
You can check all found matches using the navigation elements before clicking Mark for redaction or after, on the right-side panel.
On this panel, you can navigate through all redaction marks and click on each to see its location in the document.
To delete the redaction mark, click on the cross sign next to it on the right-side panel.
You can also click on any mark in the document and adjust its size or delete it by using the recycling bin sign.
Once you have reviewed all redaction marks, click Apply to make the changes available.
You can draft and apply new marks to a redacted document at any time.
Keep in mind that as soon as you apply redaction:
The redacted PDF version will replace the original. All marked areas and texts will be removed from the document and will not appear in search results.
The redacted version of a document will become available to all users with access to the document, including full administrators.
The Download original permission will allow users to download the redacted version only.
Full administrators can download unredacted versions of documents and unredact them at any stage of the project for other users if needed.
Redaction drafts
Use the Save as draft option to continue redacting the document later and/or let your colleagues review your redaction marks before applying them.
In case the selected document already contains drafted redactions, click Redact draft to open it for redaction, review, and apply the changes.
💡 Only full administrators and users with upload permission have access to redaction drafts. Users with lower permission levels will not see the changes until they are applied.
If you no longer need to redact a document, or you'd like to mark it up from scratch, just click on the Delete draft button. This action will discard all drafted changes.
You can also apply redactions or delete drafted redactions right from the context menu by choosing the corresponding option.
Retrieving unredacted version
Only full administrators can unredact or download an unredacted version of a document.
To unredact a document, select a file and choose Unredact in the context menu.
As soon as you confirm and unredact a document, previously redacted content will become available to users with access to this file. Saved redaction drafts will also be deleted if there were any for the selected documents. This action cannot be undone, but you can redact documents anew if needed.
To download an unredacted document, choose the corresponding download option from the drop-down menu.
You can also unredact and download unredacted files in bulk if there are any redacted documents among the selected folders or files.
Filtering redacted documents
Additional filters are available for full administrators and users with Upload permission.
Under the Redaction filter, you will find the following options: Applied, Drafted, Applied and has new draft, None.
Depending on your selection, the applicable documents will appear in your search:
Applied: documents where all redaction marks have been applied and do not contain any drafted marks.
Drafted: documents containing only drafted marks. All redaction marks still need to be reviewed and applied.
Applied and has new draft: documents with both applied and drafted redaction marks. Meaning, some of the changes are already available for users, and some need to be reviewed and applied.
None: documents without any applied or drafted redaction marks.
If you need to review all documents with unfinished redactions, use filters Drafted and Applied and has new draft, and simply click on each document to open its redaction draft.
Tracking actions in Reports
Full administrators can track all actions related to redacted files in the All actions report, under Actions over files and folders.
To see more details, hover the cursor over three dots.