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Charles_Mc
New Participant
June 19, 2019
Question

Creating custom Redaction Search Patterns

  • June 19, 2019
  • 3 replies
  • 5709 views

Ok, so I just spent over 2 grueling hours screen-sharing with a support technician from Adobe's Acrobat support team and got told that you cannot create custom redaction search patterns, and have never been able to, unless you have a Java programmer build them.  Not quite sure what he was meaning by this since in the past I just edited an XML file and could add any custom RegExp patterns I liked; I'm not convinced he is correct in his answer about needing a Java programmer write something (not exactly clear what to ask them to write as he did not say) because the whole screen-sharing experience seemed to show he didn't have a whole depth of knowledge in using the redaction tool as he was trying to use the search tool to find redactable content and then marked each result for redaction.

Ok, so rant over... does anybody know how to create custom redaction search patterns for Acrobat Pro 2017, it seams the old method of just editing an XML file is not working for me.  And just in case I am editing the wrong file here is the path to the XML file I edited:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Acrobat\2017\Preferences\Redaction\ENU\SearchRedactPatterns.xml

If the information I was given is correct and I do indeed now need a Java programmers help, can someone tell me what I need to tell the developer.

Chat transcript:

Date: 2019-06-20 01:23:46 SGT
From: Tarun (Adobe) To: Everyone
Okay, We can feed www to search for it but it only recognize the www

Date: 2019-06-20 01:24:17 SGT
From: Tarun (Adobe) To: Everyone
So if you want to feed any command , you need to contact Java Prgrammer, because we do not have that options.

Date: 2019-06-20 01:25:12 SGT
From: Charles To: Everyone
is Java programmer someone at Adobe or are you telling me I need to find a Java programmer?

Date: 2019-06-20 01:26:26 SGT
From: Tarun (Adobe) To: Everyone
yes, you have to contact the programmer

Date: 2019-06-20 01:26:50 SGT
From: Charles To: Everyone
At Adobe?

Date: 2019-06-20 01:28:02 SGT
From: Charles To: Everyone
Do I need to contact Adobe's programmers?

Date: 2019-06-20 01:29:54 SGT
From: Tarun (Adobe) To: Everyone
No, not from adobe.

Date: 2019-06-20 01:30:08 SGT
From: Charles To: Everyone
ok, thank you

3 replies

M
Manish38918163011f
New Participant
August 2, 2024

Hi team I am a MAc user can anyone tell me where should I place the custom SearchRedactPatterns.xml file. So I can use my own regex pattern match

    D
    Daniel238914343v6g
    New Participant
    April 4, 2022

    Late to the party but wanted to add this if its helpful to anyone else.

     

    I had priorly used this feature to create custom redaction regexs and when the subject came across me again, it seemed that this feature was missing from "Advanced Search".

    Turns out this functionality is no longer available "Advanced Search" window.  Instead you have to open the "Redact" Tool, go to the "Mark for Redaction" drop down and then to "Find Text".  Here you have a radio menu where you can check "Patterns" and select a pattern to use from a drop down.

    Hope this is helpful.

    K
    Kristin24169529okxs
    New Participant
    April 24, 2022

    Hi, I can get to the dropdown of different patterns for redaction but the patterns seem very limited and for example it will only redact phone numbers that are 7 digits. Is there any way to add customised redaction patterns?

    Bernd Alheit
    Bernd Alheit
    Adobe Expert
    April 24, 2022

    You can add custom redaction search patterns.

    try67
    try67
    Adobe Expert
    June 19, 2019

    What they told you is just wrong. Even if you had a "Java programmer" working for you you couldn't edit the Acrobat source-code, since, well, you don't have the Acrobat source-code. Only Adobe does. You would need to write your own PDF editor with redaction capabilities from scratch.

    The way of editing XML files worked in the past, if you knew what you were doing. I'm not sure whether or not it works in Acrobat 2017. It seems to me like it should.

    C
    Charles_McAuthor
    New Participant
    June 20, 2019

    Yeah, I didn't think getting a programmer sounded like the correct answer.

      Bernd Alheit
      Bernd Alheit
      Adobe Expert
      June 21, 2019

      The path of the XML file is correct. What happens when you change the file?

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