Redaction types
The three types of redactions are explained in this article.

Set this to redact an extract created in the usual fashion by highlighting text in a document's OCR section.
- Set "Extract text" or "Pending".
- In some cases, a document may contain several instances of the text being redacted. In this case, MasterFile will alert you, set the "Redaction Status" to "Error" and expect you to set "Which instance to redact?" as explained below.
Set this to redact short, repeating text strings (SIN number, name, or phone number, etc.) within a page range or across an entire PDF.
- Click "Make Extract" from an open document profile, i.e. without highlighting any text.
- Set "Page" and the default page range in the extract's "Required Information" section.
- Set "Search strings".
- Enter each string to be redacted on a new line in the extract profile's Extract field.
You can optionally
- Set a custom page range within which to redact a string. That overrides the extract's default page range. The format is
<starting page no.>....<ending page no.>....<text to redact>
For example,
1....-1....800-123-7654
3....5....John Doe
will redact '800-123-7654' on all pages and 'John Doe' on pages 3 to 5. Note that the four periods are required. To specify all pages in the PDF, use "-1" as the ending page number.
- Use the REGEX: prefix for regular expression searches.
For example,
2....2....REGEX:[a-zA-Z0-9]+?@.+?\.com
will redact simple email addresses (that have no punctuation).
We do not recommend using REGEX search strings without previewing your REGEX search string expressions as small mistakes will lead to unintended redaction or errors. We do not provide help with REGEX search strings.
Redactions are all case sensitive and process whole words only. Text starting with a partial word will not be found. If text ends with a partial word, the entire word will be redacted. A word is a series of characters without punctuation or spaces.
Set this to redact an area (the Rectangle) of a page, an entire page or a page range. Rectangle Extracts contain coordinates rather than text and are created with either Kofax PowerPDF or Acrobat from MasterFile.
- Select one or more documents.
- Click [R+ Redaction Tools > Redact with external tool] to start PowerPDF or Acrobat.
- Mark areas for redaction in Acrobat or PowerPDF - but do not apply the redactions, nor save, nor close the application or any open documents.

- Switch back to MasterFile.
- Click OK. MasterFile will close all open PDFs , close the PDF application and automatically create new rectangle extracts for each area.

Rectangles and the ability to copy profiles can be used in various ways
- If you specify a page range, you easily apply a drawn rectangle to redact headers, footers. etc. to those pages of the PDF.
- If you copy the Redaction Extract profile and (making sure to select the parent document first) paste it back in the view, specifying a different page range will redact the same rectangle on those pages.
You can manually enter the top, bottom, left and right coordinates of a redaction rectangle if you choose, and save and preview this redaction to check your coordinates, but it's simpler to draw the rectangle on the PDF and let MasterFile manage it as explained above.
Vector graphics (drawings that scale without pixelation like charts, graphs, icons, shapes, etc.) are redacted in a two-step process.
- Create a rectangle extract as above.
- Mark areas for redaction, and apply the redactions in Kofax PowerPDF or Acrobat.
- Mark the same areas a second time (they need not be perfectly aligned).
- Switch back to MasterFile and click OK to close any open PDFs, the open application, and automatically create new rectangle extracts for each area in MasterFile.
- Prefix the extracts' summary field with "via External Redaction - " so you are aware vector graphics were redacted manually.