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How to redact PDFs in Google Docs - for free
You're watching your favorite crime or political drama on television and someone is viewing a document, only to see that much of it is blacked out. That's called redaction -- it's often used to protect sensitive information that shouldn't be viewed by just anyone.
Governments and policing agencies aren't the only groups who might need to redact documents. You've probably added sensitive information to documents, knowing that not everyone should be able to view it. Rather than rewrite the document without the sensitive information or create a new version of the file, try redacting.
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If you use Google Docs, there's a free and effective -- albeit slightly cumbersome -- way to redact documents or PDFs that doesn't involve installing a third-party tool or learning a scripting language. Here's how.
How to redact documents in Google Docs
What you'll need: The only things you'll need are a valid Google account (free or paid) and a document to redact. This method works the same on both PDFs and other types of documents.
1. Open your PDF
Go to Google Drive and locate the PDF you want to redact. Do not double-click the file to open it; instead, right-click the file and select Open With > Google Docs.
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One thing to keep in mind: this will open the PDF as a Google document. Depending on the complexity of your PDF, it might not survive the transition intact. Unfortunately, this is the only way to redact a PDF in Google Workspaces (without installing a third-party extension like iDox.ai - which can be expensive). If you're using a Google doc, you shouldn't have any issues.
Make sure to open your PDF this way, otherwise you won't be able to redact it.
2. Select text to redact
With the document open, highlight the text you want redacted. This can be tricky in PDFs, because sometimes you can highlight text, and sometimes you can't. Be as accurate as possible here.
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Next, click Insert > Drawing > New. This will open a pop-up window that lets you create a black box to place over the area to be redacted.
You're about to open the Google Drawing tool.
3. Create the drawing
From the pop-up, click the Shapes icon, select Shapes from the drop-down, and then select the square. You can then draw a rectangle that is roughly the size of the information that needs to be redacted.
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This is where the cumbersome part comes in -- there's no way of seeing how large the redaction block needs to be. Once you've drawn the border of the shape, click the Bucket Fill icon, select black for the color, and then click Save and Close.
If you need to redact a block in a PDF that's in a different shape, choose the one best suited.
4. Place the redaction
If you remembered to first select the text to be redacted, the black rectangle will automatically be placed correctly. If the block is too large, it might displace some of the other text but what you want hidden will be taken care of.
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If you forgot to highlight the text, this is the frustrating part. You have to move and resize the redaction block so it covers the necessary text. Unfortunately, there's very little accuracy to this. Click and drag the block where you want it, but you'll find that sometimes it doesn't move, or it moves too far or not enough. This also depends on the complexity of your PDF. Because PDFs are far more complex than documents, there can be a lot of trial and error here. Your best bet is to always highlight the text to be redacted first.
If you don't first select the text to be redacted, you can wind up with a mess like this.
5. Download the PDF
Continue adding redaction blocks until you have all the sensitive information hidden from sight. Once finished, click File > Download > PDF Document to save the newly redacted PDF to your desktop.
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Although this isn't a perfect solution, it certainly can get the job done. And, again, if you're working with a straight-up Google document, the process is far more reliable.