Redaction

Redaction removes text from a document so that nobody can recover it. It is not the same as drawing a black box: a box over words leaves the words in the file, where anyone can select, search or extract them.

What Nixt PDF guarantees

• The words are deleted, not covered. Exactly the letters under the area are taken out of the page’s drawing. Text beside them and after them stays exactly where it was.
• The box is only a marker. A black box, or a box with a reason in it, is drawn where the words were after they are gone. Removing the box wouldn’t bring anything back.
• No earlier version is left behind. The whole document is rewritten, so the removed words don’t survive in an earlier revision of the file.
• A redaction can’t be undone. Rewriting the file clears the undo history, so there is nothing to go back to.
• It asks first, or shows you the count of what will be removed before you confirm.
• A page it can’t redact safely is refused, not half-done with a box over the rest.

Redacting an area

1. Go to the page. The Redact tool works on the current page, the one named in the page indicator.
2. On the Protect tab, click Redact. The tool strip says Drag a box over what should go. Nixt PDF asks before anything is removed.
3. Drag a box over the words. The area turns solid black as you drag.
4. In the Remove this text permanently? dialog, read: The words under the box are deleted from the document, not covered over — so they cannot be recovered, by anyone. and This clears the undo history for this document.
5. Click Redact, or Cancel.

The message says Removed 42 characters. Save to write the redacted document.

Any letter the box touches is removed. Drag the box to cover only what should go.

Redacting selected text

1. With the Select tool, select the words.
2. On the selection bar, click Redact (or right-click the selection and choose Redact).
3. In the Remove this text permanently? dialog, click Redact.

Each selected line is redacted. A selection must be on one page; otherwise the message says Redact one page at a time, or use Find and redact to take a word out of every page.

Redacting a word everywhere

A name that appears forty times across nineteen pages will be missed by hand. Find and redact… finds every occurrence and removes them all at once.

1. On the Protect tab, click Find and redact… (or choose More › Remove words from every page…).
2. In the Remove from every page dialog, type the words in Words to remove.
3. Check the count under the box: Found 40 times on 19 pages. It says Not found anywhere in this document. in red when there are none.
4. Optionally, under Print a reason in the box, choose a reason. See Reasons.
5. Click Remove 40 (the number found). It’s dimmed when nothing was found.

The message says what was removed, for example Removed 40 from 19 pages. Also taken out of the document’s properties and 2 comments.

Everywhere else the words are removed from

Words left in a document’s title are words that weren’t redacted. Find and redact… also takes the words out of:

• the document’s properties — title, author, subject and keywords;
• the document’s XMP metadata;
• bookmark titles;
• the text of comments;
• answers typed into form fields.

The message lists each of these it changed. Redacting an area or a selection doesn’t do this — use Find and redact… when the words may appear anywhere but the page.

Reasons

A released document often prints a code in each redacted box saying why the words were withheld. Under Print a reason in the box, choose:

• No reason — a plain black box (the default), or
• one of these codes. The box is then white with a black outline, and the code is printed in it.

A reason hides exactly as much as a black box: the words are already gone either way. Reasons are offered in Find and redact…; redacting an area or a selection draws a black box.

What is not removed

• Redacting an area or a selection removes words from the page only, not from the title, metadata, bookmarks, comments or form answers. Find and redact… does those too.
• Text drawn from another part of the file: when the words under the box are drawn from a part of the file the page shares, Nixt PDF removes nothing and says The words under that box are drawn from another part of the file, so Nixt PDF cannot remove them from this page and will not pretend to. With Find and redact…, occurrences like this are counted and reported: 3 could not be removed and are still in the document.
• A page stored in a way that can’t be redacted safely is refused with This page cannot be redacted safely, so Nixt PDF will not try.

Checking the result

After redacting:

1. Press ⌘F (Ctrl+F on Windows and Linux) and search for the words. The find bar should say No matches.
2. Open Home › Properties… and check the title, author, subject and keywords.
3. Open Protect › Hidden content…. Earlier versions should not be listed. Check what else the document is carrying, such as attached files — see Hidden content.
4. Look at every page where the words were, for pictures or scanned text that redaction doesn’t remove.
5. Save the document. See Saving your work.

Redaction and other features

• Signed documents: rewriting the file breaks every digital signature in it. Redact before signing.
• Password-protected documents keep their password after redaction.
• Cropping is not redaction: cropped-off areas stay in the file. See Organising pages.
• Editing text is not redaction: replaced words stay in an earlier revision. See Editing text.