How redaction works
What the Redaction Studio does, the three ways it finds sensitive text, how information types decide who sees the original, and what buyers receive.
Redaction blacks out sensitive passages in documents before buyers see them, without touching the original file. You mark what should be hidden, decide which teams may still see it, and the app serves everyone else a copy with those passages covered. This guide explains the model; Redact documents walks through the studio step by step.
Essential concepts
- The Redaction Studio. A full-screen editor opened from the Redact icon in the selection bar once one or more files, or a folder, are ticked on the Files page. It always works on a batch: one document or a hundred, with the same panels.
- Detections and redactions. Everything you or the AI mark starts as a detection, a suggestion listed on the Detections tab. Nothing is hidden yet. When you Approve a detection it becomes a redaction on the Redactions tab, and only approved redactions are ever burned into what others see.
- Information types. Every redaction belongs to an information type, such as Financial, Legal or one you create. Types do two jobs: they let you filter and manage redactions by category, and they carry the permission that decides who may see the original text behind them. The two default types cannot be deleted; AI findings without a type land in LLM Detected.
- Clearance. A team with View unredacted on an information type sees the original text where that type's redactions apply. Everyone else, including buyers in the Deal Portal, gets the covered version. Clearance is set per information type from Manage permissions in the studio, in the same permission grid you use for folders.
- Preview and Edit. The studio opens in Edit mode. Switching to Preview renders the file exactly as a recipient without clearance will get it, with every approved redaction blacked out, regardless of your own clearance.
Files and Redactions on the left, the open document in the middle, detection tools and information types on the right.1.Detection tools2.Redactions tab3.Preview4.Download
Three ways to find what to redact
| Route | What it does | Cost and scope |
|---|---|---|
| Manual | Select text on the page, or Add area markup and drag a rectangle over anything, including images and signatures. | Free, instant, one document at a time. |
| Keywords | Exact words or phrases, up to seven at once, searched across every file in the batch. | Free, no AI; up to 500 files. |
| Patterns | Built-in categories such as Email Addresses, IBANs, Telephone Numbers, Names of Individuals, Company Names, Signatures. The AI reads the documents to find them. | Uses credits; up to 100 files. |
| AI Prompt | A plain-English description of what to hide, for example Mask client names, deal values and contract terms. The AI reads every document in scope and proposes matches. | Uses credits; up to 100 files. |
Keywords match text literally, which is why they are free and fast, and why they miss a name that is spelled differently. Patterns and AI Prompt understand meaning, which is why they find variations, and also why a broad prompt can flag more than you asked for: asking for "personal names" on a bank statement has been known to catch company names and account numbers too. Be specific, review the detections, and reject what you do not want.
Reviewing, saving and downloading
Detections need an information type before they can be approved; assign one from the pill on the page or in bulk from the panel toolbar. Approve one at a time, or tick several and use Approve suggested token(s). Changes save as you make them: the status dot in the toolbar reads Saving..., then Saved at a time, or Save failed if something went wrong.
Download redacted copy gives you the current file with every approved redaction burned in, named report (redacted).pdf. If detections are still pending, the studio warns that they will not be applied; if nothing is approved, it warns that the download would be the unredacted original.
What buyers and colleagues see
When anyone opens or downloads a document, the app applies the redactions for the information types that person is not cleared for, together with the project's watermark and download password. Buyers in the Deal Portal therefore only ever receive the redacted copy. A colleague on a team with View unredacted for Financial sees the financial passages, but still not the legal ones.
Downloads apply redactions per person: a ZIP includes each document in the version the downloader is cleared for. A Word or PowerPoint document with redactions is downloaded as a PDF, because the redaction is burned into its PDF version.
The AI assistant follows the same rule: it answers from the version of a document the asking user is allowed to see, so redacted passages are not available to someone without clearance.
Availability and limitations
- Redaction needs a PDF rendition of the document. PDF, Word and PowerPoint files get one when they are processed; Excel files cannot be redacted.
- Only processed documents with a PDF preview can be redacted: PDF, Word and PowerPoint files that show Ready. Documents still processing, or that failed processing, are left out of a batch, and the studio says how many were skipped and why. Excel, CSV, image and text files cannot be redacted.
- Scanned PDFs without a text layer can always be marked with area markup. Where OCR is enabled for your organisation, Keywords, Patterns and AI Prompt also read the recognised text of scans; pages that could not be read are reported as gaps. Without OCR, detection on a scan may find nothing.
- A Word or PowerPoint original is served as its converted PDF once redactions apply.
- Patterns and AI Prompt scans need credits. A scan that runs out of credits pauses instead of failing, says how many credits it needs to finish, and can be resumed once credits are added. Keyword scans and manual markup never use credits.
- Only the project members with Manage redaction on a file can open it in the studio.
Next actions
- Redact documents is the step-by-step task.
- Protect downloads covers watermarks and download passwords, which are applied alongside redactions.