No matter how many times one explains the proper way to redact information from PDF files, there will continue to be major screwups. What's a major screwup? This would be a major screwup.
Okay, once more: there are redaction tools built into Adobe Acrobat 8.0 and 9.0. If your law firm doesn't have either of these versions it's time for an upgrade. Oh, and don't forget to train your lawyers and staff on how to do proper redaction.
I have been searching for good alternatives to Adobe Acrobat for a long time. A good bankruptcy lawyer must be able to make quick changes to documents and redact without having to rescan the document. While I have found that Nitro PDF is very good when it comes to creating, combining, and editing pages a whole, pdf documents I have had some difficulties getting its editing features to work well and I have not found a redaction feture. Does anyone else have experience using Nitro for these purposes?
Alex Wathen
www.bankruptcy4houston.com
Posted by: Alex Wathen | February 21, 2009 at 06:36 PM
For Nitro (I cannot guarantee that this works, but this is what I have done):
Use the text box tool
Type "redacted" or anything similar in the box
Make the text box solid black by right clicking and then selecting "properties" and "appearance"
Save the document as a new file (like "blahblahblah REDACTED")
Password protect the permissions so someone else can open or print it, but not make any changes to it
Save again
You will be able to make change to the document by entering your password, but (hoepfully) no one else can
It's basically the same thing as using the black highlighting tool in Adobe except that the doc is password protected from changes
If anyone can tell me a reason this would not work, I would appreciate it
Posted by: Lawyer in the Northeast | August 27, 2009 at 08:18 PM
There need to be some checks and balances in the whole redaction process, and the technology is out there to fully automate the process. PSIGEN has a redaction module that lets you enter the terms to auto-redact, or the zones on a page, and its output is an image PDF or TIFF to make sure the text layer does not exist.
Posted by: PSI:Capture | August 31, 2009 at 09:59 AM
If you are looking for a robust redaction feature without wanting to purchase Acrobat 9.
Take a look at pdfDocs Desktop.
A PDF solution created for law firms: complete with redaction, collation, annotation, bates stamping, closing book creation. Significantly less expensive than
Acrobat.
Download the complimentary white paper "PDF redaction: what every attorney should know."
http://www.docscorp.com/public/home/publicRedaction.cfm
Posted by: Kerry Carroll | December 12, 2009 at 08:15 PM
These types of costly and damaging mistakes where sensitive information is accidentally released could easily be avoided by using redaction software designed precisely for eliminating sensitive information. ID Shield Redaction Software works in any environment, is easy to use, dependable and tested—our customers have securely redacted over one billion pages. Desktop and Server editions. www.extractsystems.com
Posted by: Arvind Ganesan | December 23, 2009 at 11:05 AM
Law firms seeking fast, reliable and proven redaction software should visit www.rapidredact.com
RapidRedact is a redaction tool which offers the power and flexibility that firms need to ensure that redaction projects are finished on time and with complete confidence that redacted is permanently removed.
Posted by: Anthony | January 04, 2010 at 04:56 PM
I'm amazed no one has discovered Heurodact. It provides extremely fast, very accurate redaction of text and pdf documents. The software was patented by the DOE and used for declassifying and redacting documents containing nuclear secrets. It performs better than a trained human. It does whatever a human would do, only better. Redacted terms are completely eradicated from the document and cannot be recovered! Even parts of images.
Check out http://www.heurosearch.com!
Posted by: John Wooten | June 16, 2011 at 02:30 PM