How to redact documents

Upload multi-page PDFs, Word, PowerPoint or Excel documents to Secure Redact to automatically detect PII - then review and selectively redact.

  1. Upload PDF/Word/PPT/Excel File(s) and add to any Project. Then click Upload. Secure Redact will detect the PII mentioned below.

The Navigation Bar

Use the Navigation Bar to adjust the view of your documents as you edit/redact:

  • Zoom = zoom in/out to edit your pages more clearly.

  • Page view = choose between single page, single page continuous, two-page and two-page continuous and/or rotate yourpages. N.B. Pages will not be rotated once exported.

  • Find = type in any word or phrase to find it in your PDF

    • Click the three dots within Find to filter your results:

      • Case Sensitive = Tick this to enforce a case sensitive search.

      • Regular Expression = also known as Regex, use this to find specific patterns of text (e.g. phone numbers or email addresses), rather than just matching exact words. 

How to search and add redactions to your document

Use the panel on the left-hand side to: 

  • Add redaction = first click this button, then draw a box over any text in your document. This will add the redaction box to the Redactions Panel. 

  • Find = type in any word or phrase to find it in your PDF. You can filter your results as "Case Sensitive" or "Regular Expression" (as explained in the Navigation Bar section above).

    • Once you have typed in a word or phrase, use the tick box next to it to select it. 

    • Click Add Redaction. 

    • The selected redaction will be added to the Redactions Panel below.

  • Redactions Panel = below your search results, this shows all redactions across the document. You can select specific redactions or Select All and then delete them, to remove the redactions and make the text visible again.

N.B.: Redaction boxes are visual indicators only - in the final PDF, Secure Redact permanently scrubs the underlying data rather than just layering a box over it, making the information completely unrecoverable.

Secure Redact detects the following forms of PII in documents:

  • Address

  • Bank Account Number

  • Clock Time

  • Credit Card Number

  • Credit/Debit Card

  • Criminal Records Office

  • Date

  • Digital Time

  • Driving Licence

  • Driving Licence Number

  • DVLA

  • Email

  • Health Insurance Number

  • Iban

  • Identity Number

  • Medical Condition

  • Money

  • National Firearms Licensing Management System

  • National Insurance Number

  • NHS Number

  • Passport

  • Person

  • Phone Number

  • Police National Computer IDs

  • Prison Number

  • Profanities

  • Social Media Handle

  • Sort Code

  • SWIFT Code

  • UK Postcode

  • Unique Taxpayer Reference

  • URL

  • Username

  • Vehicle Number Plate

  • Vehicle Number

  • Vehicle Registration Number

Use the panel on the right-hand side to:

  • Go through all the detected PII types, open their drop-downs and then click Select All to select all the detections within for redaction. They will then be added to the Redactions Panel on the left-hand side. 

  • PII text box = when you click Add Redaction, draw a box on the document, you can label the PII via this PII text box (right-hand side). Then click Save.

  • Preview redaction = Toggle this to preview the redactions (keyboard shortcut: B). 

  • Show PII overlay = this will become clickable when Blur Preview is on. This overlays the PII type (or your added PII type) on the black-box redaction. 

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