Review
Redact-It
By Ted BrooksIf you find yourself redacting “live text” documents, such
as PDF, TIFF or even Microsoft Office files, Redact-It Desktop (by Informative
Graphics Corp. http://www.redact-it.com/redactit_desktop.htm)
is worth looking into. If you need to redact scanned non-OCR documents, you can
also do that, but without the automated processes that make this program such a
timesaver.
Installation was relatively painless, optionally adding a
set of Macros which may be used with Microsoft Office document files.
Launching the program brings up a screen with web links to a
few key places on the
http://www.infograph.com
site, including Getting Started, Feature Vote, Redact-It Site and Update.
Selecting “Open” starts a browse dialog, which is initially set by default to a
series of Test Files which may be used to quickly learn the features of the
product. Each test file addresses an issue, which is identified in the name of
the document. Each document has instructions on how to use a particular
function, and has a series of searchable points which may be tested for that
function. While this might sound confusing, it is actually very simple.
For instance, if we select “Drivers license number redaction
sample.pdf,” we open a document that explains how Redact-It may be used to run
a pre-determined script of a number of different possible ways to identify and
locate a drivers license number (including various abbreviations), and then
apply “Redactups” to each of them. There are a number of commonly used preset
scripts, and of course, you can easily create your own.
Running the “Redact Drivers License” script brings up 65
hits on the sample document.
Once you have redacted as desired, you may then “Verify” the
Redactups, assign issues to them, and “Finalize” the document, saving it as a
PDF, TIFF or proprietary “CSF” file. The original document remains unchanged.
The CSF format requires the use of Informative Graphics Corp.’s free “Brava!®”
viewer, allowing the user to set a timer on the document, disabling it from
further viewing upon reaching a pre-determined expiration date. This clever
feature might be used when sending documents for review, and you want to make
absolutely sure they are deleted after a reasonable review period. This feature
is not available for PDF or TIFF images. Password protection is available for
any saved format. Insider Tip: Don’t send the document via email, and then the
password in a separate message a little while later. That’s too easy to figure
out by someone looking in the email folders.
One key selling point of Redact-It is that once you save a
redacted document, the text is no longer there and cannot be recovered (as it
was in a certain Facebook case a few years ago).
In the event you have documents that do not have “live”
text, you may either manually draw redaction boxes around an area, or for about
a $50 upgrade, you may add the OCR option (Nuance OCR engine) for TIFF files,
which will then allow full-text search and redaction.
Base pricing for Redact-It Desktop is $195, or $244 with OCR
capability. Enterprise and Kofax versions are also available.
The bottom-line on this product is that while it has a relatively lnarrow purpose, if you have the need for automation (and who doesn't need a little help with efficiency these days), and at a reasonable price, Redact-It will likely become a valuable tool in your arsenal.