Redaction

Redaction actually removes information: the server creates a new version in which the marked areas are no longer in the text or in the page image. It is not a black rectangle over existing text — anyone who analyses the PDF will not find the original content back.

You open the redaction window from the viewer: choose Redact in the toolbar. You only see that button if you have edit permission on the document.

Step by step

Open the document and choose Redact.
Mark what has to go:
- Manually — drag a rectangle over the page. Click an area to remove it.
- Search term — type for example a name or address and choose Mark all matches.
- Suggestions — let the system search for national ID numbers, IBAN and dates of birth.
Check the number of areas and look at the Preview.
Enter a reason. It is mandatory and is recorded in the redaction history; only office users see it.
Choose Apply redaction.

You get a new version. The pages are fixed as an image, so the removed text can no longer be extracted from the file. The earlier versions remain, but from that moment they are internal only: guests see exclusively the redacted version.

The redaction history

The document has a Redaction history: when a redaction was made, by whom, from which version to which one, how many areas and search terms, and with which reason. That history is your evidence that redaction was done carefully.

Privileged documents

You can mark a document as Privileged. Such documents are never visible to external parties, regardless of the folder permissions, and they get PRIVILEGED in the watermark. The changes are in a separate privilege log that you can export as CSV.

When redaction is not possible

Message	Cause
You are not allowed to redact this document	You do not have edit permission on this document
The document has been changed meanwhile	Someone else placed a new version; open it again
This document has no page view to redact	The file type does not produce pages to mark