Redacting sensitive information in Word documents can be a tedious and error-prone task, especially when dealing with large documents. Whether you're a legal professional, a compliance officer, or anyone working with sensitive information, ensuring that private data is thoroughly redacted is crucial.

Kutools for Word offers an efficient and user-friendly solution with its newly introduced Redaction Tool. This tutorial will guide you through using this powerful feature to secure your documents effectively.

• Step 1: Enable the Redaction Tool
• Step 2: Mark the text for redaction
• Step 3: Clear marks if needed
• Step 4: Apply the redactions

• Customizing redaction settings
• Accessing the Help window
• Closing the Redaction toolbar

Why You Need the Redaction Tool

Redacting text manually in Word can be risky and time-consuming. You might overlook some instances of the text or make mistakes that leave sensitive information exposed. The Redaction Tool in Kutools for Word simplifies this process by allowing you to mark, clear, and apply redactions across your entire document with just a few clicks.

Steps to Redact Sensitive Information in Word

By following these steps, you can efficiently mark and obscure any confidential content, ensuring that your document is safe to share or archive without risking exposure of sensitive data.

Step 1: Enable the Redaction Tool

On the Kutools tab, click on the Redaction Tool button. And a toolbar will appear.

Step 2: Mark the Text for Redaction

1. Click the Mark button on the toolbar to activate Mark mode.
2. Select the text you want to redact.

Step 3: Clear Marks If Needed

• If you decide to clear all marks to start over: Simply click the Clear All button.

  

• If you’ve marked something by mistake and want to unmark them, please do as follows:
  1. Click the Clear button to switch to Clear mode.
  2. Select the text you want to unmark.
  The tool will remove the mark from all instances of this text across the document.

  

  Tip: To quickly remove all marks within a specific paragraph or section, select the area, and all marks within it - and identical text throughout the document - will be cleared.

Step 4: Apply the Redactions

Once you’ve marked all the necessary text, click the Apply button.

This will save your current document and create a new document where all marked text is redacted. The two documents will then be displayed side by side for easy comparison.

Tips for Using the Redaction Tool

Customizing Redaction Settings

To access customization options, please click the Settings button on the toolbar.

In the pop-up Settings dialog box, you can change the redaction background color. Also, you can choose whether to apply marks and clears globally to all identical text or only to the specific text you select.

Accessing the Help Window

If you need to revisit the Help window to view the application scenarios or features overview, simply click the ? button on the toolbar.

Closing the Redaction Toolbar

If you want to close the Redaction toolbar temporarily, click the Close button.

Any marks you've made will remain in place until you use the Clear or Clear All buttons, allowing you to hide the toolbar without losing your work.

Above is all the relevant content related to the Redaction Tool of Kutools for Word. I hope you find the tutorial helpful. If you're looking to explore more Word features provided by Kutools, please visit the product page to access our extensive collection of feature tutorials.