Protecting sensitive information from unauthorized use is critical for many businesses and organizations. There are many times when an organization may need to release information to other parties who should not be able to see all the data on a document. We think of this most commonly in the context of governments releasing information to the public and blacking out whole pages—but in business and other commercial applications, it's just a matter of due diligence.

Digital redaction hasn't always been easy. You don't have to look far to find amusing stories in the news of major figures who misunderstood the nature of redaction and released private information into the public. Real redactions don't just cover up the content—they remove that content from the document entirely. How can companies today redact a PDF effectively?

With Tungsten Power PDF, the process is fast, simple, and easy to learn. With built-in PDF editor features that streamline the effort, so you don't need to spend hours on redactions, the process also helps save time and money. Let's take a quick look at how to redact in Power PDF and consider a few best practices along the way.

5 steps to redact content in Power PDF

Redacting a few terms on a page in Power PDF is easy. In fact, it takes only five steps:

1. Choose the file you want to redact in Power PDF.
2. Find the "security" tab at the top of the program.
3. Next, select the option labeled "mark redaction."
4. Highlight the text you want to redact. A red border indicates a redaction waiting to be applied.
5. Now click apply redaction. Power PDF blacks out the text permanently. Save the document as a copy to avoid losing the original information.

However, Power PDF also allows users to search for terms in an entire document and apply redactions to those specific terms simultaneously. In the latest edition of Power PDF, that functionality goes even further. Specify patterns, such as social security numbers, to find alphanumeric strings and redact them automatically. Now a process that once took hours takes only minutes.

Remember, you must click "apply redactions" to finalize the changes to your document. At the same time, you should also consider taking other steps, such as scrubbing the metadata from the file. Power PDF can accomplish this task, too, making it simple to produce a sanitized document that meets your standards for security and secrecy. This practice is essential to avoid accidentally exposing information the metadata may still contain.

Equip your business today

Don't leave private information vulnerable to misuse. Keep secrets safe and easily protect vulnerable information while saving time along the way. With Power PDF and its simple processes, enabling your teams to do more with less effort means opportunities to recapture value and do more with every hour.

Explore powerful redaction tools and evaluate how Power PDF can take a place in your business. Request your free 15-day trial now.