Redact a Spreadsheet

By default, spreadsheets uploaded natively to Everlaw do not have a PDF view. You can redact spreadsheets from the native view, instead.

This article describes how to redact a spreadsheet from the native view, and additional considerations for redacting spreadsheets.

To read more about redaction on Everlaw including how to export redaction information, read our articles on Batch Redaction and Redaction.

Redact a spreadsheet

Required permissions: Create or Admin permission on Redactions

To redact a spreadsheet in the native view:

1. Press the shortcut key “r” or select the redaction button.
2. Make the redaction. To do so, you can:
   • Select individual cells
   • Press down your cursor and drag it over a group of cells
   • Select a row or column heading to redact the entire row or column
   • Select the top left corner of the spreadsheet, where the row and column headings intersect, to redact the entire sheet
3. When you release your cursor, a panel opens that allows you to choose a redaction stamp. See Apply Redaction Stamps to learn more about this.
4. When you're done, close the panel by clicking on the X in the upper right hand corner or selecting Done. Clicking on a redacted cell will reopen that cell’s redaction panel and allow you to edit the stamp or delete the redaction.

Here is some additional information about redacting spreadsheets:

• You can redact as many cells as you’d like from the native view of a spreadsheet, down to the individual cell level. This allows you to produce native versions of spreadsheets, without needing to image them, while still redacting sensitive information.
• Redacted cells turn gray in redaction mode or while selected
• Redacted cells are opaque, revealing redactions stamps, when you exit redaction mode. This is how the redactions appear when the document is produced.
• Embedded images and charts on spreadsheets cannot be redacted.
• If you choose a redaction stamp, each redacted cell will be stamped with the chosen stamp or abbreviation.
• You cannot redact spreadsheet comments using Everlaw's native spreadsheet viewer. Imaged spreadsheets do not display natively applied comments.
• You cannot redact the native view of a spreadsheet if some tabs are encrypted
• If the cell you redacted contains a value based on a formula, the control panel shows the cell’s original value as well as the formula
• If there are dependent cells, you can decide how to redact them. A dependent cell is one that uses values or calculations from another cell. Everlaw detects formula dependencies as well as pivot table dependencies.

Redact using hit highlights

You can also redact spreadsheets using hit highlights. The redaction options in the hit highlights tab are the same as for other document types.

• Select the redaction button  to redact the currently highlighted instance of the term.
• Select Redact all instances  to redact all instances of the term that occurs in the document.
  Spreadsheet redactions via Redact all instances are limited to 5,000 redactions across all pages of the spreadsheet, including dependent redactions. If your selected term will create more than 5,000 redactions, you will not be able to run the redaction.
• Select the gear button to see the current redaction options for stamps and partial redaction format when applicable. Here are some additional notes about using redaction stamps from hit highlights:
  • By default, redactions are set to have no redaction stamp and full redactions.
  • Both redact current instance and the redact all instances apply redaction stamps and partial redactions according to the redaction options.
    

Delete redactions

To delete all cell redactions on a spreadsheet, select the dropdown on the redaction tool and select Delete all redactions. 

Alternatively, activate or click on the Annotations tab and navigate to Native Redactions.

Click on the eye button to hide all redactions on your spreadsheet while you are still viewing the document. To delete all redactions from the Annotations tab, select the trash can button.

To delete an individual redaction, select it and then select the trash can button from the redaction panel.

Redact dependent cells

When redacting a cell, the redaction tool considers cell dependencies. A dependent cell is one that uses values or calculations from another cell. Everlaw detects formula dependencies as well as pivot table dependencies.

By default, dependent cell redactions are turned on, but you are able to turn them off. To do so, de-select the Enable dependent redactions checkbox. If you turn them off, you are not prompted to configure dependent cell redactions, and dependent cells are not redacted.

If you redact a cell that references another cell, the options panel shows the total number of dependent cells and give you additional options for redacting them.

You can choose to:

• Redact the dependent cells completely
• Replace the dependent cells with a formula
• Keeping the dependent cells' original values displayed (without the formula).

Any option you choose is applied to all dependent cells. By default, they are redacted completely.

Let's use this example below to illustrate the redaction of dependencies. This spreadsheet displays earnings from a lemonade stand over the course of the week. It also includes 

• The total earnings that week
• The average earnings that week
• The total weekday earnings
• The average weekday earnings
• The total weekend earnings
• The average weekend earnings

Cell B9 is the "total" of all earnings that week. It is a dependent of all cells that include earnings, B2-B8. Similarly, since B11 is the sum of all weekday earnings, it is a dependent of cells B2-B6.

Let's redact Wednesday's earnings, cell B4. B4 has four dependent cells: B9 (total earnings), B10 (average earnings), B11 (weekday sum), and B13 (weekday average). These cells all include formulas that depend on the value of cell B4. 

For any selected redaction, fully redacted cells are gray and partially redacted cells have an orange border. Replacing a dependent cell’s contents with a formula or keeping the cell’s original value are partial redactions.

If no selection is made, redacted cells are black, and partially redacted cells have a red border.

Note that in our example, the totals and averages are dependencies, but the opposite is not true. The earnings reported each day are not dependent on the total/average cells to compute their values. Therefore, if we redact Total earnings, cell B9, there are no dependencies listed or available for complete or partial redaction. 

If a cell is a dependency that references two redacted cells with different redaction dependency settings, then the dependency will be completely redacted.
For example, Monday's earnings and Tuesday's earnings share dependent cells. If we redact Monday's earnings, cell B2, and choose replace with formula and redact Tuesday's earnings, cell B3, and choose replace with value, then those dependencies have conflicting redaction settings and Everlaw will redact those dependent cells completely. 

Here is more information about redacting dependent cells:

• If you  disable the ability to redact dependent cells for your spreadsheet, you do not see the option to redact dependent cells. Instead, the redaction dialog displays a warning message letting you know that your redactions will not affect dependent cells.
  

• If you redact a very large spreadsheet and have enabled the redaction of dependent cells, the redaction operation may time out. This occurs to prevent the entire spreadsheet from crashing.
  Should a timeout be triggered, the ability to redact dependent cells will automatically be disabled for the spreadsheet during the viewing session.
  

Pivot table dependencies

Pivot table dependencies are distinct from formula dependencies, since pivot tables do not contain formulas but calculate and group data. When cells used as source data for pivot tables are redacted, the entire pivot table becomes a dependent range. Everlaw has 3 options for dependent pivot tables: Redact completely, Replace with values, and Do not redact. Here is an explanation of each option:

• If you select Replace with values, the values of the cells are retained, but the underlying pivot table is removed upon production. This is useful if you redact source data but only want to redact some part of the dependent pivot table. If any part of a pivot table is redacted, the underlying pivot table is removed, and the rest of the pivot table retains the cell values upon production.
• If you select Do not redact, the dependent pivot table is not redacted. Because source data is redacted and possibly stamped, this may affect the dynamically calculated pivot table and change the values upon production and viewing

  Important

  Redacting a pivot table without redacting the source data means that a viewer can choose to reconstruct the pivot table with the original data.

When you redact a pivot table in the native spreadsheet, Everlaw indicates that you are redacting a pivot table and shows the source sheet and range to help you redact the source data if needed.

Produce redacted spreadsheets

While native versions are usually withheld for redacted documents, the opposite is true for redacted spreadsheets. This is because native spreadsheets are redacted in native view, while other documents are redacted in the PDF or image. Therefore, if you choose to include natives when producing redacted spreadsheets, the subsequent production includes native spreadsheet files, with redactions burned in, and placeholder image files. If your native file format was originally .xlsb, the produced and redacted native documents is .xlsx.

Produced spreadsheets on Everlaw are cut off at the last row or column of content. Therefore, if you redact a full column or row at the end of your sheet, those redactions are hidden on production. 

Native document, redacted column

Produced version of the document, redacted column is hidden