Redactions

General

Accessing the Redaction Editor

Redacting Documents in LEP

Changing/Removing the Redacted Overlay Text

Producing Redacted Documents

Working With Redacted Documents

Uploading Manually Redacted Documents

Uploading Natively Redacted Excel Files

Location: Document Viewer >> Redacted

General

Users can modify the PDFs opened in the Document Viewer page by redacting portions of the file for privilege, confidentiality, or other privacy reasons. Redacting a document in LEP does not just obscure the image or text, but digitally removes sections of the file and re-OCRs the associated text layer so that viewers of the redacted version can no longer see or search for the redacted portions. Users can either redact documents directly within LEP or manually upload documents that have already been redacted (if users redact using another tool and upload, users should ensure that the text portion of the PDF file has also been removed).

**Currently, the redaction feature does not include the redaction of metadata. Any privileged or confidential information within the metadata should be addressed prior to production.

Accessing the Redaction Editor

All redactions are made and edited right in the Doc Viewer.

1. To access the Redaction Editor, click on the Redacted tab in the Doc Viewer.

2. If the selected document has not been previously redacted, click the blue Generate Images button. This will create a new clean PDF version of the document for redaction. NOTE: Only one page of the document at a time will display in the redaction editor.

Redacting Documents in LEP

Once the redaction images have been generated, applying redactions is as simple as using the mouse to draw a box around the text or graphic to be redacted. Once the redaction box has been drawn, the referenced redaction will populate in a list on the right side of the screen organized by the page of the document. Within that list you can enter the desired redaction text (see discussion below), choose the color of the redactions (Black or White), and delete individual redactions. If everything on the page needs to be redacted, users can select Redact Entire Page and the full page redaction will populate at the top of the list. Additionally, redactions made within the editor can be resized or moved. To resize a redaction, drag any of the four corners of the redaction box to resize as desired. To move a redaction box, click the middle of the redaction and move it to the desired location.

Additionally, hovering over a redaction on the document or in the list will cause the redaction box to be outlined, and the redaction entry to be highlighted. Black redactions are shown as darker boxes, and white redactions are shown as an outline only. The M next to each redaction in the list denotes that the redaction was made manually in the editor. This is done to distinguish between redactions made within the editor, and redactions generated via the Auto Redaction tool. Redactions made by the Auto Redaction tool are denoted in the list by an A.

By default, redactions are black in color. To change the color of a redaction, just click on the circle and select your preference. Your color choice and redaction text will perpetuate until changed.

Once all redactions are made, click SAVE. Alternatively, clicking the cancel icon (located to the right of the Save dropdown arrow) will undo any changes made since the last time SAVE was clicked.

Please note that users should expect some delay when creating a redaction image, especially if redacting large PDF documents, as this is a resource intensive process. A new, redacted version of a PDF is being created and re-OCRed in the background to ensure the complete elimination of the redacted content. Users may proceed to the next document if desired.

Changing/Removing the Redacted Overlay Text

The default behavior is to include the text Redacted overlaid on the redaction box. This can be changed to say something else (e.g., Redacted as Non-Responsive), or removed entirely.

To edit the redacted overlay text, click the word "Redacted" from the left side of the redaction list to open the text box. Edit the text (or delete it), and then click the small check mark to save it.

Producing Redacted Documents

Productions automatically replace any documents with their redacted versions in the PDF, TIFF, TEXT, and ORIGINALS sub-folders. Please note, this redaction feature does not redact metadata. As such, any privileged or confidential information will need to be addressed prior to production.

Working With Redacted Documents

From the Browse and Search pages the user can (i) display the built-in field IsRedacted, or (ii) add the Redacted field to the filter to view only those documents that have been redacted.

Uploading Manually Redacted Documents

Users can upload their own redacted versions of documents created using a local redaction editor (e.g., Adobe Acrobat Professional). Care should be taken to ensure that the users' local PDF redaction editor removes image and text layers of redacted text, and does not just obscure the image. To create redacted documents outside of LEP, users should do the following:

Download the PDF version of the document to be redacted from the Document Viewer.
Redact locally. Note: the number of pages must remain the same.
Upload the redacted version via the Document Viewer by clicking the REDACTION view, clicking the blue ellipses in the upper right corner, and selecting UPLOAD MANUAL REDACTION.

Click "Redaction" in the upper right and then click the blue ellipses to display the following:

Upload Manual Redaction - Click to upload an already redacted version of the document
Delete Redacted Version - Click to fully delete the redacted version of the document including the redaction images
View Redacted Version - Click to view the redacted version of the document
Upload Native Redacted Version - Click to upload a natively redacted .xlsx file (Excel spreadsheet).
Download Native Redacted Version - Click to download a copy of the natively redacted .xlsx (Excel file)
Delete Native Redacted Version - Click to fully delete the natively redacted .xlsx file.

Uploading Natively Redacted Excel Files

Users can upload, view, download and delete their own Natively Redacted Microsoft Excel files (redacted natively outside of LEP using a native redaction editor such as Exolution).

**Currently, only Excel files with an .xlsx file extension are supported for self-upload. For assistance with manual upload of natively redacted .xls, or .xlsm files please reach out to Professional Services at support@lexbe.zohodesk.com.

As with the upload of Manually Redacted Documents (above), click "Redaction" in the upper right and then click the blue ellipses to display the Manual and Native Redaction upload options, and select Upload Native Redacted Version.
Choose the manually redacted .xlsx file from your local machine and click Upload. **NOTE: The file extension of the redacted file must match the file extension of the native in the platform (i.e., both must be .xlsx).
Once the upload is complete, the PDF tab will display a 1 - page placeholder.
The redacted native CANNOT be viewed in LEP, but must be downloaded to view.
When produced, the redacted version of the native Excel (.xlsx) file will be in the ORIGINALS folder output, and the PDF and IMAGES folders will contain the 1-page placeholder file.

Searching for Personally Identifiable Information (PII) To Be Redacted.

For more information see Personally Identifiable Information.

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