Search and Redact

search and redact feature redacting a pdf is a permanent process that removes sensitive or confidential information before a document is shared unlike covering text with a shape (see whiteout), true redaction deletes the data underneath so it cannot be recovered the search and redact option also allows you to search for specific words or phrases within the document and select the results you want to redact text and images can be redacted to help protect privacy and meet compliance requirements the search and redact menu choice is found under the secure tab search and redact menu choice the menu choices when selected the following menu will be displayed search & redact options settings whole words only check this box if you want to search for exact words only this means "cat" will not match "catalog" case sensitive check this box if your search should distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters for instance, "cat" will not match "cat" include comments check this box if you want the search to include comments made within the pdf show search markers on the scrollbar check this option to display markers on the scrollbar indicating where search results are located throughout the document using the search & redact feature search & redact start process ❶ ❶ to initiate the search, enter the word of phrase you wish to find ❷ ❷ click the search and redact button to start the search process this will now open the redaction marks menu redaction marks ( side menu) redaction marks menu ❶ ❶ the redaction marks menu ❷ ❷ select individual lines by holding down the ctrl key and clicking the line if you only want a specific word/line to be redacted ❸ ❸ select all if you want to select all the words/lines to be redacted or clear list to remove all marks from the list ❹ ❹ the redact appearance options available are fill color the fill color of the selected area can be changed double click the color box to open the color selection tool overlay text if text is required to be added to the selection, the user must check this box if not selected the selection will not have any text added the overlay text box when required, the user will input the word/s in this provided space note note the number of characters can only be equal to or less than the number of characters in the search word example if search word is text , then the number of characters that can be entered in this field is 4 repeat text the same text entered is repeated where possible in the selected area match found text size when this option is selected, the overlay text will match the size of the existing text in the document note this overrides the repeat text option and the font size setting, using the font size of the searched word in the document the font size , alignment selection and text colo r options here you select the font size for the overlay text the text can either be left , center or right aligned to the area selected to be redacted the color of the font (text color) can be chosen from a pulldown menu ❺ ❺ to redact multiple specific items without selecting all, hold ctrl and click eachrequired line to apply redaction only to the selected items click the green tick ✓ ✓ to clear all the lines from the list, click the garbage can icon ❻ ❻ select apply all redactions if you want to redact all the words/lines found note a warning message will appear before redaction starts it reminds you that all content marked for redaction will be removed permanently once the file is saved, the changes cannot be undone to prevent the original file from being overwritten, redacted redacted is automatically added to the original file name you can change this name when saving, as the file name is displayed note this setting can be turned off if you do not want redacted files to be saved as new copies by default, this option is enabled to change this setting, go to file > preferences > security under the redacted files menu, you can deselect this option save redacted file as new copies the result will look like the examples below repeat text selected and match found text size unchecked unchecked unchecked match found text size repeat text selected and match found text size checked checked (ignores font size and repeat text options) unchecked match found text size if you do if you do not want to save the file or if you have made an error, you can close the file without saving it just click the readaction marks on the left side menu and then click the x next to the file name as shown below cancel before saving