PDFelement 6 Pro Review. It’s the latest version of the well-known PDF editor from Wondershare, which claims that using PDFelement 6 you can edit PDFs easily just as in Microsoft Word. PDF Studio version 9 (coming March 2014) will have a full fledged redaction feature where users can select an area on a document, and it will redact any images or text intersecting with this area. PDF Studio works on Mac (including 10.9 Mavericks) but also Windows and Linux and the same license key can be used on 2 different computers with. PDFelement 6 features a unified Office 2016-inspired look on Mac and Windows, and faster, smarter text editing. It’s finally possible for users to edit any document just like they would in.
Redacting a PDF file allows you to hide sensitive information while otherwise keeping your document's formatting. Redaction can and should be used to cover private information, such as Social Security Numbers, competitive information, and even images. In a properly redacted file, formatting elements remain unchanged, while classified information appears as a black box.
Doing this is not as easy as highlighting the text, changing the highlight color to match the font color, and watching everything disappear. While that approach makes it look like the document has been redacted, the text remains in the document. Most people with a basic understanding of word processing can copy the 'redacted' information, paste it into a text file, and view the classified information in all its naked glory.
Properly Redacting a PDF
Adobe's Acrobat Pro software offers easy-to-use tools to redact a PDF, but note that this is not the free version of the software. As of 2019, the most current version of the software is Adobe's Document Cloud version, known as Adobe Acrobat DC. Follow the steps outlined to properly and securely redact a PDF in that version of the software. This process does not simply cover sensitive information with a black bar. It removes the content entirely.
![How To Redact Text Using Pdfelements 6 Pro For Mac How To Redact Text Using Pdfelements 6 Pro For Mac](/uploads/1/2/6/4/126452877/595836327.png)
- Convert your document to Adobe PDF format. If your document is not already in PDF format, there are several ways to change it, depending on your word processor. Open Office, for instance, puts a button in the taskbar that lets you export your document to PDF format with two clicks. Microsoft Word allows you to 'save as' a PDF file. You also can download various print drivers and file converters that will bring you the same functionality.
- Open your document in Adobe Acrobat Pro.
- Keep a copy of the original, nonredacted document in its original format. It's a good idea to save a copy and rename it before redacting anything so you don't accidentally destroy your original document.
- Select Advanced Menu/Redaction/Show Redaction Toolbar
- Select the Mark for Redaction tool from the Redaction Toolbar. A dialog box will remind you that your redactions will become permanent once the document is saved.
- Highlight the text or images that you wish to redact by holding down your Control key and dragging the cursor. The Mark for Redaction tool also will give you an option to redact an entire page or page range. Once the text or graphic has been covered, you also will double-click on the redacted area to add a sticky note.
- Review your final redactions.
- Select Apply Redactions from the Redaction Toolbar. Again, a dialog box will remind you that these changes will become permanent once your document has been saved. Add an 'r' or some other indication to the redacted version's file name.
Active3 years, 3 months ago
What methods are there to blackout a part of a PDF?
I don't want to simply use Preview's annotation tools and then save the document, since then someone could open up the PDF and remove the annotation to reveal the part of the document which I'm trying to black out.
user9290
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11 Answers
If you want to leave it as a PDF, you really need to use the actual redaction tools in Adobe Acrobat, otherwise you are simply leaving yourself open to reversals.
If you want to save the PDF as a graphics file, then any black box over the words should work.
lemongingerlemonginger1,26033 gold badges1313 silver badges2525 bronze badges
If you are looking for a no-cost way in Preview.app
- File->Export (or save as)
- Export PDF to TIFF file format (it's a multipage image format)
- Open TIFF file
- Export TIFF to PDF file format
Maintains page structure, OCR will be lost.
nohillside♦57.1k1414 gold badges120120 silver badges168168 bronze badges
illracerillracer
A free solution, is to convert the PDF to an image, then save it as a PDF again. The only drawback is that the PDF will remove any OCR info it might have had.
Steps:
- Open the PDF file to redact in Preview.
- Black out text using any method you want (e.g. use the rectangle annotation tool with black as the color and choose the thickest border. Then draw the shape as many times as needed until your document is blacked out.)
- File > Save As, and choose an image format such as PNG or GIF.
- Open the saved image file, then File > Save As, and choose PDF.
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Harald Hanche-OlsenHarald Hanche-Olsen
I tried saving my image as an image in preview and this only works if your pdf is one page. If it's multiple pages, exporting as an image will only save the first page.
The solution I found was this (it's a bit tedious, but you can get through it pretty fast once you get the hang of it):
Open PDF in GIMP (free photo editor) as an image. Only open those pages that need redaction. When you open it as an image, it essentially flattens the pdf so you're no longer able to highlight and copy text.
![How How](/uploads/1/2/6/4/126452877/207662496.jpg)
Use tools in GIMP to black out text.
Then, file -> print. On the print screen, choose 'Print Preview'. This will bring up the pdf in Preview where you can export/save the file.
If you have more than once page, then you can choose the thumbnail view in Preview and drag/drop the pdfs onto one another to form a larger document that you can then print. This is what I do when I have to sign just a few pages of a large pdf document.
Hope this helps!
LC8LC8
Open your PDF or image.
Use the line tool or whatever to make your redactions.
Then File>Print. Instead of printing to paper, save it as a PDF. Doing it this way causes the black lines or boxes to no longer be clickable. If you just 'save as' a new PDF, the boxes remain able to be manipulated,
JoeJoe
I opened the PDF in preview, exported it as a jpg. Opened word/pages and pasted the jpg into the document and then used a rectangle box to blackout whatever I wanted to and then I exported it as a pdf.
Karan NavaniKaran Navani
Features include redaction.
Using a demo version today: the option to redact is greyed out, so I can't confirm its efficacy.
According to a 2008 post by Adam Greivell:
… the redaction tool worked pretty well. Actually, it even seemed to muck up the text in a live pdf document so you couldn’t copy what was under the redaction. … I can’t say how much I’d trust this feature with sensitive live text. I scanned all of my documents to PDF with no OCR before I did my redaction. Then, I printed to PDF to add one more layer of separation to make sure nobody could see what was behind the redactions.
Graham PerrinGraham PerrinPdfelement 6 Professional For Windows
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OK, so the only real solution is to redact a paper copy and then scan it back in!
All other methods mentioned here don't work properly.
Importing the image in to GIMP and editing it there doesn't work, as once the page is put back in to a PDF document, that page is no longer text searchable as the whole page is now seen as an image!
Skim just doesn't work for redacting text. Or maybe it's just completely unintuitive with no good help.
Most other methods leave the text accessible beneath the redacted 'white outs'.
Wondershare Pdfelement 6 Pro
I have given feedback to Apple about this (http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html)
M-XYZM-XYZ
PDF Studio version 8 has a manual redaction tool built-in its content editing tool. It is real redaction that actually removes content. It can select text and images in the PDF document content and redact them.
PDF Studio version 9 (coming March 2014) will have a full fledged redaction feature where users can select an area on a document, and it will redact any images or text intersecting with this area.
PDF Studio works on Mac (including 10.9 Mavericks) but also Windows and Linux and the same license key can be used on 2 different computers with different OS.
Gerald HolmannGerald Holmann
The subject of redation of PDF files seems to be a difficult subject concerning programming. As Acrobat Pro CD is much to expensive for me as a private non-profit user, I was looking for an alternativ. It took me rather long time to find a real good alternative to Acrobat Pro:
- PDF Studio PRO from Qoppa (http://www.qoppa.com/pdfstudio/): This tool really gives you virtually the whole functionality of Acrobat Pro. It is a solid part of software and according to my extensive tests the only tool that is really able to redact safely PDF files. Note that you need the PRO version, as the standard version lacks the ability of redaction.
I tried several other possibilities, which all don't work properly:
- Apple Preview: this application allows to visually hide parts of a pdf behind a box, but it is always possible to remove the box or copy / paste the text behind as the sensitive information is NOT removed from the file!
- PDF Pen: PDF Pen seems to be a nice tool and it offers a nice reaction functionality - seems to at least. Be careful about this tool: it messes up your PDFs completely as you redact. Therefore the functionality is limited to a files who are by chance compatible with this tool. Especially in PDFs with pictures (i.e. all scanned files) PDF Pen has big problems and messes up your file so it gets irreversibly unusable. My contact with the support never brought a solution so far over a time of several weeks.
- Nuance PDF Coneverter for Mac: I bougth this tool as it offers a redaction functionality. Unfortunately there is no trial version available, but the refunding worked fine without problems. As soon as I had the tool installed, I had to realise, that it was nothing else than PDF Pen under a different hood. Now you don't have to wonder, why PDF Pen is using the OCR engine of Nuance :-). For the record: PDF Pen = Nuance PDF Converter for Mac. Same errors while redacting as expected. Result: equally useless as PDF Pen.
As a simple summary I suggest you spend the $129 for PDF Studio PRO from Qoppa.
Ivo FIvo F
Pdfelement 6 Pro Free Download
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