Facade redactions

Note: Some functionality described in this topic has been released via a phased rollout, meaning that certain customers receive it before others. For that reason, you may be seeing documentation for features that you do not yet have in your Relativity instance. For more information on phased rollouts see the Phased Rollout FAQ on the Community.

With the facade redactions release, applying markups using Redact and producing native documents will follow the same workflow as images to save you time and mitigate the risk of accidentally sending native documents without redactions applied to opposing counsel.

Facade redactions includes the following improvements:

• Eliminates the need to run a production preparation project before imaging documents. This Redact project is deprecated as part of this update.

• Native documents with markups applied are no longer in a locked state for production.

• There is no longer a need to reconvert every time you apply markups to a native spreadsheet document.

• Using the Redact Markup Visibility icon in the Viewer toolbar, you can toggle markup transparency on or off. This option is available in the Native Viewer with spreadsheet and PDF documents and in the PDF Viewer. This makes it easy to see where markups are applied and what text is covered by the markups. To learn more, see Viewer.

• Find and Redact now works with PDF documents. We've added new functionality to see what search term hits have markups applied and which do not. To learn more about how this feature works with spreadsheet documents, see Using Find and Redact.

• Redact project rules now support dtSearch functionality for matches based on the selected Markup Scope and Markup SubType options. To learn more, see Automated image markup project, Automated PDF markup project, and Automated spreadsheet markup project.

• A new Include Sheet name & content option has been added to spreadsheet markup projects. If this option is selected, the project applies a markup to both the sheet name and the sheet when a match is found. To learn more, see Automated spreadsheet markup project.

• PDF documents now support the Original Text field in the Redact Markup Navigator pane so that you can track what is covered by manual markups. To learn more, see Manual markups with PDF files.

Classic Redact and new facade redactions workflows

The classic Redact workflow and new facade redactions workflow is described below to illustrate the impact of the facade redactions release.

Classic Redact workflow

The classic workflow:

1. Redact creates a copy of each document. The original native document is never altered and the copy is where reviewers apply markups and redactions.

2. Reviewers apply markups and redactions to the copy which are burned in so that the document has to be reconverted frequently.

3. After the markups are QC'd, a user runs the production preparation project to lock the document for production.

4. The locked document can then be added to a production set and then exported from Relativity. There is not a produced native document unless you select that option in the production preparation project before running it. In order to alter a markup or redaction, the document must first be unlocked.

New facade redactions workflow

1. Redact is integrated with the Productions application so that the workflow is the same for native and imaged documents.

2. The original native document is not copied. Reviewers draw facade redactions on top of privileged content using the original native document.

3. After the markups are QC'd, the redactions are burned in by flattening them into a copy of the native document also known as the produced native document.

4. The produced native documents are stored automatically in Relativity similar to produced images.

Production preparation project deprecation

The production preparation project has been deprecated. Facade redactions changed how markups work on native documents so that they function the same way as markups on images. Additionally, new options in production sets have replaced the need to use the production preparation project to burn in markups and lock native documents.

Note: You can no longer create new production preparation projects or run pre-existing ones.

If you have documents that were locked by a production preparation project and you need to produce and export them, we recommend using Import/Export. Any unlocked documents can also be exported using Import/Export but the newly unlocked documents must be run or re-run as part of a production so that the markups are burned in before the export.

Preparing for facade redactions

The production preparation project is scheduled for deprecation later in 2024. Facade redactions updates how markups work on native documents so that they function the same way as markups on images. Additionally, new options in production sets will replace the need to use the production preparation project to burn in markups and lock native documents.

If you have documents that were locked by a production preparation project and you need to produce and export them, we recommend using Relativity Desktop Client (RDC). Any unlocked documents can be exported using Import/Export.

Markup behavior updates

The following improvements have been made to markup functionality in Redact:

• If you apply a text redaction to multiple cells in a spreadsheet, each cell will no longer display the redaction text. Instead, only one cell will display the redaction text to make it easier to track.
  

• If a markup is reverted, a red box will display to indicate that part of a markup has been reverted. To learn more, see Revert Native Redactions.
  

Frequently asked questions

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