Applying Redactions

Applying the redaction is an important step to ensure that the selected content will actually be removed. This "burns in" the annotations and removes any text, image, annotations, form fields or drawings from the document that is underneath the annotation's area.

Applying Redactions

To complete the redaction process after the Redaction Annotations have been applied, follow the steps below.

1. Right click on the redaction annotation (Mac: Ctrl + Click) and choose Apply All Redactions in the mouse menu or go to the Redaction Tool button on the Document Tab, click on the down arrow and select Apply All Redactions.
2. The document is now redacted and all of the marked items will now be solid black squares (unless a different color option was selected in Redaction Properties). 
3. Make sure to save your document.  If you would like to confirm that the document is in fact redacted you can confirm by following the steps listed below.
4. Once complete, to exit the Redaction Tool, simply click on the hand tool or Esc on the keyboard

Note: If you wish you can further sanitize any hidden information within the document using the Sanitize Document tool.

Checking if Your PDF Document is Redacted Correctly

You can check if your document was redacted correctly in PDF Studio by using the Text Selection, Text Search, and Content Editor tool to see if you can select any of the content that you were trying to redact. 

Using the Text Selection Tool

1. Open the Redacted PDF Document you wish to check
2. Using the Text Selection Tool highlight the line of text that contains the redacted words
3. Copy the highlighted text to your clipboard by using the shortcut keys Ctrl + C (⌘ + C on a Mac)
4. Open up any text editor (Word, Notepad, Text Edit, etc…)
5. Paste the text you highlighted using Ctrl + V (⌘ + V on a Mac)
6. If you redacted correctly then only the non redacted text should be displayed. If you see the text you were trying to remove than it was not done correctly.

Using the Advanced Search Tool

1. Open the Redacted PDF Document you wish to check
2. Open the Advanced Search Tool by clicking on the Home Tab > Search on the toolbar or pressing Ctrl-F (⌘ + F on Mac)
3. Type in the word you redacted and click on New Search
4. This will bring up a list of all the text matching what you typed in the search box. Once the results appear you can click on each of the results to see where in the document that text is located.
5. If you redacted correctly then only the non redacted text should be displayed and highlighted in the search results. If you see the text you were trying to remove than it was not done correctly.

Using the Content Editor

1. Open the Redacted PDF Document you wish to check
2. Start the Content Edit tool by clicking on the Edit Content button on the Document Tab, or using the shortcut key Ctrl + Shift + E (⌘ + Shift + E on Mac)
3. Select any of the redaction boxes on your document by clicking on it and then either move or delete the box.
4. If you redacted correctly then nothing should remain under where the redaction box was. If you see the text you were trying to remove than it was not done correctly.

Note: When redacting part or all of an image sometimes the redaction square will become a part of the image and you will not be able to move or delete the actual square. During the redaction process if an image does not have a transparency value the removed data will just be converted to a solid black color. As long as the black square is now a part of the image and moves with the image it is properly redacted.

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