Search to Redact

Find and redact specific text across all your emails and documents.

Written By Harry Elliott

Last updated About 3 hours ago

This article explains how to use the Search to Redact feature to systematically find sensitive information and redact all occurrences at once.

Opening Search to Redact

  1. Open your project

  2. Click the Search icon in the tools menu

  3. The Search to Redact dialog opens

Searching for Text

  1. Type the text you want to find in the search box

  2. Results appear automatically as you type

  3. The results list shows emails containing your search term

Each result displays:

  • The email subject

  • The sender

  • Number of matches in that email

Configuring Your Search

Scope

Choose where to search using the scope chips:

  • This Email/Document - Search only the currently open item

  • All Emails & Documents - Search everything in your project

  • Emails Only - Search only email files

  • Documents Only - Search only uploaded documents

Status Filter

  • Triaged only (default) - Search only items you've already processed

  • All items - Search everything, including unprocessed items

Case Matching

  • Exact case (default) - "John" only matches "John", not "john"

  • Any case - "John" matches "John", "john", and "JOHN"

Word Matching

  • Whole word (default) - "mark" only matches the word "mark", not "marketing"

  • Contains - "mark" matches "mark", "marketing", and "bookmark"

Redacting Search Results

  1. Review the search results to ensure they're correct

  2. Click Redact [N] Matches

  3. Review the confirmation showing:

    • The search term

    • Number of emails affected

    • Total matches to be redacted

  4. Click Confirm to apply all redactions

Tip: For bulk redactions across multiple emails, progress shows in the header and you can cancel if needed.

After Redacting

  • A notification confirms the redactions were applied

  • An Undo button appears for approximately 10 seconds

  • Redacted text displays with a coloured overlay

Tips for Effective Searching

For names: Use Exact case + Whole word to prevent "John" matching "Johnson".

For email addresses: Use Any case + Contains to search for "@company.com" and catch all addresses at that domain.

For phone numbers: Use Contains to search for partial numbers like "555-123".

For specific phrases: Use Exact case + Whole word to ensure "Project Alpha" doesn't match "Project Alphabet".

Troubleshooting

No results found?

  • Check your scope settings

  • Try Any case if capitalisation might differ

  • Try Contains if the text appears within larger words

  • Ensure emails have finished processing

Too many results?

  • Use Exact case to reduce unwanted case variations

  • Use Whole word to exclude partial word matches

  • Narrow your scope to Triaged only