Search and redact words

Use the Search And Redact tool to find and remove words or phrases in one or more PDFs that contain searchable text.

Note: The Search And Redact tool doesn’t search secured (encrypted) PDFs.
  1. Choose View > Toolbars > Redaction, and select the Search And Redact tool .
  2. Specify if you want to search the current PDF or all PDFs in another location.
  3. Do one of the following:

    • To search for only one word or phrase, choose Single Word Or Phrase and type the word or phrase in the text box.

    • To search for multiple words, select Multiple Words Or Phrase, and then click Select Words. Type each word in the New Word Or Phrase text box and click Add. You can also import a text file with the list of words or phrases to search for.

    • To search for a pattern (for example, phone numbers, credit card numbers, email addresses, social security numbers, or dates), click Patterns. Choose one of the available patterns. (English only)

  4. Click Search And Redact.
  5. In the search results, click the plus sign (+) next to the document name to see all occurrences of the word or phrase. Then, select the occurrences you want to mark for redaction:

    • To select all occurrences in the list, click Check All.

    • To select individual occurrences, click the check box for each one you want to redact. Click the text next to a check box to view the occurrence on the page.

    • To mark none of the occurrences, close the Search window or click New Search to start over.

  6. If you selected occurrences that you want to mark for redaction, click Mark Checked Results For Redaction.

    The items you checked in the list are shown marked for redaction.

    Note: If you haven’t saved the file, you can select redaction marks in the document and press Delete to remove the redaction mark. The redaction marks become permanent after you save the file.
  7. To remove the marked items, click Apply Redactions in the Redaction toolbar, and then click OK.

    The items aren’t permanently removed from the document until you save it.

  8. If you want to search for and remove hidden information in the document by using the Examine Document feature, click Yes. Otherwise, click No.
  9. Choose File > Save, and specify a filename and location. If you don’t want to overwrite the original file, save the file to a different name, location, or both.