How do I apply redaction and type over it?

[tjk84938930]

I used to be able to do this in older versions of Acrobat (I am now using Pro DC). I would add a text box, with a white fill and no border to white out whatever I wanted covered up. Then I would create the text I wanted somewhere else on the document, type the text, then drag it over the white box.

Now, the text I drag over defaults to being hidden behind the white text box. I try bringing it front, that does nothing. I wouldn't even need to create additional text, but the text box text color defaults to red and I cannot change that either. SO FRUSTRATING, especially since I used to be able to do this. Someone please help! Thanks in advance.

-TJ

[sarac46664803]

this site is awesome!! Thanks!!

[Test Screen Name · Accepted solution]

Before you can Apply redactions you must create them by somehow marking where you want them. See the help file for your version for the ways you can do this.

[davidmckeeverAZ60]

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. 

[davidn45538993]

I wanted to white out text and add text. I hit Edit on the right side menu. Boxes appeared around all portions of text in the document. I selected text and deleted then added text. Served the same purpose as whiting out.

[try67]

That is risky. There's no guarantee that if you do that the text you deleted is really gone. Someone who knows what they're doing might be able to retrieve it. If you want it to be really, 100% gone then you have to use the Redaction tool.

[christyn85847146]

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!!

[Test Screen Name]

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.

[johnm89149931]

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.

[George_Johnson]

The tool in Acrobat that has the same effect is the redaction tool that has been discussed in this thread.

[Dov Isaacs]

Beyond the redaction tool which is for text, you can also use the edit capability, select objects, and delete same.

          - Dov

[tonybolony]

The problem with this 'solution' and all of the other recommendations is that the software lacks a simple function and we are having to use work-arounds.  I seem to recall Adobe having a whiteout tool or eraser in previous iterations.  Painful that we have to go through hoops to perform old functions.

[try67]

No, it didn't. There's an "eraser" tool but it will only delete pencil annotations. I don't think there ever was a tool that allows you to free-form redact parts of a PDF file. Not even sure that's technically possible.

[defaulttus8lsi8aqmr]

I do the same thing. I use Nitro when Adobe won't do something I need....like whiteout.

[drfjp]

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.

[try67]

If the data you want to "white out" is sensitive and should be removed entirely this is NOT the way of doing it.

Those fields can be easily removed and the information underneath them accessed, even if you flatten them.

Only use the Redaction tool for this purpose.

[Amanda5CC7]

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.

[defaultm8pglmfdg0vq]

I still would rather them to not have changed the old "white out text box".  Why does everything that seems simple always have to be revised to become more difficult?

[Bernd Alheit]

Only the redaction tool removes sensitive information.

[defaultofty7uc9dquy]

That makes perfect sense if one presumes that all information needing to be covered is, in fact, sensitive in nature. But that's not a fair assumption, especially when the point of a particular PDF is to have a clean, printable document version. Normally, I would just use the edit tools to delete unwanted elements, but often the bounding boxes are so wonky in edit mode that I can't remove text I want to remove without also removing other text that needs to stay. So there are valid use cases for the old white-out feature. If an example helps, this pops up for me when making a PDF version of part of a larger document and needing to remove the page numbers since they aren't accurate.

[try67]

The Redaction tool is still the best way of doing it. Just set the fill color of the redaction markups to white.

[defaulttus8lsi8aqmr]

Just tried this method; works great. Thanks!

[lekkerder]

Would this also work to just erase/whiteout some lines? We would like to remove the printer's crop marks from one page in a book. Thanks.

[White bellied]

Thank you! As a novice user of AAP, this helped! So much to learn here!

[Kent2330724592oj]

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.

[tuckerdogavl]

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.