Redact Documents in RapidReview

  • Updated on Jan 15, 2026
  • 9 minute(s) read
Prev Next

You can redact individual documents or batch-redact multiple documents in RapidReview. The steps for applying redactions within a document are the same as for the main redaction tool. However, there are several key differences in the overall process:

  • Any changes made to the document will be saved automatically. This means you can leave the redaction page at any time and return later and all your redactions will be there.

  • Redactions made in RapidReview will be first applied in draft form. The total count of draft redactions in a document will be shown under the document name in the documents list in RapidReview. Before releasing the document you will need to finalize the document to burn in the redactions.

  • While redacting a document you can also leave comments for yourself and other users. If there are comments on a document, the word 'Comment' will be shown under the document name in the documents list in RapidReview.

Important Notes

  • Any user can view redactions and comments made by any other user on the document.

  • Publishers and Staff users can only edit and delete their own redactions and comments. If you hold either role and are responsible for reviewing the draft redactions, you will need to ask the user who added the draft redactions to make any changes to them.

  • Admins and Department Admins can edit or delete any redaction on documents they have access to.

  • You can redact a document while it is in any of the document stages except for Ready for Release. If other people are working on this request with you, you may want to designate documents as in the "Needs Redaction" stage so they know which ones to work on.

Before You Redact: Flattening a PDF or Image Document

  • PDFs or image files created from certain software can be very large and complex, containing multiple layers of information, interactive elements, and annotations.

  • Flattening a document combines all of its contents into a single layer, making it uneditable and non-interactive, reducing its file size, removing attachments, and ensuring consistent viewing.

  • Flattening a document will reduce potential errors when viewing and redacting in NextRequest

    • We recommend flattening any PDFs or images that have complex layer structures.

  • You are able to select multiple documents and bulk flatten them together.

Flatten a Document

  1. Open the request

  2. Click Launch RapidReview (wrench icon) on a request Button to launch the RapidReview tool on a request.

  3. Hover over the document card, click ellipses (three dots), and select Flatten file The 'Flatten file' option highlighted in the actions drop-down next to a document.

    1. You can also select multiple files and press the Flatten icon on the toolbar
      PDF icon for flattening files.

  4. Click the Flatten document button on the pop-up Prompt asking to flatten a document for easier redaction in PDF format.

  5. Once the flattening process is completed, a message pop-up will appear to indicate success. The flattened document will appear at the end of the documents list with the text "-flattened.pdf" appended to the end of the document name.

Remove Metadata From a Document

Removing all metadata will create new PDF files without metadata, such as text. Text based redaction, searching, and similar actions will not work on these files unless the document is run through an OCR process.

  1. Open the request

  2. Click Launch RapidReview (wrench icon) on a request Button to launch the RapidReview tool on a request.

  3. Hover over the document card, click ellipses (three dots), and select Remove metadata
    Actions menu on a document with Remove metadata highlighted.

  4. Click the Remove Metadata button on the pop-up Prompt asking to remove all metadata from a document with confirmation options.

  5. Once the metadata removal process is completed, a pop-up message will appear to indicate success. The new document will appear at the end of the documents list with the text "-no-metadata.pdf" appended to the end of the document name.

Redact a Document

  1. Open the request An example request number in the Request column.

  2. Click Launch RapidReview (wrench icon) on a request Button to launch the RapidReview tool on a request.

  3. Click on a document name to open it Document management interface showing unprocessed documents and a highlighted file name.

  4. Select a redaction option Toolbar options for redacting the document.

    • Redaction Block (Box icon): Drag a redaction block/rectangle over the part of the page you want to redact

      • Click this box icon once (fills in dark gray) to apply this redaction type one time

      • Click this box icon twice (fills in white) to continually apply this redaction type

    • Text Selection Redaction (Pen icon): Select text to redact

    • Redact Full Pages (Paper icon): Select to redact an entire page

  5. (Optional) Click the Add comment button to comment on the redaction 'Add comment' button on the document redaction page.

  6. Click the Finalize button at the top right of the document. Otherwise, you will need to return to the document later to finalize redactions before the document can be released. The 'Finalize' button on a redacted document.

Redact All Instances of a Type of Information

  1. Open the request An example request number in the Request column.

  2. Click Launch RapidReview (wrench icon) Button to launch the RapidReview tool on a request.

  3. Select the document that you want to redact Document management interface showing unprocessed documents and a highlighted file name.

  4. Click the Search button at the top of the redaction window The Search button on a document's toolbar.

  5. Select a redaction option:

    • To redact all instances of a word or phrase, enter the text you want to redact in the Search Document field Search document feature highlighted in the toolbar.

    • To redact all instances of a type of information, click the triangle icon in the search field, then check one or more options in the drop-down that appears (USA Social Security Number, USA Phone Number, Email, USA Postal Code, Date) Document interface showing options for redaction.

  6. Click the Search icon (magnifying glass) The search magnifying glass icon on a document.

  7. Click the Redact button above the list of results on the left The Redact button under the search bar on a document.

  8. Click the Redact All button The 'Redact All' button under the search results.

  9. (Optional) Select a Redaction Reason from the drop-down Redaction Reason options on a document.

  10. Click the Finalize button at the top right of the document. Otherwise, you will need to return to the document later to finalize redactions before the document can be released. The 'Finalize' button on a redacted document.

Batch Redact Documents

You can save time by redacting the same word, phrase, or type of data across multiple documents at once. Like with regular redactions in RapidReview, batch redactions will initially be applied in draft form. You can then finalize these draft redacted documents either one at a time or as a batch.

Important Notes

  • We recommend redacting no more than 500 documents at once. Above that number, you may start to see performance issues. Be sure to wait until a batch redaction is complete before trying to take any other actions on those documents, otherwise, you may see unexpected behavior.

  • Not all documents can be batch redacted. In particular, image files and PDFs that have not had Optical Character Recognition (OCR) applied can not be batch redacted and will need to be redacted individually. Look for the label 'Batch Redactable' next to the document name to see if the document can be batch redacted.

Document management interface showing a highlighted file with a Batch Redactable tag.

Instructions

  1. Open the request An example request number in the Request column.

  2. Click Launch RapidReview (wrench icon) Button to launch the RapidReview tool on a request.

  3. Check the documents you wish to redact and click the Batch Redact icon (wrench) in the toolbar Multiple documents checked with the batch redact wrench icon selected in the toolbar.

  4. Select a Redaction Type and/or a Redaction phrase to batch redact The Redaction type and Redaction phrase fields.

  5. (Optional) Select an existing folder from the drop-down or type a new name in the field and click enter 'Place in folder' drop-down on the batch redaction page.

  6. (Optional) Select a Redaction reason to be applied to all batch redactions that are added The 'Set redaction reason' drop-down and textbox.

  7. Click the Start Redaction button The 'Start Redaction' button on the batch redaction screen.

    Note:

    Depending on the number of documents selected and the types of redactions, it may take up to an hour for the draft redactions to be applied

Delete a Draft Redaction from a Document

Users can only delete draft redactions that they applied themselves. If you want redactions removed that were made by another user, you will need to ask them to do so (for example by adding a comment to the document)

Important Note

  • This is for draft redactions only. If the redactions have been finalized you cannot remove them and will need to start over with the original file

  1. Open the request An example request number in the Request column.

  2. Click Launch RapidReview (wrench icon) Button to launch the RapidReview tool on a request.

  3. Select a redaction in the document Redacted blacked out text on a document.

  4. Click the trashcan icon that appears in the top right of the pop-up window The trashcan icon next to a redaction on a document.

Add a Comment to a Document

Comments are a great way to document questions, ask for feedback, or record thoughts to be reviewed by yourself and others at a later point. You can reply to both your own comments and comments left by other users. However, you can only delete your own comments. All comments will be deleted automatically when the document is finalized.

  1. Open the request An example request number in the Request column.

  2. Click Launch RapidReview (wrench icon) Button to launch the RapidReview tool on a request.

  3. Select an existing draft redaction Redacted blacked out text on a document.

  4. Click the Add Comment button on the pop-up window 'Add comment' button on the document redaction page.

  5. Type your comment into the box and click the Post button The 'Post' button on the add comment pop-up on a document.

Change the Redaction Type to a Rectangle

When you run a search in RapidReview or the standard redaction tool, it applies a text redaction to the page. Text redactions cannot be moved freely on the page. However, sometimes you may need to do this if you have applied Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to the document, or the redactions need to cover an additional area on the page.

  1. Open the request An example request number in the Request column.

  2. Click Launch RapidReview (wrench icon) Button to launch the RapidReview tool on a request.

  3. Click on the document that has draft redactions you need to change Document management interface showing unprocessed documents and a highlighted file name.

  4. Select the draft redaction and in the menu pop-up click on the square selector iconThe square icon to select a redaction area on a document.

  5. Click on the redaction and drag it to a new location and change the size/shape as needed Resize the redaction area on a document.

Finalize Redactions on a Document

Important Notes

  • Finalizing your document burns all redactions into the document and you will be unable to remove or edit them. All comments will be deleted.

  • Hyperlinks are removed from finalized documents.

  • Attachments are not removed from finalized documents.

    • To remove attachments from a PDF, you must first flatten the file.

    • Attachments to EML or HTML files can be extracted to pull out the component files.

  1. Open the request An example request number in the Request column.

  2. Click Launch RapidReview (wrench icon) Button to launch the RapidReview tool on a request.

  3. Find the file you want to finalize in the list of documents/files and select it Document management interface showing unprocessed documents and a highlighted file name.

    Note:

    The document will be in the same stage as before you added draft redactions to it. This is a change from before the draft redaction was released - previously the document would have been automatically moved to the Redacted stage

  4. Click the Finalize button at the top right of the document window The 'Finalize' button on a redacted document.

  5. Click the Finalize document button in the pop-up menu that says “By finalizing your document you will burn all redactions into the document and you will be unable to remove or edit them. All comments will be deleted. Are you sure you want to continue?”
    Prompt to finalize document redactions with options for removing metadata and attaching a redaction log.

    Note:

    You will be shown a warning if there are any redactions that don't have redaction reasons applied.

    • Attach redaction log to finalized document: Uncheck to remove the redaction log from your document

    • Remove metadata: This option adds a step that converts the document to an image before creating the PDF, removing metadata like text and accessibility tags. This can help ensure redactions are burned in for documents with unusual formats. After using this, text-based redaction and search won't work unless an OCR process is applied.

      Note:

      Some jurisdictions treat document metadata as part of the official record and require its retention for legal or other purposes. You must ensure this feature complies with all applicable laws, regulations, and policies before use.

  6. View the document on the Redacted tab The 'Redacted' tab highlighted on the RapidReview screen.

Finalize Redactions on Multiple Documents

Important Notes

  • The Finalize button will not appear when multiple documents are selected if any of the selected documents have no redactions, are archive file types, or have already been finalized

  1. Open the request An example request number in the Request column.

  2. Click Launch RapidReview (wrench icon) Button to launch the RapidReview tool on a request.

  3. Check the documents you wish to finalize the redaction on Document list showing selected items for redaction.

    Note:

    The document will be in the same stage as before you added draft redactions to it. This is a change from before the draft redaction was released. Previously the document would have been automatically moved to the Redacted stage.

  4. Click the Finalize button in the document viewer to the right Two draft documents selected for finalization with a prominent finalize button displayed.

    Note:

    Uncheck the Attach redaction log to finalized documents option if you don't wish to generate a redaction log

  5. Click the Finalize documents button in the pop-up menu that says By finalizing these documents you will burn all redactions into the document and you will be unable to remove or edit them. All comments will be deleted. Are you sure you want to continue?Confirmation dialog for finalizing document redactions with a 'Finalize Documents' button.

    Note:

    You will be shown a warning if there are any redactions that don't have redaction reasons applied.

  6. View the documents on the Redacted tab The 'Redacted' tab highlighted on the RapidReview screen.

Redaction Logs

Redaction logs are important for communicating why certain information has been redacted from files that you release to the requester and/or the public. In some jurisdictions, a redaction or exemption log may be required if you are redacting files. We recommend reviewing your local laws about your obligation to produce redaction or exemption logs. Learn more about creating custom redaction reasons to populate the redaction log.

Supporting Articles

Related articles