The Best Way to Redact PDF on Mac

Audrey Goodwin

2023-08-25 18:55:14 • Filed to: Protect PDFs on Mac • Proven solutions

You may wonder how do I blackout text on a PDF? This article shows how to redact PDF on Mac with this powerful PDF redaction tool - PDFelement. Open your PDF in it, and click the Redaction tool to white out the content you need, not only text but also images and pages. Let's keep reading to get more details.

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Part 1. How to Redact a PDF on Mac
Part 2. Convert to Editable PDF for Redaction on Mac
Part 3. Best Tool to Redact PDF on Mac
Part 4. Other Solutions to Redact PDF on Mac

Part 1. How to Redact a PDF on Mac

PDFelement for Mac is a powerful one-stop-shop for all your PDF needs. Let's take a look at the detailed steps about how to redact PDF documents on Mac including macOS 11.

Step 1. Open PDF

Once you launch the program, you will see the "Open File" button on the Home screen. Click on it to select the PDF that you want to protect through redaction. Once you've done this, click on the "Open" button.

Step 2. Redact PDF on Mac

As mentioned earlier, you can redact text, images, and pages on your PDF by clicking the "Redact" button.

To redact text and images click on the "Text & Image" button on the top. Now drag the cursor to highlight the desired text or images. Once you release your mouse, the item will be automatically blacked out.
To redact pages, click the "Pages" button on the top. A new window will appear. Select the page range that you want to redact.

After selecting the content that you want to redact, click on the "Apply" button in the top-right corner. The selected area will be removed permanently. Once you save the document, you will not be able to uncover the redacted area. If you are ok with this, then proceed and apply the changes.

Step 3. Edit Redaction Properties

You can also change the redaction properties if you have a PDF document with redacted content. When you click on the "Redact" button, you can select a preferred color on the top. You can test the changes by redacting parts of the PDF file.

Redacting PDF files is a great way to fully protect them since when you use PDF encryption software, it is still possible that someone can decrypt the file. Therefore, the most effective way to protect confidential information is to remove or cover up sensitive fields or pages permanently through redaction.

Part 2. Convert to Editable PDF for Redaction on Mac

Step 1. Convert PDF to Editable Word Document

After opening your PDF file in PDFelement for Mac, click the "File" > "Export to" button on the top menu bar to convert it to a Word document. In this case, you'll want to select the "Word" option.

Step 2. Redact in Word

After converting your file to a Word document, you can find the file in the output folder and open it using Word. To learn more details about how to redact in a Word document click here.

Part 3. Best Tool to Redact PDF on Mac

Although there are different redaction software tools available on the market for Mac, nothing beats PDFelement for Mac. This software is recognized for its ability to edit, convert, create, and OCR PDF files. It also allows you to blackout text, images, and pages permanently, plus perform batch redaction on your PDF. Some of its other features include the ones listed below.

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It lets you modify the text, images, objects, and pages, as well as annotate and highlight using different colors, or add comments, sticky notes, bates numbering, and watermarks, etc.
This tool supports the creation of PDF files from different sources. It also converts PDF files to editable formats like MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Images, etc.
It allows you to fill PDF forms, sign forms, and create them.
It includes an OCR functionality that makes image-based or scanned files readable, editable, and searchable.
It is compatible with macOS 11 ( Big Sur), macOS X 10.15(Catalina), and 10.14 (Mojave).

Best PDF Editor Available for Desktop - PDFelement

Product Features	PDFelement for iOS	PDFelement for Mac
View PDF Files
Edit PDF Files
Page Management
Annotations and Comments
Create PDF Files
Add Bookmarks
OCR feature
Redaction
Add Watermarks, Backgrounds, Headers and Footers
Access to Hundreds of PDF Templates

Part 4. Other Solutions to Redact PDF on Mac

In this emerging globalization, the flow of digital documents is escalating day by day. Thus the potential security threat to sensitive information is also increasing with immense speed. To tackle such dilemmas redact pdf on mac with some simple steps. The steps are for free pdf redaction on mac.

Sometimes when you share a document with any party, you need to hide sensitivity data for any reason. Personal information can be redacted from a PDF file with few methods. Here are the methods to reduce the security dilemma;

Solution 1. macOS Preview app

Apple has its own redaction tool that is also known for giving redaction-related warnings in Preview. In Preview’s markup toolbar, you can display the editing toolbar by choosing “View” > “Show Markup toolbar” or you can just click the “Markup” icon. You can click any item in the shapes menu and you will get a warning “The content behind this annotation will not be deleted.” This warning gives you the advice to use the new Redact selection tool. Easily select the tool and you will receive the alert “Redacted content is permanently removed” and “Any content marked for redaction will be permanently deleted when the document is closed.”

Moving on, you need to drag the redact selection tool the way you want and “Save” that text won’t be recovered from that version of the file.

Solution 2. Permanently remove content

Using a few clicks, you can redact content from the document. Here are the steps;

Step 1: Open the pdf that you want to edit in a PDF management tool and find the navigation menu.

Step 2: In the navigation menu, look for the redaction tool. Once you’ve chosen it, choose the way you want the redacted content to look. You can replace the content with a blank space or even with a black box.

Step 3: Lastly, you need to click on the content you want to redact. Before sharing the document, don’t forget to apply and save all changes that you’ve made.

Solution 3. Find and remove content in bulk

Planning to remove content in bulk? You can remove groups of sensitive content swiftly too. You need to have good searching skills over here, as you will be hunting the sensitive content down. You can search for multiple words or a single word to be redacted. You can also search for patterns like email addresses, phone numbers or any other private information. Easily redact the content in bulk from the whole document rather than doing it one by one. However, you need to make sure that you save the changes before sharing the document with any person, business, or a party.

Hiding sensitive content can become hectic for the sender. Yet, there are a lot of methods for the users to hide the information. To avoid any leaks, you can use these facile methods.

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