How to Combine Manual & Automatic Redaction for Perfect PDF Redaction

When it comes to redaction, documents tend to be the most tedious in labor. It’s a line-by-line analysis affair. If you’re lucky, you have very few sentences and words to redact, and can move on to the next assignment.

It’s a slog, an absolute slog. With this type of software, it’s like its job is designed not to get the work done and is just meant to steal your labor hours. There have been many attempts at creating automated processes for document redaction, but they’ve led to mixed results. And there’s enough stories out there of redacted content being inadvertently exposed because of those mixed results, that no one really has a reason to trust the word “automated” when it’s applied to document redaction. CaseGuard knew there was a better way, and the proof of this is best shown when both manual and automatic redaction tools are activated in CaseGuard Studio.

The idea is to combine principles that maximize your labor dollar – because ultimately, if combining both tools does not provide a total cost savings, then their combined use is just as ineffective as the antiquated method of single tool use, and probably only complicates the work being done.

No one wants to be stuck trying to complete work that doesn’t flow, and is labor intensive, from command prompts, to trying line up task properties, deciding where to apply tasks, all while investing more and more time.

Using Manual Redaction

Manual redaction in CaseGuard Studio is really simple, as it should be. You select the manual redaction tool, you highlight the words in need of redaction by pointing, clicking, and holding your mouse cursor over them, and the work is done for you.

Manual redaction forms the basis for all other forms of redaction, whether you’re using automated types that are passive (Header & Footer/Column redaction), or active (keyword, word pattern redaction), if manual redaction is not designed to work fluently, then all other types of redaction are going to have an even worse time performing. Basic manual redaction tools are like the movement of crawling…..you have to do it well before you can start walking, and then running.

There’s not a lot more to say, except for one key feature that is linked to the automatic redaction, which will be discussed next.

Using Automatic Redaction

The trick of course is to get automated principles to work cooperatively in the context of document redaction.

Typically, you’ll find that automated redaction has problems following margins, font size, font size, line spacing, and many of the properties that organize and structure a typical document.

However, in CaseGuard Studio there are two elements that set apart the automated redaction portion involving documents.

First, by applying keyword search to both types of redaction, you can apply redaction quickly over multiple pages without actually touching those pages.

The second element that CaseGuard addressed was how document redaction tools view the document. Trying to match document properties between a tool and file created in another software program is very difficult work. But, what is easier is to create a new template for the tool to work from that fits within the document. CaseGuard developed a feature within automated redaction known as fractional properties.

This allows CaseGuard Studio to evaluate each document in extremely small slices. In turn, this means that your redactions (and enhancements) are applied incrementally to the document, and not bound to matching margin and document properties.

Think of it as placing a graph paper overlay onto the document you need to redact, and being able to color in block by block, but being able to customize the coloring down to each line you apply.

Manual & Automated Redaction Combined

With these added features to our document redaction tools, you can combine manual and automated redaction in an extremely useful way.

Using our Keyword Analysis tool, seek out words, phrases, and sentences you want to redact, highlight those words for automatic redaction, and then scan the results in the page to see if you need to manual redact any content before or after the word.

Automatically redact PII, and add parameters to automated redaction by adding column and row sizes. While the redaction fills in perfectly down the document, you can check on each page, and redact smaller areas with unique words that are located in only one or two places.

In this way, you are conducting an editing process while still applying live redaction to the document, and by combining both redaction methods, and leveraging the ability to play editor at the same time, you are saving time in both the role of producing the document, and eliminating the entire task of editing.

Conservatively, this is likely an 80 percent reduction in overall labor for the same task in the next leading brand of software. When you can tout those kinds of numbers as a cost savings, you know you’ve found the solution to your problems.

Watch in Action

Conclusion

When it comes to document redaction, you need software that is responsive. And that’s exactly what CaseGuard Studio provides.

Whether it’s manual redaction, automated redaction, or both tools used together, you can accomplish your tasks quickly and easily, without the need for specialized training, and without burning up your labor hours.

With all that in mind, CaseGuard Studio proves itself to be the legitimate option. It not only provides the most advanced redaction tools, but it also greatly reduces your time investment in project completion.