How do I apply redaction and type over it?

In trial and error we discovered a couple things. 

First, you need to be using Adobe's $20/month Pro to do this. 

Next, we found that hidden in the "REDACT" there are settings for building a white box (vs black redact). Change that to white. 

Also, there is a setting "transparency." Turn that off. So, when you do highlight the area to redact it doesn't "reappear." We did find that if you do the redacting and transparent is still set, it will reappear until you hit apply and sanitize, then it's gone. However, finding the "transparency" step helps a lot because that becomes a non-issue. 

Now... after you have redacted here's an important thing to remember: You're going to click "Edit" the document, but you have to make sure "Recognized scanned text" is turned off if you are doing any thing specialized (like we were editing music lyrics). If it's turned on it will change all the music notes to gibberish. And, here's the trick: Be sure and make a duplicate of your document before you click on edit. Because ... if the "Recognized scanned text" was checked, sometimes/maybe/often you will not be able to go backwards and undo.  No matter how many times I clicked that box off, when I reopened the document it would default to "Recognized scanned text" and turn everything into gibberish. So, another part of the secret sauce - oh, you don't know all this intuitively? because you didn't create the program? and all you can find is ways to make a pdf online? (but I digress).  

Now, you can go to "text" and add content. Draw a box, enter your content. I imagine if you are doing line editing or word editing you can use the "add content with the "A" surrounded by the dotted line, but that didn't work for us. We gave up on that. 

And there you have it. About five hours of various trial and error, and voila! "JUST SIMPLY" redact and edit. 

Same problem.  Here is a solution for a Mac: 1. Create the no border, white, non-transparent box and cover the desired area. 2. Go to File/Export To/PostScript. 3. Open the PostScript File.  4. Go to File/Export Format: PDF then Save.  5. Open the new PDF, Add Text, and drag to the desired area.

Good morning, this thread was very helpful when I was looking to figure out how to white out in Adobe.  It turns out you can choose the color for redactions in the Redact tool, and can choose white.  There is a slight difference when a scanned page is printed out as the redacted area is purely white, but not enough reason for me to not use this method.

Here is what works for me:

1. Open a blank MS Word document.

2. Use snipping tool to select a white rectangular area and save as a jpg (I call my file "white_out.jpg")

3. Go to the PDF that you wish to edit. Select "Edit PDF" (I am using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC)

4. Click on "Add Image"

5. Select "white_out.jpg"

This introduces a white box that can be resized.

You can insert text over it by selecting the "Add Text" button on Adobe.

I hope this helps.

Extra: If you have more regions within a page that need to be whited-out, simply select the rectangle and perform a Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V (copy and paste). The only trick is that it will paste on top of the existing rectangle, so just move it with your mouse and resize as necessary.

I'm a new (returning) user of Acrobat Pro. I was using Nitro Pro but switched back to Acrobat when most of my office did the same. Generally, I like Acrobat Pro. It seems to have come a long way since I last used it with any frequency. But I cannot figure out why they don't have a 'whiteout' tool like Nitro does. Nitro cleans that space of any data. In fact, Nitro shows a warning indicating you will lose any data you are erasing and the action cannot be undone. Can anyone explain why this function is not available in Acrobat (I'd even settle for educated guesses at this point). Very frustrating.

Sorry, this ”protection” is worthless. It would take seconds to get the original info, as well as Google including it if the file is online. This is why the redaction function was added.

I’ve got it!!  I did some experimenting, and was shocked to discover that when I “edit” a PDF I’d previously filled in and sent by inserting a white text box to hide unwanted data, and then send as an unzipped pdf, that the recipient can actually see the handles on the text box!  They can easily just move it around or even delete it!  But.... if after adding the text box, you right click on it to access Text Box Properties, there is a little selection box at the bottom labled “Locked”. This, my friends, will anchor your little box and prevent recipients from moving or deleting it!  Same method to replace text... simply type new text in your text box (make sure it has a white background), drag it and re-size it as needed, and then lock it down!!

Acrobat Pro XI is very frustrating.  Looking at all of the solutions makes no sense.  In Pro 6, it was very simple.  XI take several steps to accomplish the same result. 

Well the text is still there because you only covered it up. There are many ways to get the original text. For example, select all, copy, paste. In any case why use such a very long set of steps rather than the right and safe way?