Delete Items in PDF Documents With Adobe Acrobat

PDFs are used primarily for professional reasons. Because of this, it’s sometimes important to hide or remove information on a PDF, or in the metadata of a PDF. To do this, we use Adobe Acrobat’s Redaction tool, which permanently removes part of a document. Manually redacting parts will let you manually browse the document for parts to redact. Redacting specific words or phrases will allow you to automatically redact specific words or phrases. Hidden information, such as as Metadata - which contains the document’s author’s name, keywords and copyright information - must be removed in a particular way. By default, redaction marks are black boxes, but they can be changed to any color or to empty spaces, effectively removing the content.

Steps

Editing Your Document

  1. Open Adobe Acrobat. You may have it saved on your desktop, but you might have to search your computer for it. The easiest way is to use a search bar. PC’s will have a search bar in the bottom left, and Macs will have it in the top right.
  2. Open your file. Click, “Edit PDF,” then navigate to your PDF file.
  3. Open “Content Editing.” Click the “Edit Text & Images” tool.[1]
  4. Click to select the item you want to delete. Hit Delete. Your item is now deleted!

Redacting Content Manually

  1. Open Adobe Acrobat. You may have it saved on your desktop, but you might have to search your computer for it. The easiest way is to use a search bar. PC’s will have a search bar in the bottom left, and Macs will have it in the top right.
  2. Open your file. Click, “Edit PDF,” then navigate to your PDF file.
  3. Choose your redact tool. Click “Tools,” then “Redact.”On Adobe Acrobat XI, you'll find these on the startup menu under "Black Out and Remove Content".[2]
  4. Find what you would like removed. This can be any aspect of the document, including pictures. When you’ve found it, simply select it. You can double click it, highlight with click and drag, or use any way you prefer. To select multiple spots, hold Ctrl while you select the next part.
    • If you want a redaction mark to repeat across pages - such as a header or footer in the same place each page - right-click it and select “Repeat Mark Across Pages.”
    • On Adobe Acrobat XI's introductory menu, you'll see two options called "Mark for Redaction" and "Mark Pages to Redact" under the "Black Out and Remove Content". These are two buttons you can use, depending on how much you need to remove. Then select your content or pages of content.
  5. Click “Apply” or "Ok" button in the dialog box or secondary toolbar that becomes displayed. In Adobe Acrobat XI's startup menu/toolbar, you'll need to click "Apply Redactions" to redact the items.
  6. Save the document. Your redaction is complete!

Redacting Specific Words or Phrases

  1. Open Adobe Acrobat. You may have it saved on your desktop, but you might have to search your computer for it. The easiest way is to use a search bar. PC’s will have a search bar in the bottom left, and Macs will have it in the top right.
  2. Open your file. Click, “Edit PDF,” then navigate to your PDF file.
  3. Choose your redact tool. Click “Tools,” then “Redact.”[2]
  4. Set up the tool. In the secondary toolbar, click “Mark For Redaction,” then “Find Text.”
  5. Choose what to redact.Click “Tools,” then “Redact”[2] on versions earlier than Adobe Acrobat XI (such as Adobe Acrobat X and before). On Adobe Acrobat XI, you'll find these on the startup menu under "Black Out and Remove Content". To redact only a few terms or a single section within a page, click "Mark for Redaction". Choose if you want to redact a single word or phrase or multiple words or phrases. To look for patterns, such as phone numbers, credit card numbers or other formulaic pieces of information, select “Patterns.”
  6. Search and remove. Click, “Search & Remove Text.”
  7. Confirm redaction. Click the + to see all the parts to be redacted. You can redact everything on the list or manually scroll through the list and select what to redact.
    • To redact partial words, select “Redaction Mark Options”, then “Mark Partial Word(s) for Redaction”. Choose the number and location of characters for redaction.
    • On Adobe Acrobat XI and newer, click the Apply Redaction option from the right handside-toolbar.
  8. Click “Apply” or "Ok" button in the dialog box or secondary toolbar that becomes displayed. In Adobe Acrobat XI's startup menu/toolbar, you'll need to click "Apply Redactions" to redact the items.
  9. Save the document. Your redaction is complete!
  10. Save the document. Your redaction is complete!

Removing Hidden Information

  1. Open Adobe Acrobat. You may have it saved on your desktop, but you might have to search your computer for it. The easiest way is to use a search bar. PC’s will have a search bar in the bottom left, and Macs will have it in the top right.
  2. Open your file. Click, “Edit PDF,” then navigate to your PDF file.
  3. Choose your redact tool. Click “Tools,” then “Redact.”[2]
  4. Click, “Remove Hidden Information.” It’s in the secondary toolbar under the "Hidden Information" section title.
  5. Select the hidden content you'll need to remove for some reason. Check what to remove. What you see here is the document’s metadata, comments, or file attachments. Check the boxes next to any information you’d like to remove.
    • By clicking the + next to each type of entry and subentry in this dialog box, you'll be able to see each entry that will be removed. The ones that are checked will be removed after following through with this method.
  6. Click, “Remove.” Then click “Ok.” This box will be above the checkbox sections in the dialog box for Adobe Acrobat XI.
  7. Save the file. This is a crucial step.

Changing Redaction Marks

  1. Open Adobe Acrobat. This will help you change redaction marks from the default of black boxes. You may have it saved on your desktop, but you might have to search your computer for it. The easiest way is to use a search bar. PC’s will have a search bar in the bottom left, and Macs will have it in the top right.
  2. Choose “Properties.” It’s in the secondary toolbar.
  3. Open the “Appearance” tab. On newer versions of Adobe Acrobat (such as XI and newer), this won't be a tab, but will be a drop-down box with both a flower-watering can and a filled in square with the drop-down signal directly to it's right.
  4. Choose a color. Click, “Redacted Area Fill Color” to choose a color for the boxes. Choose “No Color” to leave the area blank. On Adobe Acrobat XI, you'll just need to click it's color from the screen or the "No Color" option.

Warnings

  • Redaction permanently removes information, so if you want to be able to see the information yourself later, be sure to save the new file with a different name.

Things You Need

  • Adobe Acrobat Pro

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://tv.adobe.com/watch/acrobat-xi-tips-tricks/how-to-edit-text-in-a-pdf-file/
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/removing-sensitive-content-pdfs.html

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