Redacting spreadsheets cell by cell (Beta)

When a message has a spreadsheet attached, RedactBox opens it in a grid on its file tab in Redact. You redact cells, rows, columns and whole sheets, and the export holds a new .xlsx file built from what is left, so whoever receives it can still sort and filter it. It works for Excel, OpenDocument and CSV files.

Spreadsheet redaction is in Beta. It is new, so the grid shows a Beta label, and you should check the exported workbook before you share it. If the grid does not behave, redact the file on its PDF view instead (see below).

The exported file is not the original with black boxes on top. It is a new workbook holding the cell values, formatting and layout only. Formulas, comments, charts and hidden content do not go with it.

Opening a spreadsheet

Open the message in Redact and click the spreadsheet's tab beside Message. The grid shows its sheets as tabs along the bottom, and the toolbar above it is in four groups: Redact, Reasons and changes, View and Help. On a narrow screen some controls move into More tools.

Redacting cells

1. Select what to redact. Click a cell, drag over a range, or click a row number or column letter.

2. Click Redact, or press R or Enter. Its tooltip says exactly what it will do, such as Redact cells A2:B5.

3. Check the grid. The cells turn black. In the exported file each reads REDACTED on a black fill.

What each redaction does

• Cells and ranges. The value is replaced in the export.

• Rows and columns (right-click a selection). Every cell in them is blacked out, empty ones included.

• Redact sheet. Every cell of the sheet you are on.

• Redact sheet name. The sheet's tab name, wherever it appears. In the export the tab is renamed REDACTED with its number.

• Add reason (or C) redacts the selection with reason codes and a note, as on a PDF. On a redacted cell it edits the reason.

• Remove (Delete) takes the redactions in the selection away. Undo (Ctrl+Z) undoes your last change on this file.

A spreadsheet takes up to 20,000 redactions. Redact rows, columns or ranges rather than many single cells.

What RedactBox redacts for you

• Terms. Words redacted with Search & Redact, word lists and People and identifiers are marked Matches a redaction term. A cell that contains one is redacted whole. Change the term in Search & Redact or Tools › Redactions.

• Names across cells. A name printed over two cells, such as a Forename and a Surname column, is outlined as A term printed across cells. Both cells are redacted automatically.

• Formulas. A formula that reads a redacted or hidden cell would show the value in its result, so it is redacted too: Formula that reads a redacted cell.

The colour key on the toolbar says what each colour and outline means.

Hidden sheets, rows and cells

Hidden sheets, rows and columns, and cells hidden by their formatting, always stay out of the export. Editors can turn on Show hidden content in the View group to look at them (on a narrower screen it is under More tools, the three dots at the end of the toolbar). It is for checking only. Hidden sheets appear in the tabs marked hidden.

If a hidden sheet holds something the requester is entitled to, it will not reach them through this file. Disclose it another way.

Getting a better view

These change what you see, never the export.

• Freeze panes keeps row 1 in view. Right-click a cell for Freeze panes at that cell.

• Wrap text shows long values on several lines.

• Column widths. Drag the edge of a column letter, or double-click it to fit the contents (of every selected column at once). Right-click for Fit all columns to contents and Reset column widths.

What the exported file keeps and leaves out

• Kept. Cell values, fonts, fills, borders, alignment, number formats, column widths, row heights and merged cells.

• Changed. Every formula becomes its saved value.

• Left out. Comments and notes, charts, images, pivot caches, macros, validation, conditional formatting, link targets (the link text stays), headers and footers, print settings, document properties and hidden content.

• Its name ends _REDACTED.xlsx only when something in it was redacted. Once it has grid redactions, the name carries no text from the file, such as … - attachment 2 (Excel)_REDACTED.xlsx.

For the file you have open, click About this spreadsheet's export in the Help group. How this spreadsheet is exported lists what this file holds that the export will not.

If the file goes as a PDF, or not at all

• The grid will not open. If it takes too long, or says This spreadsheet cannot be opened for redaction, choose Redact on the PDF view instead. Redactions made on the PDF view send this file to the export as its PDF.

• Both kinds on one file. A file with redactions on its PDF view and in the grid is left out. Remove the PDF-view ones in Tools › Redactions and redact those cells in the grid.

• Fail safe. If RedactBox cannot be sure the rebuilt file carries every redaction, it sends the PDF when that is safe, or leaves the file out, and the export says why.

Starting again

Delete all redactions removes every redaction on this file, including its own term redactions. It cannot be undone. When terms from Search & Redact or a word list reach the file, you choose:

• This File Only stops those terms applying to this spreadsheet. They stay on every other file.

• All Items removes those terms from every file in the project.

A person's name from People is removed in People, not here.

Who can do what

• Viewers see the grid read-only: You can see this file's redactions but not change them.

• In Triage the grid is a preview: Preview only. Redact this file in Redact.

Example: a member of staff's SAR

Helen Penwick, a teacher at Oakfield Primary, asks for her personal data. "Term start pack" has two spreadsheets attached.

1. In Staff list 2025.xlsx the other staff are third parties. The reviewer selects their rows and right-clicks Redact rows. Helen's row stays.

2. The "Payroll calc" formulas read those rows, so they are redacted too.

3. Show hidden content reveals an "HR notes" sheet. It is about other staff, and it never reaches the export, so nothing more is needed. Had it been about Helen, the reviewer would disclose those notes another way.

4. Year 4 pupil list.xlsx names pupils, all third parties. The reviewer selects the Forename and Surname columns and clicks Redact.

5. The export holds two _REDACTED.xlsx files beside the message.

Keyboard shortcuts

On a Mac, use ⌘ in place of Ctrl.