Redact a Spreadsheet

Everlaw allows you to redact spreadsheets directly within the native view, eliminating the need to generate PDF images. You can apply redactions to individual cells, partial content with a cell, cell ranges, rows, columns, entire sheets, and sheet names, ensuring sensitive data is protected while maintaining the file’s native functionality for production.

In this article, we’ll cover the tools you can use to redact spreadsheet content, how dependent cells and pivot tables are handled, and how those redactions appear when you include them in a production.

This article focuses primarily on spreadsheet redactions in the review window. To learn about redacting other file types, visit Redaction. To learn about performing redactions across multiple files at once, visit Batch Redaction.

Requirements

To make spreadsheet redactions, you must have Create or Admin redaction permissions.

Identify cell redaction types

The table below shows some examples of how different cell redaction types are visually represented in the review window. We will cover how to apply all of these redaction types in the sections below.

If a redaction stamp is applied to a fully redacted cell, it is laid over the blacked out cell when you are not in redaction mode. .

Unlike with fully redacted cells, redaction stamps never appear over partially redacted cells; however, they do appear in the formula bar with [REDACTED] as placeholder text.

Both full-cell and partial-cell redaction types display their stamps in the formula bar with [REDACTED] as placeholder text and any stamps listed.

Redaction methods and tools

When redacting spreadsheet content from the review window, you can choose from two different methods: manual redaction mode and redactions via hit highlights. 

Hit highlights automatically capture all instances of a term or phrase, allowing you to quickly surface likely redaction targets and redact them individually or in batch for that document; whereas manual redaction mode is best for redacting one‑off or context‑specific instances as you review the document.

Redact manually in redaction mode

To redact a spreadsheet in redaction mode:

1. In the review window’s toolbar, select the redaction button (shortcut: r) to enter redaction mode.
   

2. Select the content you want to redact. You can redact:

   • Individual cells: Click the cell
   • Partial content within a cell: Double click the cell. Then select the characters you want to redact.
     
   • A group of cells: Click and drag your cursor over the group of cells
   • Entire rows or columns: Select the column or row heading
   • The entire sheet: Select the top left corner of the spreadsheet, where the row and column headings intersect

   This immediately applies the redaction and opens the Redaction dialog for you to apply any additional settings (e.g. redaction stamps). 

3. [Optional] If redaction sets — labeled groups of redactions that allow for organized review and ultimately selective inclusion in productions — are enabled on the project, the Redaction dialog includes a Redaction sets field. From this field, select any Admin-defined redaction sets to bucket your redaction in. 

4. [Optional] In the Redaction stamps field, select one or more stamps.

   Note

   If you choose a redaction stamp, each cell selected for redaction will be stamped with the chosen stamp or abbreviation.

5. If there are dependent cells, you will need to 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. There are three options:
   • Redact completely: Redacts the dependent cells completely
   • Replace with formula: Replaces the dependent cells with a formula
   • Replace with value: Keeps the dependent cells' original values displayed (without the formula)
6. When ready, select Done.

Redacted cells turn gray in redaction mode or while selected. When you exit redaction mode, they become opaque, revealing redaction stamps. This is also how the redactions appear when the document is produced.

Redact using hit highlights

To begin redacting content using hit highlights:

1. Open the review window's Hit Highlights tab.

2. Select the hit highlight you want to use.
   This expands the redaction options. 

   

3. If you want to redact a specific instance of the highlight, use the previous or next buttons to jump to the correct instance.
   
4. Confirm your intended redaction settings by selecting the hit redaction settings button. If the Redact entire cell when a hit is found field is switched on, the entire cell that includes the highlighted term/phrase will be redacted. If it is switched off, only the highlighted characters in the cell will be redacted, creating a partial cell redaction.
   

5. Choose whether to redact all instances of the highlight or just the current highlight:

   • To redact the currently highlighted instance of the term, select the Redact current instance button

   • To redact all instances of the term that occurs in the document, select the Redact all instances button

     Note

     Spreadsheet redactions via Redact all instances are limited to 200,000 redactions across all pages of the spreadsheet, including dependent redactions. If you attempt a redaction that would result in more than 200,000 redactions, no redactions are applied.
     If the Redact entire cell when a hit is found field is switched off, only the highlighted characters in the cell will be redacted, creating a partial cell redaction.

     Note

     When using batch or Redact all instances workflows with spreadsheets, partial cell redactions operate on whole matches of your term, not on arbitrary substrings inside a single token (e.g. you cannot change 123456 to xxx456 if only 123 matches). For more details on batch spreadsheet redactions and PII patterns, see Batch Redaction.

   This immediately applies the redaction and opens the Redaction dialog for you to apply any additional settings (e.g. redaction stamps). 

6. [Optional] If redaction sets — labeled groups of redactions that allow for organized review and ultimately selective inclusion in productions —--are enabled on the project, the Redaction dialog includes a Redaction sets field. From this field, select any Admin-defined redaction sets that you would like to bucket your redaction in. 

7. [Optional] In the Redaction stamps field, select one or more stamps.

Redact dependent cells

When a redaction is applied to a cell, either completely or partially, the redaction tool considers cell dependencies. A dependent cell is one that uses values or calculations from another cell. Everlaw detects both formula dependencies and pivot table dependencies.

Dependent cell redactions are turned on, by default. To turn them off, uncheck the Enable dependent redactions checkbox.

When dependent redactions are disabled, 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 gives you additional options for redacting them.

You can choose to:

• Redact completely: Redacts the dependent cells completely
• Replace with formula: Replaces the dependent cells with a formula
• Replace with value: Keeps 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.

If a dependent cell references two redacted cells with different redaction dependency settings, then those dependent cell(s) will be completely redacted.

Example

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 daily 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). This cell has four dependent cells:

• B9 ("Total" earnings)

• B10 ("Average" earnings)

• B11 ("Weekday sum")

• 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

• Cells with a dependency redaction have an orange border

If no selection is made:

• Redacted cells are black

• Cells with a dependency redaction have a red border

In our example, the totals and averages (B9 - B14) contain formulas that make them dependent on other cells. However, the earnings reported each day (B2 - B8) are not dependent on the total/average cells. Therefore, if we redact total earnings (B9), no dependency redactions will be needed. 

Now, let's say we first redact Monday's earnings (B2), choosing replace with formula, then we redact Tuesday's earnings (B3), choosing replace with value.

In this case, any cells that are dependent on both B2 and B3 have conflicting redaction settings, resulting in the complete redaction of those dependent cells. 

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 three options for dependent pivot tables:

• Redact completely:  Every cell in the pivot table's dependent range is fully redacted
• 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.

• 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.

Redact sheet names in spreadsheets

To redact individual sheet names from tabs in spreadsheets:

1. In the review window, select the redact button to enter redaction mode.
   
2. Select the redaction button belonging to the sheet tab that you would like to redact.
   
   This opens the Redaction dialog for that tab.
   
3. [Optional] In the Redaction stamps field, select one or more stamps to apply to the redaction. 
4. Select Done.

Delete redactions

From the review window, you can delete either all redactions or individual redactions.

Delete all redactions

To delete all cell redactions on a spreadsheet:

1. Open the document in the review window.

2. Select the redaction options dropdown button.

3. Select Delete all redactions. 
   

Alternatively, you can:

1. Open the review window's Annotations tab and find its Native Redactions section.

2. Select the delete this redaction button.

Delete individual redactions

To delete an individual redaction:

1. Select the redaction.
   This opens the Redaction dialog.
2. Select the Delete this redaction button.
   

Hide redactions

To hide redactions in the review window:

1. Open the document in the review window.

2. Open the Annotations tab and find its Native Redactions section.

3. Select the Hide all button.
   
   Selecting Show all will make the redactions visible again.

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 document 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.

A native document (with a redacted column)

A produced version of the document (the redacted column is hidden)

Partially redacted spreadsheet cells appear in productions with only the selected characters hidden and the rest of the cell content preserved.

The redacted characters are replaced with the text [REDACTED].

If a cell has both partial and full-cell redactions, the full-cell redaction takes precedence so the entire cell is treated as redacted.

Spreadsheet redaction limitations

You cannot redact:

• Spreadsheet comments using Everlaw's native spreadsheet viewer. Imaged spreadsheets do not display natively applied comments.
• The native view of a spreadsheet if some tabs are encrypted
• Embedded images and charts on spreadsheets
• Complex pivot tables referencing external databases or other complex data sources
• Calculated fields in a pivot table; these columns are not visible on Everlaw, even if they are present offline
• Partial cells in CSV files; partial cell redactions are only supported for XLSX/Excel files