Redacting attachments

Files in the export are converted to PDF so you can redact them like any other item. RedactBox converts each file once and applies the redactions you have already made across the project before it goes in the export, so you review the result instead of starting from scratch.

Only files in the export are converted: a file on an approved message, or a file you chose to keep. A file that is left out, or set aside as junk, is not converted. A file attached to many messages is converted and redacted once.

What can be converted

• PDF, kept as it is. A password-protected PDF can be unlocked with its password first.

• Word and text documents: doc, docx, docm, dot, dotx, odt, rtf, txt and wpd.

• Spreadsheets: xls, xlsx, xlsm, xlsb, ods, csv and tsv.

• Presentations: ppt, pptx, pptm, pps, ppsx and odp.

• Pictures: png, jpg, gif, bmp, tif, tiff and webp, one page per picture.

• Attached emails (eml and msg), laid out like any other message.

A converted spreadsheet opens in a grid rather than as a PDF, so you can redact cells and send back a real spreadsheet. Spreadsheet redaction is in Beta: check the exported workbook before you share it. See Redacting spreadsheets cell by cell. Anything else says Can't open this type; see Attached files RedactBox can't open.

When files convert

Conversion starts within seconds of approving a message, or of choosing Keep file. Each file's row under its message says Waiting to convert, then Converting, then Ready to redact. A PDF says Waiting to prepare and Preparing instead, because it is not converted: RedactBox checks it opens and reads its text so Search & Redact can find names in it, and its pages are not changed. Most files take seconds; a large one can take a few minutes, and you can keep working meanwhile. See How attachments work in a project for every status.

Opening a converted file

1. In Redact, click the message. Its files open under it.

2. Click the file's row. It opens as a tab beside the Message tab.

   • Or, on the message's view, click the file's name on the Attached line under the header.

   • Or open Tools › Attachments, click the file's name, then Open to redact.

3. Check the redactions already on it.

4. Add anything missing with the usual tools: select text to redact it, or draw a box with Area Redaction.

Press [ and ] to move between the message and its files. A tab still converting shows the file's progress and opens the file by itself when it is ready.

The file's decision, at the right of the tabs

On a file's tab, the right of the tab strip says what will happen to the file, such as Linked attachment, Kept or Held back. Hover over it for what that means. Next to it are the choices the file can be given (Leave out, Keep file) and Done · next, which goes to the next file on the message, then the next message.

A decision here covers the file wherever it is attached. For a file on several messages, the hover text says so.

Working through with Enter

In Redact, Enter marks what you are looking at as reviewed and moves on. On a message with files, it goes to the first file still to review, then each file in turn, then the next message. It also moves on past a file that is still converting or could not be converted, so it never stops dead. Each reviewed file gets the green tick in the Reviewed column.

Inside a spreadsheet's grid, Enter redacts the selected cells instead.

Taking a redaction back

Press Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z on a Mac) to take back your own last redaction on the open file: a box you drew over text or an area, a box saved with a reason, or Redact here. Press it again to go further back. It never removes a colleague's redaction, and opening another tab or item starts the list afresh. The spreadsheet grid has its own Undo.

Redactions catch up

Redactions made with Search & Redact, Word Lists or People are applied to converted files automatically, both ways:

• A file converted later gets every redaction already made across the project before it enters the export.

• A redaction made later is added to the files already converted.

Patterns: Patterns are not run again on converted files. If you used one, run it again to cover them.

Pictures and scans

A photo or a scanned letter has no text, so Search & Redact, Word Lists and People cannot reach it. RedactBox holds it back from the export until someone has looked. Its row reads Held back · no text to search.

Open it and cover anything sensitive with Area Redaction.

When it is ready to go, choose Keep file. If it should not go out at all, choose Leave out.

Boxes hide only what is under them. If the same name is in the file's name or the message's subject, redact it there too.

Seeing what has been redacted

In Redact, each file's row has its own count in the Redactions column: the same red chip a message has, showing how many redactions are on it. A file with nothing redacted says None.

If you change a decision

• Trash a message and its converted files leave the export, unless another approved message carries them or you choose Keep file. A shared file moves to the next approved message that carries it, with its redactions.

• Leave a file out and it leaves the export everywhere. Its rows say Updating… for a moment while that happens.

Example: a pupil's EHCP review

1. The message EHCP annual review - full draft for comment is approved. Its file, EHCP annual review - Maisie Haverford.docx, reads Waiting to convert, then Ready to redact.

2. The reviewer opens its tab. Other pupils' names are already redacted, from People.

3. She redacts a teacher's mobile number by hand, draws one box too wide and presses Ctrl+Z to take it back, then redraws it.

4. A photo on another message reads Held back · no text to search. She covers the name on a peg label with Area Redaction and chooses Keep file.

5. She presses Enter to mark each file reviewed and move on.

Keys on a file's tab