(Legacy) Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro: Redacting Selected Text or Images

This article is based on legacy software.

Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro allows you to remove selected text and images from PDF documents. To remove selected areas of text or images from your PDF document, the Mark for Redaction tool is used. It allows you to easily remove areas of visible content. This option must be used when PDF documents are not searchable (e.g., scanned documents).

1. Open the desired PDF file.

2. From the View menu » select Toolbars » Redaction.
   The Redaction toolbar appears.
   

3. Click Mark for Redaction. 

4. To select text for redaction,
   1. Hover over the desired text.
      Your cursor becomes an I-beam.

   2. With the I-beam, click and drag over the text to be redacted.
      Red lines appear around the selected text.
      NOTE: To preview how the area will appear after redaction, hover over the selected area.

5. To select images for redaction,
   1. Hover near the desired image.
      Your cursor becomes a cross hair.

   2. With the cross hair, click and drag a square around the image(s) to be redacted.
      OR
      Double-click to mark the entire image for redaction.
      Red lines appear around the selected image or image section.
      NOTE: To preview how the area will appear after redaction, hover over the selected area.

6. To deselect an item marked for redaction,
   1. Click on the desired item.

   2. Press [Delete].
      The redaction marks disappear from the selected area.

7. Repeat steps 4 - 6 until all of the desired areas are marked for redaction.

8. Click Apply Redactions. 
   A confirmation dialog box appears.

9. Click OK.
   A dialog box appears, asking if you would like to search for additional document information.
   HINT: Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro is asking if you would like to search for metadata (information that is not visible e.g., form fields, hidden text).

10. To leave all metadata in the PDF document, click No and continue with step 12.
    To search for metadata in your PDF document, click Yes.
    The Examine Document pane appears, showing the metadata that Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro found within the PDF document.

11. Using the Examine Document pane, select the information you want removed from the PDF document » click Remove.
    The selected metadata is removed from the PDF document.

12. From the File menu » select Save As...
    The Save As dialog box appears.

13. Using the Save in pull-down list, select a save location.

14. In the File name text box, type the file name.
    WARNING: The redacted areas have been permanently removed from your document. If you would like to save one copy with the redactions and one without, name the document with the redactions differently.

15. Click Save.
    The selected areas have been removed from the PDF.
    NOTE: If you do not like the appearance of the reaction marks, you can modify them.