If you’re looking to protect sensitive content in PDFs before you share them, then you’ll need the know-how to apply redaction to them in the document. 

Privacy regulations such as the GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act state that personally identifiable information should be redacted in order to stay compliant. You’ll therefore require PDF redaction tools in order to maintain due diligence by removing or hiding confidential information in PDF documentation. This sensitive data can include (but is not limited to) an individual’s phone number, credit card number, Social Security number and intellectual property. 

You can use redaction methods to help mitigate potential risks when sharing financial statements, for example, or any documentation containing personal data that should not fall into the hands of those not authorized to view it. By ensuring that sensitive data is kept hidden or removed using redaction tools, you can help preserve business reputation, and avoid costly data breaches.

This comprehensive guide on how to redact a PDF document using Adobe Acrobat, Mac, and online tools, some additional tips for navigating a PDF, and answers to FAQs.

Methods of Redaction

Depending on which tool you’re using to redact PDF documentation, there are different methods that you’ll need to learn. Below, you can find out how to PDF whether you’re using Adobe, Mac, or other tools available online.

Method 1: Redacting on Adobe

Adobe Acrobat Pro provides users with a simplified way to redact PDF files with its Redaction Tool. Below, we outline the key steps to take:

Step-by-Step Guide:

• Open Adobe Acrobat Pro.
• Navigate to “File” > “Open” to select the PDF.
• Locate the Redaction Tool in the “Tools” menu.
• Use the Redaction Tool to select and mark content.
• Customize appearance and apply redactions.
• Save the redacted PDF under a new file name.

Tips for Efficiency:

• Redacting patterns, words, or phrases can be made more simple with its “Redact Text & Images” tool, which can be found under Tools > Redact > Redact Text & Images.
• Redactions are permanent in Adobe Acrobat Pro, which means that you may want to simply flag text for redaction before you apply redactions.

Method 2: Redacting on Mac (Preview)

Learning how to redact a PDF on the Mac’s Preview application is also straightforward. However, you’ll need to consider that there are two different ways to do this, depending on how recent your operating system is. Below, you can find steps for macOS 11 and newer, as well as versions before macOS 11.

For macOS 11 and Newer:

• Open PDF in Preview.
• Access “Tools” > “Redact” or use the Markup Toolbar.
• Drag to redact text with black marks.

For Versions Before macOS 11:

• Click “Show Markup Toolbar.”
• Choose “Border Color” and apply redactions.
• Export the redacted PDF.

Efficiency Tips:

• When using the “Save” option, make sure to proceed with caution as to avoid making any unintentional or prohibited changes to your document’s sensitive content.
•  If you plan on using Preview’s Markup Toolbar to make redactions, you’ll need it ready to hand. You can expedite this process by choosing to continuously show this toolbar by clicking on View > Show Markup Toolbar.

Method 3: Redacting Online

Each redaction tool online has its own specific methods for redacting PDF documents. However, many are catered to different user needs. Some options on the market are specifically designed with redaction in mind; tools such as Redacted.ai and iDox.ai utilize machine learning in order to redact information automatically rather than by manually selecting where to apply redactions in a file. 

If you wish to redact a PDF file manually, then you may do so with a tool such as AvePDF’s Redact PDFs tool. Below, we demonstrate how to use this tool for redaction purposes:

Redacting using AvePDF’s Redact PDFs tool

• Drag a PDF file or upload it from your cloud storage or storage device.
• Click the “Add redaction marks” button and draw around the area you wish to redact with your cursor.
• When you want to apply redactions to a PDF, press the “Apply all redactions” button and then press “Save”. 

Efficiency Tips:

• If you need to redact PDF documentation using AvePDF, click on the “Add redaction marks” button again after having added a redaction in order to disable the feature. 
• Then, click on the redaction you want to update, and from the menu, click on the “Edit” button. The window “Redaction marks properties” gives you the ability to change the title or add a different color to the redaction mark you’ve made.

Additional Tips for Efficient PDF Navigation

Being able to navigate a PDF with ease is important when you’re redacting a document, and especially when dealing with a large volume of files. Regardless of the method you’re using above, it is therefore good to know these general tips for navigating PDFs efficiently:

Use of Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts allow you to activate a tool quicker than selecting it from the menu. For example, in Adobe Acrobat Pro, you can create a redaction box by pressing Command+Z on a Mac, or Ctrl+Z on a PC instead of having to locate the redaction tool from the menu each time. If you’re not using Adobe to redact PDF files, it can be useful to discover which keyboard shortcuts allow you to redact documents with greater efficiency in the tool that you are using.

Other keyboard shortcuts can allow you to save a document or delete text, for example, without having to select the option from the menu. 

Utilizing Bookmarks and Hyperlinks

Providing navigation links in your PDF document can help readers to move to different location points within a document (particularly large documents with hundreds of pages) with greater ease. You can also use navigation links to connect key pieces of information in different locations across the document, or an external resource. Often, PDF tools have a Link button in the toolbar or menu, which is essential when you need to protect PDF content by guiding readers away from sensitive text. 

By utilizing bookmarks, you can also break down your document into specific sections for readers (again, a useful feature if you’re formatting a large document). This is useful as it enables you to return to a specific section without scrolling through pages in a document. Usually, when navigating a PDF using a tool such as Adobe Acrobat Pro, you can access all of your bookmarks within a document by clicking on the bookmark links at the side of the page.

Enhancing search capabilities

Need to find and replace text in a document? In Adobe Acrobat Pro and other similar PDF editing tools, you can use its Find function in order to do this. Simply select the Find function, check the box that says “Replace with” and enter the text that want to use to replace that which is already in the document. 

As mentioned before, you can also highlight patterns, words, or phrases to redact with Adobe Acrobat Pro’s “Redact Text & Images” tool. This can be found under Tools > Redact > Redact Text & Images. In the search box that appears, you can select the word or phrase that you’re looking to redact throughout a document, as well as patterns like phone numbers, card numbers, or Social Security numbers, and then click “Apply” in order to mark these for redaction. You may find that similar tools available also allow you to find and redact PDF text, which means that you do not have to manually highlight the same phrases and patterns across a document. 

If you need to find some text across several different PDFs, then you can do this with Adobe Acrobat Pro’s advanced search function, “Full Acrobat Search”. You can use this option to select which folders you want to scan, which can save you time if you’re only looking to search through a specific group of PDFs contained in a folder.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How Can I Use Word to Redact a File?

If you’re redacting a Word document instead of PDF, then this is where Word’s own redaction capabilities become useful. Follow the below steps to redacting a Word document using the simplest method below:

• Use the “Find and replace” tool to select the PDF text you’re looking to redact.
• In the “Replace with” box, add the text that you’re looking to replace the sensitive data with.
• Confirm the changes.

How Secure is Redacted Data in a PDF?

Even if you black out text using a redaction tool, it may still be possible to find out what underlying information it’s hiding using a PDF editor. What’s more, criminals may develop more advanced tools in order to access confidential data hidden using these tools. Each redaction tool comes with its own specific level of security, so it’s worth vetting out which tools offer the best protection if you’re planning on sharing documents containing confidential personal information. 

Final Thoughts

Thorough redaction can help you to ensure document security through hiding sensitive information, helping you to remain compliant with the law and protecting proprietary data while sharing documents with third parties during business transactions like M&A activity. However, you can still access confidential data redacted in a document using the right PDF editing tools, or other software used to uncover vulnerable redactions. Therefore, using only the most secure redaction methods is tantamount to document security when it comes to data protection law.

That’s where we step in. CapLinked’s VDR solutions provide the fastest, easiest, and most efficient way to redact sensitive information in an M&A or business transaction setting. Our PDF editor and redactor tool, which is available as an add-on to Enterprise VDRs, allows you to protect the sensitive information you need to directly within your VDR platform. Not only does this help avoid some of the pitfalls of traditional redaction methods discussed in this article, it also cuts out the tedious cycle of downloading, editing, and re-uploading edited PDFs – so you can manage the due diligence process with ease. 

To see our PDF editing and redacting tools in action, request a quote to schedule a demo with our team today.