Redact documents
Open one or many documents in the Redaction Studio, find sensitive passages by hand, by keyword or with AI, review the detections, and decide who may still see the originals.
Hide names, figures or whole passages in the documents a buyer will see, while your own team keeps the originals. You work in the Redaction Studio on one document or a whole folder at once; nothing is hidden until you approve it.
Before you start
- The documents are processed PDF, Word or PowerPoint files that show Ready in the Workspace. Documents still processing are skipped, and Excel files cannot be redacted; see How redaction works.
- You have Manage redaction on the files, which project owners have by default.
- For the Patterns and AI Prompt routes, the account has credits. Keywords and manual markup are free.
Steps
- On Files, tick the documents or the folder to redact and select the Redact icon in the selection bar at the bottom. The Redaction Studio opens in Edit mode with the first document on the canvas. What you ticked becomes the batch: the set of files you redact together, and the set every scan in step 2 reads. You manage it in the left panel. Its Files tab shows the project's files in a Workspace or Dataroom view; tick a file or a folder to add it to the batch, and untick it to take it out again. If that file already has detections or redactions, the studio asks you to confirm first. Selecting a file's name without ticking it only previews it on the canvas and leaves the batch as it is. The Redactions tab lists the batch at the top; select a file there to open it on the canvas.
Ticking a folder brings every redactable file inside it into the batch.1.Select the document2.Redact - Find what to hide. The Tools panel offers four routes and you can combine them. New detections get the information type selected under Information types below the tools, Financial unless you select another.
- Manual: select text on the page, or Add area markup and drag a box over a signature, a logo or a table.
- Keywords: type a word or phrase and press Enter to add it, up to seven, then Redact phrase. Every exact match in every file of the batch becomes a detection.
- Patterns: tick categories such as Email Addresses or IBANs and select Detect & redact patterns.
- AI Prompt: describe what to hide in plain English and select Run AI prompt. The AI reads every file in the batch, which takes a minute or two. Be specific; personal names of study investigators and board members finds less collateral than names.
Keyword matches are exact and free. Patterns and AI Prompt read meaning and use credits.1.Keywords2.Word or phrase3.Redact phrase - Review the results on the Redactions tab of the left panel. The upper list names the files in the batch: select a file to open it on the canvas, or tick it to include all of its redactions in a bulk action. The lower list holds the open file's suggested and approved redactions, each with its page and information type. Select one to jump to it on the page, assign an information type where none is set, then Approve the ones you want, one at a time or several at once. Delete the rest. Only approved items are ever applied.
Only approved redactions are ever burned into what others see.1.Redactions tab2.A suggested redaction3.Approve - Decide who may see the originals. Open Information types, select Manage permissions on a type and grant View unredacted to the internal teams that need the full text. Teams without it, and every buyer in the Deal Portal, get the covered version.
- Check the outcome by switching the toolbar from Edit to Preview. It shows the file exactly as a recipient without clearance will get it. Return to Edit to change anything.
Preview ignores your own clearance so you can check what buyers receive; suggested redactions that are not yet approved stay visible.1.Preview2.Edit
Check the result
The toolbar status reads Saved at followed by a time. The Redactions tab lists every approved item per file. Opening the document from the Dataroom as a user without clearance, or previewing the Deal Portal as a buyer group, shows the blacked-out passages, and Download redacted copy produces a file named … (redacted).pdf.
If something goes wrong
Only processed documents with a PDF preview can be redacted. When a selection mixes others in, the studio opens with the rest and says how many files were skipped and why: still processing, failed processing, or without a PDF rendition. Excel files are never redactable. Wait for processing to finish, or retry it from the file's status, then add the documents again.
Some documents cannot be scanned yet. Wait for processing to finish or retry processing. A folder scan also names how many documents in the selected folders were skipped because they are still processing or failed. Scan again once they show Ready.
The scan completed, but not everywhere: some files failed or were skipped, or, on a single-document AI scan, specific pages need review. A warning names what was missed, for example AI scan finished with gaps — 2 files failed, and the scan's entry in Job manager reads Scan finished with gaps. Check those pages by hand and add area markup where needed before sharing the document.
Keywords match exactly, so check spelling and try the shorter form of a name. On a scanned PDF, detection reads recognised text only where OCR is enabled for your organisation; otherwise use area markup. If the AI flagged more than you asked for, reject those detections and rerun with a narrower prompt.
Only one scan per tab runs at a time; wait for Scanning… to finish. If nothing happens at all, a browser extension that blocks requests may be interfering; try a private window without extensions.
Patterns and AI Prompt use credits. When the balance runs out mid-scan the job pauses rather than failing, and the message says how many credits it needs to finish. A colleague with admin rights can add credits under Plans & credits; see Credits and billing. Keyword scans do not use credits.
That is intended. The redaction lives in the document's PDF version, so the download is that PDF, named after the document with a .pdf extension.