Redact PDFs in Adobe Acrobat (Pro)

Redact PDFs in Adobe Acrobat (Pro)

How do I redact documents in Adobe Acrobat (Pro)?

This document provides instructions on removing private information from a document before distributing it.

To use these instructions, you will need to work on a computer that has Adobe Acrobat (Pro) installed, not “Acrobat Reader".
You will also need to be licensed to use Adobe Acrobat (Pro).



Step 1: Convert all documents into PDFs. Paper documents can be scanned to PDFs. Electronic documents that are not PDFs can be converted to PDFs by printing them to the “Microsoft Print to PDF” printer.

Step 2: Start “Adobe Acrobat”

Step 3: File – Open the PDF you need to redact.

Step 4: In the “Search tools” search box, type in “redact”

      

Step 5: Click “Mark for Redaction”

      

Step 6: Click on Text & Images

      

Step 7: Mark items you want to remove by clicking the left boundary, holding the mouse button down while you drag to the right boundary, then releasing the mouse button.

      
      

Step 8: You can also mark items by searching for them. The text recognition is not 100%, so you will need to spot check the document to make sure that all instances of a word were found. To start a text search, click on Mark for Redaction -> Find Text.

      

Step 9: Enter the search term, and click Search & Remove text.

      

Step 10: You may receive a scanned page alert. Click Yes if you do.

      

If you clicked Yes for a scanned page alert, now click OK to recognize text on all pages.

      

Step 11: Click “Check All”

      

Step 12: Click “Mark Checked Results for Redaction”

Step 13: Click “New Search” if you have additional search terms to redact. Return to Step 9 if you do.

Step 14: Carefully review the entire document to make sure that all private information is marked for redaction. Manually mark and words or dates the search may have missed.

Step 15: Click Apply to apply the redaction.

      

Step 16: Click OK to continue

      

Step 17: Click Yes to remove hidden information from the document.

      

Step 18: Click Remove to remove the hidden information.

      

Step 19: Click OK

      

Step 20: Click File -> Save As to save the redacted version of the document.

Step 21: If you do not see the folder you wish to save the document in the recent paths, click Choose a Different Folder.

      

Step 22: Navigate to the folder you wish to save the redacted document to. Make sure the redacted file name ends with “_redacted” Click Save

      

This completes the redaction process. Please contact the Nexus Service Desk at 763-251-6211 or nexus-servicedesk@nexusfamilyhealing.org if you have any questions.


Estimated time to complete:
~25 minutes (T2+)

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