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Rick?s Semi-definitive Guide to Redaction in Acrobat

By Rick Borstein

Redaction is the permanent deletion of data from
documents.

In the past, black marker might have been used to obscure text. These days, with electronic workflows, Acrobat is used to safely and permanently remove content from the data stream of the document.

Acrobat 9 Pro offers powerful redaction capabilities. How can you get started?

To help, I bring you Rick’s Semi-definitive Guide to Using Redaction in Acrobat. This article is a compilation and update of some earlier articles with some additional content. This article offers a step-by-step guide to using these tools in your firm or organization.

Read on for the rest of the article.

Rick’s Redaction Resources Watch a brief Redaction tutorial Movie Watch a one-hour Redaction and Metadata Removal eSeminar Read Redaction Tips and Techniques Article

Redaction Workflow

Redactions must be carefully applied and managed. Here is arecommend redaction workflow:

You may prefer to duplicate your document set as a safeguard priorto applying redactions.

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Step 1: Set Redaction Preferences

Before getting started, there are two Preferences that I recommend changing.

Automatic Renaming

Changing this preference will automatically rename files by adding the "_redacted" suffix to the filename. This can help prevent accidentally overwriting your original file.

1. Choose Edit—> Preferences (Windows) or Acrobat—> Preferences (Mac)
2. Select the Documents category from the list on the left:

   

3. At the bottom of the window, enable the check box labeled "Adjust filename when saving applied redaction marks"

   

4. Click OK

The next time you apply redaction marks and save your document, Acrobat will automatically include the _Redacted suffix in the Save dialog:

Automatically Copy Text into the Sticky Note for a Redaction

Redactions exist as a type of annotation until you apply them which permanently removes the information. This preference is handy during review since it copies text into the sticky note.

1. Choose Edit—> Preferences (Windows) or Acrobat—> Preferences (Mac)
2. Select the Commenting category from the list on the left:

   

3. Enable the check box labeled "Copy Selected Text into Highlight, Crossout, and Underline comment pop-ups
4. Click OK

When you select text using the Mark for Redaction tool, the text will automatically be copied into the sticky note:

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Step 2: Redacting Text and Graphics

To redact information you will use the Redaction Toolbar in Acrobat Pro.

To view the Redaction toolbar, go to View> Toolbars> Redaction:

The tool you will use for almost all of your work is the Mark for Redaction tool.

Context Sensitive

The Mark for Redaction Tool cursor changes depending the content tobe redacted.

To Redact Text

1. Select the Mark for Redaction tool
2. When you hover over text, the Mark for Redaction tool becomes a textselection cursor. Select the text to mark it for redaction.

Tip: Did you select too much? Hit CTRL-Z to undo the redaction.

 

To Redact a Graphic or Image

1. Select the Mark for Redaction Tool
2. Place the cursor over an image or if no objects are present, across hair cursor (+) appears.
3. draw a rectangularselection area to redact. Anything found within the area? images, text,vector objects? will be “cut out” and redacted.

Force an Area Redaction Sometimes it can be difficult to select text properly. You can force Acrobat to present the crosshair for an area redaction by holding down the CTRL key.

 

Previewing a Redaction

Using the Mark for Redaction tool, you may preview the redacteditem.

1. Select the Mark for Redaction tool
2. Hover over a redaction mark to preview it

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Changing the Appearance of Redactions

By default, redactions appear as solid black rectangles. The defaultappearance serves most folks just fine, but may be customized:

To change the appearance of a redacted item, right-click and chooseProperties. . .

You may set a number of options such as?

To change the properties of a Redaction mark

1. Select the Mark for Redaction tool
2. Hover over the redaction mark you wish to change
3. Right-click and choose Properties

The Redaction Properties window is straightforward. Options beloware referred by number:

1. Set the color of the redaction here. You may also choose “nocolor” as an option.
2. You may have overlay text on top of the redaction. I like whitetext on top of black for readability
3. Choose typeface for overlay text
4. Set font size for overlay text
5. Auto-size scales the text to fit the width of the redacted area
6. Set color of overlay text
7. Enable to repeat the text over the redacted area
8. Set alignment of overlay text
9. Enable and type in the text string to appear on top of theredaction
10. Redaction Codes.
    Redaction codes pre-defined sets of text used to denote the reason orstatute under which the redaction was made. Acrobat Proincludes two pre-populated sets? U.S. FOIA (Freedom of Information Act)and U.S. Privacy Act. You can also create and save your own sets.

To change the default appearance of all redaction marks:

1. Use the Mark for Redaction tool to create a redacted item
2. Right-click and choose Properties to change the appearance.Click OK.
3. Right-click on the item and choose “Make Current PropertiesDefault”

Deleting a single Redaction Mark

Until you click the Apply Redactions button, the redaction marks are editable. To delete one, hover over it and click.

You’ll see some subtle animation around the edges. Hit the DEL key to delete the redaction.

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Working with Multiple Redactions
(Delete or change Properties)

Acrobat’s Comments Panel offers a list view of all of the Redaction marks in the document. From the Comments Pantel, you can delete or change the properties of many redaction marks at a time.

To open the Comments Panel

Choose View> Comments View> Show Comments List

or, simply click the Comments icon in the panel at the left side of the screen:

Working in the Comments Panel

You can select multiple comments by clicking on the small icon next to the listed redaction mark. Hold down the CTRL key if you need to select a discontinuous range of comments.

Hit the DEL key to delete multiple comments.

To change the properties of multiple comments, make a selection then, right-click and choose Properties.

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Search and Redact

Acrobat 9 Pro Search and Redact feature may be used tosearch intelligently for:

• Single text strings
• Multiple text strings
• Patterns such as Social Security numbers

. . . in a single document or across multiple documents.

To search and redact

1. Click Search and Redact on the Redaction Toolbar
2. Advanced?>Redaction?>Search and Redact

Looking at the Search and Redact Window

The Search and Redact window offers a few options:

1. The Arrange Window button conveniently sizes the Search and Document windows
2. You can search in the front most (current) document or point to a whole folder of documents.
3. Set the search scope for single or multiple words, or patterns
4. Enter text to search for (only available for Single word option)
5. Determine whether you will search for whole words or if capitalization matters

Searching for a Single Word

1. Click Search and Redact on the Redaction Toolbar
2. In the Search window, click Arrange Windows if necessary
3. In the Where would you like to search area, select In the current document or to browse to folder of files to perform cross-document search.
4. in the Search for area, choose Single Word or Phrase
5. Enter your text in the search field
6. Click Search and Redact

Working with the Results

Once the search is complete, the results window opens.

1. Clicking Check All will add a mark to all the words found
2. You can also individually check any of the results. If you click on the result, you can preview the word in the PDF
3. Click Mark Checked Results for Redaction to mark the words found

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Searching and Marking Multiple Words

Acrobat 9 and up can search for and mark multiple words simultaneously. Here’s how:

1. Click Search and Redact on the Redaction Toolbar
2. In the Search window, click Arrange Windows if necessary
3. In the Where would you like to search area, select In the current document or to browse to folder of files to perform cross-document search.
4. in the Search for area, choose Multiple Words or Phrase
5. The Words and Phrases to Search and Redact window opens
   - Enter each word you wish to search for and click Add
   (Optional) Import a list of words
6. Click OK

   Acrobat will search through the document(s) and place a redaction mark on all words found

   

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Using Pattern-based Redaction

Acrobat can use pattern recognition to find information that varies such as:

• Phone Numbers
• Credit Card Numbers
• Social Security Numbers
• Email Addresses
• Dates

Need to Create Your Own Patterns? See Creating and Using Custom Redaction Patterns

Here’s how to use patterns to find this type of information

1. Click Search and Redact on the Redaction Toolbar
2. In the Search window, click Arrange Windows if necessary
3. In the Where would you like to search area, select In the current document or to browse to folder of files to perform cross-document search.
4. In the Search for area, choose Patterns
5. Select the type of information you want to find:

   

6. Click the Search and Redact button

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Step 3: Review Redactions

It’s important to carefully review each page of your document, especially for scanned documents.

Fortunately, redactions in Acrobat are managed using familiarcommenting and annotation tools. Thus, you can:

1. Add notes and comments to Redacted items and send them to anotherAcrobat Professional user to review, reply to or change
2. Summarize comments and notes attached to redacted items as partof a review or archival workflow
3. Approve, reject or delete items to be redacted using the CommentsPanel

To add a note/comment to an item marked for redaction, do one of thefollowing:

• Right-click on the item and choose “Open Pop-up Note”
• Double-click on the item

To view the Comment panel, choose one of these methods:

• Click the Comment Icon in the navigation panel (lower left cornerof Acrobat document window)
• Comment> Show Comments List

Create a new Document which Summarizes Redactions

If you were headed to meeting with the other side, and you expected some challenges to your privileged and redacted documents, you might want to create a summarized version of your redacted documents to take with you.

This process creates a new, consolidated PDF. Redaction annotations are displayed as call-outs on the document:

To create a summarized document:

1. Open the document containing your redaction marks.
   (You need to run this step before you apply redactions.)
2. Choose Comments—> Summarize Comments
3. The Summarize Options window will appear. I suggest choosing the second option:

   

4. Click the Create PDF Comment Summary button.

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Step 4: Make Redactions Permanent (Apply Redactions)

Applying Redactions in Acrobat permanently removes the informationfrom the document once you save it.

To apply redactions:

1. Click the Apply Redactions button on the Redaction toolbar or choose Advanced> Redaction> Apply Redactions
2. A warning window appears. Click OK

   

3. The Redactions are applied. Next, you will see another warning message prompting you to examine the document for metadata. Click the Yes button.

   

4. The Examine Document panel opens.
   Examine Document finds hidden information such as metadata, hidden text, comments, etc. that could lead to an accidental disclosure. Note that the hidden OCR text layer can be removed, too. Click the Remove button.

   

5. Choose File> Save
   If you set the Preferences in Step 1, Acrobat will rename your file automatically when you go to save it:

   

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Final Thoughts

Keep in the mind the following when taking on projects that requireredaction:

1. DO NOT FORGET TO APPLY REDACTIONS!
   Simply marking text and graphics does not actually remove it.
2. Two capabilities are available via Batch Sequences in Acrobat Pro:
   1. Apply Redactions in Batch
   2. Word List Redaction
3. Search and Redact will only find text in searchable documents. OCRdocuments first. Even so, since OCR is an imperfect process, carefully review scanned documents.
4. Carefully review all documents prior to submission in discovery. Atwo-person review team will catch many more errors than a single person.
5. Know your court rules and judges orders regarding redaction. Askthe clerk of the court for clarification if you need more information.
6. Don’t Skip the Examine Document Step
   Naive users may elect to cover up information in electronic sources and mistakenly believe it is redacted. The Examine Document function can detect and fix these issues.

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Full post as published by Acrobat for Legal Professionals on June 27, 2010 (boomark / email).