Types of document you can redact

You can redact these types of document:

PDF = .pdf
Word = .doc, .docx, .docm, .dotx, .dotm
OpenDocument text = .odt
Excel = .xls, .xlsx, .xlsm, .xlsb, .xltx, .xltm, .xlam
PowerPoint = .ppt, .pptx, .pptm, .ppsx, .ppsm, .potx, .potm, .ppam
Outlook = .msg, .pst

Every type opens in the same editor, shown as pages.

Open a document

When a document has finished processing, its card on the project page shows Ready for review. Click the card to open it in the document editor. If you haven't uploaded one yet, see How to upload a file.

The document opens in the middle of the editor. Scroll to move through it, or use the page arrows at the bottom right. You can also type a page number into the box between them. Use + and − at the bottom to zoom.

The tools on the left each open a panel next to the document:

Detected PII = Personal information Pimloc Redact found, grouped by type
Search = Find any word or phrase and redact it
All redactions = Every redaction in the document, in one list
Export settings = How redactions look in the exported file, and what else is removed

Click a tool to open its panel, and click it again to close it.

Edit and Preview

Edit and Preview, at the bottom left, switch between two views:

Edit shows each redaction as an outlined box over the text, so you can still read what's underneath. The selected redaction is yellow.
Preview shows each redaction as a solid black box, as it will look when you export. If Export settings is set to Labelled, the label shows in each box.

Press B to switch between them.

Redact text by hand

To redact something yourself, make sure Edit is selected and drag across the text you want to hide. A redaction appears over it straight away.

To redact a whole page, click the page icon next to Preview. It redacts the page you're looking at.

To change a redaction, click it to select it. Drag it to move it, or drag its corners to resize it. The toolbar above it lets you give it a label, such as "Phone number", or delete it with the bin.

Redact detected personal information

Detected PII lists the personal information Pimloc Redact found in the document, such as names, addresses, phone numbers and dates. It's grouped into sections by type. Click a section to open it.

Each row is one piece of text, such as a name. If the same text appears more than once, every instance is in the same row.

Step through each instance

The counter at the end of each row, such as 1 / 2, shows which instance you're looking at. Click the right arrow to go to the next one, or the left arrow to go back. The document scrolls to it and highlights it in blue. Click the text in the row to go back to the current instance.

Use this to check each instance before you redact it, for example to make sure a name in a quote is really the same person.

Redact one row or a whole section

Tick a row to redact every instance of that text. Untick it to unredact them.
Tick Select all at the top of a section to redact everything in it.

The number next to a section's name shows how many of its rows are redacted.

Partial or full redaction

Some redacted rows show Partial and Full:

Full hides the whole text. This is the default.
Partial leaves part of it showing. For a phone number such as "(217) 555-0912", the start and the last four digits stay visible, so the export shows "(21", a black box, then "0912". A reader can tell redacted numbers apart without seeing the whole number.

To change every redacted row in a section at once, tick Select all, then click Set all to partial or Set all to full.

Search the document

Search finds every place a word or phrase appears, whether or not it was detected as personal information. Press Ctrl + F (Cmd + F on a Mac) to open it.

Type the text you want to find and click Search.
The results are listed by page, with the matching text in blue. Click a result to scroll to it in the document.
To redact one result, hover over it and click + (Add redaction). A tick shows on results that are already redacted.

To redact every result at once, click Redact all at the bottom. It shows how many results aren't redacted yet, for example Redact all (4).

Check every redaction

All redactions lists every redaction in the document in one place. Detected PII redactions are listed with their label, such as Person, and redactions you added by hand are listed separately.

Click a row to scroll to that redaction and select it.
Search redactions at the top to find one by its text.
Use the arrows on a row to step through each instance, as in Detected PII.
Change a label with the pencil that shows when you hover over a row.

To remove several redactions at once, tick them, then click Remove at the bottom. The button shows how many you've ticked, for example Remove 2 redactions.

All redactions lists every redaction in the document in one place. Detected PII redactions are listed with their label, such as Person, and redactions you added by hand are listed separately.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Cmd + click (Ctrl + click) = Add or remove a result from the selection
Shift + click = Select every result in between
R = Redact or unredact the selection
B = Preview on or off
Space or K = Play or pause

Shortcuts don't work while you're typing in the search box. For the rest of the editor's shortcuts, see Keyboard shortcuts.

How to manage users, projects and files in Pimloc Redact Enterprise