How to Redact in Word

Redacting Text Manually

1. Open your Word document. Double-click the Word document that you want to redact in order to open it in Word.

   1. Keep in mind that this method is only viable for small documents. If you need to redact large amounts of text, you'll most likely need to save Word documents as image files instead.

2. Select the text you want to redact. Click and drag your mouse cursor across the text to do so.

3. Click the word count. You'll see it in the bottom-left corner of the window (e.g., [number] of [number] words). This brings up a pop-up window with word and character information for your document.

   1. For example, if you selected 23 words in a document which has 350 words, you would click 23 of 350 words here.

4. Review the number of characters. Next to the "Characters (with spaces)" heading in the pop-up window, look at the number.

   1. You'll need to remember this number when replacing the text you want to redact with filler text.

5. Click Close. It's at the bottom of the window. The pop-up will close.

6. Copy the selected text. Press either Ctrl+C (Windows) or ⌘ Command+C (Mac).

7. Bring up the "Find and Replace" menu. Press either Ctrl+H (Windows) or Control+H (Mac) to do so.^[1]

8. Paste the text into the "Find what" field. Click the "Find what" text field at the top of the pop-up window, then press either Ctrl+V (Windows) or ⌘ Command+V (Mac).

9. Add filler text to the "Replace with" field. Click the "Replace with" text box near the bottom of the pop-up window, then type one random number or letter (e.g., x) for each character you're redacting.

   1. For example, if you highlighted 20 characters (with spaces), you'll type x 20 times.
   2. This process can be incredibly tedious if you have to redact multiple long lines of information. If accuracy is of utmost importance, consider converting your Word file to images instead.

10. Click Replace all. This option is at the bottom of the window.

11. Click OK when prompted. It's at the bottom of the pop-up window. Your selected text should now be replaced by a meaningless string of letters.

12. Repeat with any other text you need to redact. Once all of your confidential text has been replaced with a string of random letters, you can proceed.

13. Highlight the filler text in black. You'll need to do this for all the filler text in your document:

    1. Click the drop-down arrow to the right of the ab highlighter icon in the "Font" section.
    2. Click the black box in the drop-down menu.
    3. Select a line of filler text.
    4. Click the black line below the highlighter icon, then repeat with other pieces of filler text.

14. Save your file. Press either Ctrl+S (Windows) or ⌘ Command+S (Mac) to do so. Your changes will be saved, though you may want to remove your metadata as well.