An external consultant will review investigative personnel files next week. The files contain not just names but notes…
Open the PDF you want to redact in Adobe Acrobat Pro.
Go to Tools and select Redact.
Click Find and Remove Text.
Enter the word, phrase, or pattern you want to search for in the search box.
Choose the location to search (e.g., current document or all PDFs in a folder), then click Search.
Review the search results and check all instances you want to redact, or use Select All to mark every occurrence.
Click Mark for Redaction to mark the selected instances.
Click Apply Redactions and confirm when prompted to permanently remove the marked content.
CautionRedactions are permanent and cannot be undone after saving.
Best practiceYou can customize the appearance of redaction marks before applying them by adjusting settings in the Redact tool.
Best practiceAlways double-check your search term and results to ensure all sensitive information is covered, especially with patterns like SSNs.
Save the redacted PDF with a new file name.
You can use the Find Text and Redact feature to quickly locate and mark all instances of sensitive words or patterns for redaction throughout your document.
This runs in the Acrobat app - there is no separate API for this task.
| Feature | What it does | What it removes |
|---|---|---|
| Redact | Permanently blacks out or removes visible content. | Visible text, images, or graphics. |
| Sanitize | Removes hidden information from the document. | Metadata, comments, attachments, hidden layers, revision history. |
Redacting indirect identifiers is important for privacy and security. While one piece of information might not identify someone, a combination of several (like a job title, city, and date of birth) could. Removing these helps protect personal information and prevents unintended identification, especially when sharing documents publicly or with many people.
Yes, Acrobat Pro can help with bulk redaction of specific patterns. For many account numbers, Social Security Numbers, or other PII, you can use its pattern-based auto-redaction feature. This allows Acrobat to search for and mark all instances of a specific pattern. After it finds them, you should still peer-review a random sample to ensure accuracy before applying the redactions permanently.
If you redact the wrong information, do not save the document. Close the PDF without saving the changes, then reopen the original copy. This is why it's always recommended to work from a copy of your document, not the original. Once redaction is saved, it is permanent and cannot be undone.